Introduction
Pastors have seemingly endless responsibilities on their plate that include responding to calls from church members. In any given week, a pastor may deliver a Sunday or Saturday sermon, lead bible-study groups, develop new programs, visit shut-ins, perform last-rites, minister to youth and plan a mission trip. Despite the long hours and emotional passion of the job, pastors belonging to all denominations can find deep personal fulfilment in following a call to serve others in ministry.
Preaching and Teaching
The primary duty of a pastor is to spread the word of God and shepherd followers seeking spiritual guidance, as taught in 1 Peter 5:2-4. In fulfilment of their calling, pastors dedicate themselves to studying the Bible and preaching of the Word of God. Saturday or Sunday sermons are core to the Christian tradition, and pastors spend hours researching church teachings and preparing weekly sermons that are engaging, timely and relevant to what is happening in the world today.
As part of their duties, pastors lead by example by proving selfless dedication to others, whether it is ministering at a hospital, homes or correctional facility. Teaching responsibilities may include leading weekly bible-study groups, explaining scripture at youth retreats or meeting individually with congregants to offer spiritual counselling and guidance. Pastors with large ministries may spearhead televangelist ministries to reach thousands of viewers and raise funds to support church outreach efforts and missionary work.
Duties & Responsibilities of Pastors
Pastors are leaders in religious organizations, and are charged with helping to shape the vision and direction of their congregations. In other words a pastor’s duty include providing religious, moral and emotional support for congregants and as such is duty-bound to serve the congregation to the best of his or her ability. A pastor is also charged with being the public face of his houses of worship. The qualifications necessary aside from being called by God of a preacher include having background in theology, and having exceptional interpersonal skills and integrity are of extreme importance to the profession or call. Further, it is your responsibility to cater for the spiritual needs of every church member in line with biblical servant leadership. One must therefore avail themselves to those in need of your prayers – for their family members, the imprisoned and the sick among them. Being a pastor/minister gives you the task of leading the congregation during worship services.
Counselling Services
Church members need counselling services in times of personal emergencies or crises. As a pastor or minister, you should furnish them with emotional and spiritual support through prayers, and provide guidance. For example, you may conduct pre-marriage counselling for soon-to-be couples and advise them on how to have a fruitful marriage. Sometimes, an individual’s counselling needs may be beyond the pastor’s ability; of such you can refer the church member to an appropriate avenue for assistance. For instance, you can send a member with a health problem to a hospital for medical assistance.
Officiating Ceremonies
It is the pastor’s responsibility to officiate at various ceremonies such as baptisms, weddings, funerals or confirmations. Baptism by immersion in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth is core to the faith.
Community Duties
Other responsibilities include leading a faith-in-action ministry, meaning you have an obligation to plan local community service projects. For example, you might organize volunteering initiatives such as environmental clean-up days, church-sponsored charity events or back to school exercise for students going back after the long summer break etc. It is important that you undertake any community service responsibilities by participating in these events with enthusiasm. Pastors need to oversee these events and ensure that they unfold according to plan. The task of supervising the church members involved in these tasks also falls squarely on your shoulders.
Job Description
Pastors have a range of responsibilities that vary, based on the ever – changing needs of their congregations. Naturally, they work with church boards, elders, deacons or advisory councils to determine the direction of their organization. This can include shaping the church’s mission and its messaging, making decisions about programs, events, community support initiatives, missions and trips, expansion efforts and overall church operations. Pastors may be involved in hiring staff, negotiating church business deals and managing investments. Ministerial responsibilities often include conducting premarital and personal counselling sessions, and also conducting small group sessions. Pastors also write and deliver weekly sermons, and also host special guests and events. In short, pastors serve as the face and voice of the churches they represent.
Put differently the pastor is the glue of the congregation ensuring that everyone feels welcome and engaged in the practice of their faith. A Christian pastors reads from The Bible and may offer Bible study for children and adults. Christian pastors lead services for people in church, who gather for regular worship service, or to celebrate special occasions like baptism, confirmation and weddings. The job of pastors extends to comforting the sick in hospitals and the dying in hospice care. When a death occurs, the pastor consoles grieving friends and family, and presides over memorial tributes. A pastor may also be in charge of overseeing church operations including administering the budgeting and working with the church council on facility renovations, repairs and expansions.
