I have a few tough questions for pastors.
Are you present in the lives of your people? Do they have to go looking for you or do you just show up in their lives? Are you kind of like the “out of sight, out of mind” part of their life? You know: do they see you so infrequently that they kind of forget about you and therefore maybe also forget about the church, gospel and God that you represent?
These are really tough questions. I ask myself these questions.
I think about my flock, my parishioners on a weekly if not daily basis. Some of them take a little more time in my thought and prayer life than others. But I am also a list-maker so that helps. I try to think about and pray for all who are connected to my parish by physically looking over the responsibility list on a semi-regular basis. (I know I should do this more than I do!)
But I also know this: when I am busy, lonely, stressed, the list of names and faces stays in my Bible and not on my mind. When I am up to my eyeballs in appointments, I may indeed remember and stay connected to the few I am meeting with or calling on but then I neglect the vast majority of the rest of them. Sometimes even when I have meetings with people, I may not slow down enough to see them, hear them and help them.
And we know that many, many people don’t have a list, aren’t disciplined to pray over that list and very few reach out and connect with the people they don’t regularly rub elbows with or accidentally bump into.
If that is the case, if you also are not pursuing relationships with people, is everyone in your sphere of influence living in a perpetual state of loneliness? Are we all surrounded by people online, on the street and the marketplace, yet strangely finding ourselves not connected, not encouraged and not edified?
Let these few words be a challenge to you to make a list, pray for those people and let the Lord Himself direct you to those whom you should call, email, text, visit etc. He might challenge you to buy a gift for them. Or write them a letter. Or volunteer to help them by lending an extra hand.
May you and I be a part of modeling the ministry of presence and the development of friendships whilst simultaneously fighting the depressing loneliness people face every day. I know there is someone you can bless with the simple act of prayer and reaching out.
Praying that you will encourage someone today!
Mike J
Pastor Encouragement 