Recently I received this email: “What would you say to a new pastor who is frustrated after not seeing the fruit of his work in the congregation? Most of the people do not seem passionate about their faith. The pastor’s own passion is also low right now.” Here is what I said. 

When I was in seminary, I got to know lots of people who eventually became pastors. Now I know lots of pastors, and through the years I have been able to share in some of their joys and pains whenever we meet for lunch, talk on the phone, or email each other. Sometimes as I hear their stories, I wished that others—the people in their churches—knew both the struggles and the joys of ministry so that they might better support their pastor, pray for their pastor, or even, like Priscilla and Aquila in the book of Acts take them aside and explain to them the “way of God more accurately” when they get off track, as we all do from time to time (Acts 18:26).

Recently I received this email: “What would you say to a new pastor who is frustrated after not seeing the fruit of his work in the congregation? Most of the people do not seem passionate about their faith. The pastor’s own passion is also low right now.” Here is what I said.

This is a challenging situation for any pastor to be in. But if anyone understood this challenge it was the apostle Paul who was constantly dealing with troubled churches that were straying from the gospel and failing in major ways. Consider his words to the Galatians, a church that he was concerned was abandoning the gospel for a false gospel, “let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9). He could say this not because he believed in his own ability to accomplish great things, but because he knew that it was the Holy Spirit’s mission to bring forth the fruit of salvation in the lives of God’s people.

Read More