When a Pastor Misplaces His Priorities

When a man is “called” into the ministry should things really change?  Now don’t get me wrong, it is obvious that when a man enters the pastorate there are clearly unique duties and purposes, but should the overall purpose or duties of his life change that drastically?

First, the Bible is clear that EVERY man is to take care of his family ahead of his other duties.  This care includes provisions for their daily needs, such as food, clothing, shelter, educations and so on.  1 Timothy 5:8 makes it crystal clear that God expects men to care for their family’s needs, but surely those needs go beyond just physical needs.  God requires EVERY man to care for his wife and children spiritually and emotionally as well.  Yet, many pastors misplace their priorities and ignore the needs of their wife and children,  For instance, it is often expected that the pastor’s wife, regardless of the home situation, be very involved in the leadership of certain aspects of the church, such as heading up ladies’ meetings, organizing the nursery, playing the piano, and so on.  Yet NOWHERE in the Bible does God ever, by mandate or example, show that the church gets a “two for one” when it comes to hiring the pastor and his family.  Name one pastor's wife in the Bible?  You cannot as NONE as listed.  Should a pastor’s wife minister in the church? Absolutely, yes!  But not because she is the pastor’s wife, but because she is a member of the church and all members should be serving their local body!  A pastor ought NEVER to require his wife to do more than the women of the church are willing to do themselves.

Second, pastors often ignore their own spiritual growth and development in exchange for prepping messages for their people.  Be honest, pastors, when was the last time you found some great truth in devotional time and built a sermon around it?  Don’t misunderstand, we should share what God has shared with us, but we should also enjoy what God shares with us personally as if it was something just for us sometimes too.  Let me give an illustration - if a man found a great fishing spot that no one knew about, would he share it with everyone? NO!  Because it is his special place!  Again, let me be clear, God’s truths are meant to be shared, but sometimes we pastors need to have a precious devotional time with our Lord and our first thought ought not to be how to share it with our church.  Brethren, these things ought so to be as God wants us to have some things special with Him.  Look at the fourth commandment this way - God wants us to set aside a day so that we can be in fellowship with Him without the distractions of the rest of the week. Sunday is our special day with God and devotions should be our special time with God just the same and not the foundation for sermons.

Third, telling people you cannot help them when they are looking to you instead of God.  This is, to me, the hardest one to write about, because I truly love people and want to help them.  But the problem is that helping them sometimes means telling them you cannot meet with them or help them until they “help themselves” in their walk with God.  So many pastors drop everything, including their family’s needs, to go “minister” to someone who is desperate and that person has no intention of actually reprioritizing their life and we pastors know it.  Yet we drop our family, our personal needs, and off we go out of duty to the call.  Again, it needs to be understood that we are called to serve and sometimes that means placing church families ahead of your own plans.  But there are people who are “high maintenance” and they will never grow until they make serving the Lord THEIR priority.  Pastors, you cannot make people put God first in their lives by putting your family and your personal spiritual development last!  Make sure that you, pastor, and your family are where they need to be and God will bless your ministry in a greater way.

Remember that Jesus told His disciples that a person must care for their own issues before they can care for the issues of others.  Matthew 7:5 “…first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.”

Can You Celebrate Christmas Without Being Paganistic?

Today there are many who feel that the celebration of non-biblical holidays is, well, unbiblical.  They often point to the foundational events which brought such holidays into existence.  Examples could include the supposed druid origins of Halloween, the potential beginning of Valentine’s Day from Roman idolatry, or, worst of all to some, the pagan rituals that underlie the celebration of the biblical coming of Jesus Christ at “Christmas.”  To some, every event at Christmas has a sinister beginning from the date being selected to cover the winter solstice to the Christmas tree showing idolatry based upon Jeremiah 10:1-3.  But can a Christian biblically celebrate Christmas without being paganistic?  The answer depends upon the person doing the celebration.

First, there is no doubt that certain details about some holidays have aspects that are not directly based on God’s Word.  To say otherwise is to be dishonest at worst and disingenuous at best.  Yes, December 25 once was a pagan holiday, but pagans have 11 “special days” in January and February, 7 in March, 9 in April, 5 in May, and so on.  In addition, every full moon is honored as a “holy” day by pagans.  Add to this that pagans honor certain tree types as sacred, such as the oak, which many Christians have furniture out of that for their homes.  So where does this line end?  Does one group's failure to worship God properly make all current usage of these aspects ungodly because they might have had a less than godly beginning? 

Second, do unbiblical origins always negate Christian applications?  How far do we take this concept?  For instance, is it wrong for Americans to celebrate July 4th because some of the founding fathers were not Christians?  Should we acknowledge birthdays because some use that day as an excuse to get drunk or be morally devoid? Plus, nowhere in Scripture are birthdays even mentioned as a day of celebration.  Or do we go back to the Old Testament and honor ONLY the Jewish holidays as they were the ONLY holidays even mentioned in the Bible as given by God?  Remember that the early churches did meet on Sunday to honor the Lord's defeat of death, but there is no mention of a once-a-year remembrance of Jesus’ resurrection.  Thus is celebrating the resurrection of the Lord wrong because it MIGHT be seen as pagan at the Spring Equinox?

Third, because some people use the symbols of a holiday wrongly, does that mean they are wrong for all people in all places in all ages?  Or instance, Jeremiah 10 is used to assault Christmas trees because they are cut, decorated, and placed,  but no one questions the trees, artificial flowers, and general decorations placed in nearly every church in the USA the rest of the year?  Remember, in Jeremiah 10, they were worshipping idols honored by the cut tree decorated with silver and gold, because they were so lazy that they did not want to go to pagan groves and worship there.  Besides, to be a bit facetious, my family uses an artificial tree, therefore we have not cut down any trees to bring into our home!

To be honest, there is a great deal of commercialism at Christmas, but so too at Easter, and Thanksgiving, and just about any event that stores can sell merchandise.  Yes, Santa Claus was not a real person and no he cannot see you when you're sleeping!  But, the person who was the foundation for that legend was a real person named Nicholaus, who was NOT Catholic since he was born before 280 AD and the “catholic” church did not start until over 100 years after his death.  He was a pastor of a church, preached the Gospel, and gave to the needy. What is wrong with that since God commanded those things in His Word? 

The best Bible truth we must accept about any holiday is found in Paul’s writings regarding the very issue we are discussing here - the division between what is and is not a “holy” day.  The church at Rome was divided between the Jews and Gentiles over the Law and its place in the life of Christians.  The Jews were clearly trying to get the Gentiles to live under Old Testament dietary restraints and scheduled “holidays” when Paul makes it clear in Romans 14:5-13: 

“One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it.  He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.  For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.  For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.  So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.”

If you choose to celebrate Christmas’ trappings (tree, presents, etc), do not berate your brothers and sisters in Christ who do not because they feel it is their duty to refrain from what they consider a wrong testimonial image.  If you choose not to celebrate Christmas’ trappings, do not say your brothers and sisters are being pagan, especially since they are celebrating the birth of their Savior Jesus Christ.  Live in Christian liberty and allow others to do the same.