A Glimpse into the War Called Pastoral Ministry

If you haven’t figured it out from my recent post or some of my retweets, I have much respect for Paul Tripp’s wisdom. This article on The Gospel Coalition Blog provides some nice insight into the inner dynamics of pastoral ministry:

The fundamental battle of pastoral ministry is not the battle with the shifting values of the surrounding culture. It is not the struggle with resistant people who don’t seem to esteem the gospel. It is not the fight for the success of the ministries of the church. And it is not the constant struggle of resources and personnel to accomplish the mission. No, the war of the pastorate is a deeply personal war. It is fought on the ground of the pastor’s heart. It is a war of values, allegiances, and motivations. It is about subtle desires and foundational dreams. This war is the greatest threat to every pastor. Yet it is a war that we often naively ignore or quickly forget in the busyness of local church ministry.

 Click here to read the whole thing.

And remember to pray for your pastors–not just for their ministries, but for their hearts. Pray that they would believe and depend upon the same gospel they preach, that their satisfaction and sufficiency would be in Christ.  “Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.  Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. . . . But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Cor. 3:4-6; 4:7).