Just want to make everyone aware, especially pastors, of Dr. Hershael York’s newest work. I highly encourage you to read the full article at the bottom of this post.
From knowing Dr. York personally I know there is not a better person to speak on this issue. I have never seen a couple complement each other so gracefully and powerfully in ministry while maintaining a marriage all godly couples wish to have. My wife and I benefited very much just by watching Hershael and Tanya’s marriage. We are forever grateful for their marriage and their ministry.
“Nowhere is the need to maintain a healthy equilibrium more important than in the balance between the public and the personal. Pastors often feel torn between church and home, between ministry to others and ministry to family. Though I would never deny the challenge that maintaining that balance presents, family and ministry are not in competi- tion or contradictory to God’s perfect plan and will for our lives. Accordingly, if I feel like they are, then I’m doing something wrong. God doesn’t issue competing calls. If His Word is true, then He has given us everything we need for life and godliness (2 Pet 1:3). We have all the time, resources and opportunity we need to do God’s will. That means that we can never claim a lack of any of those things as the reason we don’t succeed at home. apart at the seams.
No pastor can find the perfect formula for success, the fail-safe recipe for balancing church and home, ministry and family. But if he is willing to take as much care for his calling as sailors take for the deck of an aircraft carrier, he can identify and remove the little things that would disable him. If God has called himto shepherd both a family and a church, then God is most glorified when he sees that these ministries complement each other rather than compete.”
Pastoral Margins by Dr. Hershael York
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Good word. I was once in a group of older ministers (now I am becoming one) for lunch. One of them reminded us all that every church that loses a pastor finds another. Pastors, staff, denominational workers come and go. BUT, SAID HE – “You have only one life. How will you live it to maximize your effectiveness in advancing the Kingdom of God.” He felt the answer to that should determine most of our ministry position decisions.
In my life, I took it a step further. Not only did I view it in terms of vocation, but also in terms of family. I am the only biological father my children have. Yes, my wife could have done better, but she didn’t.
I sat at a conference and the guy beside me introduced himself: “Hi, I’m Patrick Morley. What is your name?” I remember reading a question in one his books, “Who will cry at your funeral?”
Sorry to “launch”, but just to say to all of us in Christian ministry: YOU are the only YOU your family has. And trust me, when you are gone from your “position” in ministry, someone will replace you and will likely dismantle most of what you have done to build their own high places.
Ted Es last blog post..DOES YOUR ‘INSIDE CULTURE’ COMMUNICATE LOVE?
Ted… Good word.
Also, thanks for the depressing word at the very end.
Matt, the good news about the depressing word at the end is that those who replace can only dismantle structure of ministry, not the actual investment in individual lives and congregations.
Ted Es last blog post..DOES YOUR ‘INSIDE CULTURE’ COMMUNICATE LOVE?
Good reminder on the importance of a minister’s family. My preacher dad used to say, “I’d rather end up known as a great husband and father, than to be known as a great preacher.”
I think one of the greatest compliments of any pastor is that his kids turned out well.
David R. Brumbelow
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