There is a book that sits on my desk all the time. About a month ago I tried to put it on my book shelf with all of my other books but it has mysteriously made its way back onto my messy desk. It doesn’t feel right when I put it on my book shelf, so I have decided that it will just permanently make its home on my messy desk along with my phone, my back-up hard drive, my mail, my bills, etc.
When I bought this book last September, I never knew that it would become a permanent resident upon my desk. I figured I’d read it then shelf it like most books, but this book isn’t like most books, and no, I’m not talking about my Bible. FYI = I don’t consider my Bible a mere book. My Bible is my Sword, my Lamp, my Light, my Compass, my Map, etc. I feel like I degrade the Bible if I call it a mere book.
The book that has permanently pitched its tent upon my desk is Lectures to My Students, by Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
Just the other day when I was enjoying a brief sabbatical in the johnny, I was again impacted by the practical wisdom Spurgeon gave young pastors preparing for pastoral ministry. As I sat upon the great white porcelain throne, here is what stuck with me . . .
The Christian Minister out of the pulpit should be a sociable man. He is not sent into the world to be a hermit, or a monk of La Trappe. It is not his vocation to stand on pillar all day, above his fellow-men, like that hare-brained Simon Stylites of olden time. You are not to warble from the top of a tree, like an invisible nightingale; but to be a man among men, saying to them, ‘I also am as you are in all that relates to man.’ Salt is of no use in the box; it must be rubbed into the meat; and our personal influence must penetrate and season society. Keep aloof from others, and how can you benefit them? Our Master went to a wedding, and ate bread with publicans and sinners, and yet was far more pure than those sanctimonious Pharisees whose glory was that they were separate from their fellow-men. Some ministers need to be told that they are of the same species as their hearers. It is a remarkable fact, but we may as well state it, that bishops, canons, archdeacons, prebendaries, rural deans, rectors, vicars, and even archbishops, are only men after all; and God has not railed off a holy corner of the earth to serve as a channel for them, to abide therein by themselves. – Page 195 & 196
After reading that, I thought about how a pastor will never change lives from behind his desk. In order to change lives, a pastor must often spend time among his sheep and even among those who are outside the fold.
No one thinks it strange when a surgeon shows up at a hospital, but unfortunately many consider it strange to see their “pastor” mingling among “common-folk” at a coffee shop or sporting event or birthday party. How sad that the only “pastor” many church-goers know is the man who stands “on-stage” on Sunday mornings and preaches a sermon.
I realize that there are times when pastors must be at their desk in serious study or planning or alone with God in prayer. I wouldn’t want a pastor who didn’t have loads of time doing that.
However . . .
When did we as pastors convince ourselves that we are more than people?
When did we as pastors forget that we are still to be salt and light to this sinful world regardless of our “title” or “position”?
When did we as pastors forget that the really good shepherds (like Jesus) were dirty and smelly on the outside because they were often out in the field helping their sheep, looking for lost sheep, or protecting their sheep from predators?
Pathetic pastors! I don’t want to be one.
God help me to not ever think of myself more highly than I ought to think. I don’t want to be showy. I want to be real, relevant, simple, personable, friendly, approachable, and humble. Help me to be a man among men who can relate to all but will conform to none!
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