Pastors naturally help people in church, but they also make home visits and do outreach to those seeking spiritual comfort. Many pastors regard their job as a calling to serve God and help Believers deepen their faith in Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Churches are not the only settings where Pastors are employed. For instance, some are army chaplains or college campus pastors/ministers. Being a pastor is not a 9 to 5 job, it is a 24/7 hour job as stated earlier. In addition to daytime services, ministers/pastors attend evening meetings, visit dying patients and assist in a crisis. The work can be rewarding but also emotionally exhausting especially with the current pandemic.
Code of Ethics for Pastors
A pastor is an “overseer,” of their congregation doing a myriad of things up front and behind the seen however, pastors may be perceived as working just one day of the week for an hour or two, the reality of a pastor’s job is much more involved with his congregation, church growth and in some cases, staff and leadership development. Pastors are primarily teachers and the most public aspect of their jobs reflects this on Saturday or Sunday mornings. Pastors should have some sort of formal training, usually by a seminary and hold a master’s or doctorate degree in some area of biblical study or theology. Strong teaching skills are also important in the role of pastor as you are charged with helping others learn the Word of God and how it applies to their lives.
Leadership skills are also important in the role of pastor. Many pastors are responsible for acting as a leader in the church by supervising junior pastors and administrative staff. Pastors are also responsible in some settings for approving budgets, attending staff meetings and supervising coordination of church ministries. Pastors are not responsible for the upkeep of the church building, facilities and in most cases, are not responsible for the music ministry, but are responsible for helping others to coordinate these areas of service.
Loving God with All Your Heart
True godliness is a fruit of loving God with your heart. If you aim for outward godliness directly, all you end up being is a hypocritical Pharisee. Unless we love God and want to be like him, we won’t sustain mere forms of godliness for long. It will show no matter the pretence, true godliness is a fruit of loving God with your heart.
Because godliness is a fruit of loving God, those who are unconverted cannot be powerful pastoral preachers. Their hearts are still dead in sin. They love sin rather than righteousness. They may be able to preach a few “powerful” sermons before their congregations really get to know them. But eventually, their true colours will be revealed. A bad smell will begin to seep through the cracks and the stench will become unbearable. The power is lost, and the sooner they leave the pulpit the better. Otherwise their churches will wilt and die. Therefore, the first issue to settle is whether you are converted or not. You cannot be godly without first having a regenerate heart.
First of All, You are a Christian
It is crucial to remember that as a pastor you are first of all a Christian. You are a sheep before you are a shepherd. Therefore, all the pleas in Scripture for a Christian to live a godly life apply to you as well. You are not an angel who comes down to earth to deliver pastoral sermons and then disappears to heaven again until the following weekend. You live in a fallen world and struggle with the remains of your own fallen nature, and so you must pursue holiness in the same way that every Christian is urged to do so.
The Bible speaks to you as well as to all other Christians when it says, “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” read (1 Pet 1:14–16).
Your Personal Family Life
It should be noted that the two areas people look at to see whether you really mean what you preach are your personal life and your domestic life. That is why Paul highlighted these two areas as seen in (1 Timothy 3:2-5), and it reads that the qualifications for pastoral work, first and foremost he is “an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?” (1 Tim 3:2–5). A pastor can never say, “Do as I say but do not do as I do.” We must like Paul say, “Be imitators of me” (1 Cor 4:16, 11:1).
It is, therefore, critical to one’s pastoral preaching to ensure that there is true godliness in your personal and domestic lives. This will spill over into your social life. The people in your community or district should be able to tell each other, “That one is a real pastor. We have related to him and his family. We want to be like him.” That is what will attract people to your preaching, and that is what will keep them coming to listen to you.
Finally
What makes the godly life of pastors such an effective force when preaching? First of all, godliness enhances sermon application. Men and women will make excuses for their sin because they want to get away with the lowest level of spirituality and still go to heaven. They will enjoy a pastor’s sermons as long as they are not expected to change. Yet true pastoral preaching must demand change by the power of the Spirit.
When the congregation does not see any illustrations of that kind of levity by their religious leader, they will continue to convince themselves such a life is impossible. But when they see in the pastor the embodiment of what the Bible demands of them, their excuses are immediately shushed. They know they have no excuse.
Living the godly life will give such weight to the pastor’s words that none of them will be lost. Coming, from an honest and earnest heart, they will be received, and weighed, and remembered. It will be seen that he holds communion with God, and so men will be induced to listen to him, as otherwise they would not. The respect that his inspired message brings will so compel them to honour his message. And then his preaching will inevitably be clothed with double power. Hence, Ephesians 4:11-12 says pastors “prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” Amen!
