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           Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Hebrews 13: 7)

          October is Pastor Appreciation Month. We should not wait until October to appreciate our pastors. We shouldn’t even wait until October to express our appreciation. We should pray for them at least daily, and we should do a much better job of encouraging them. I’m not suggesting that we should blindly do everything they tell us or believe everything they say. We should never turn off our brains or fail to treat Scripture as our guide.
          No, we shouldn’t see our pastors as more than mere men, but we should keep in mind that they are mere men, who need our prayers and our encouragement. As I think about the pastors at my churches, and about my relationship with them, I see that I’m not doing a good job. Not with them, nor with the elders. I’m doing a little better with my Community Life Group (Adult Sunday School) Leaders.
          How much do you know about the outcome of the way of life of the leaders in your church? In how many have you seen a faith to imitate? When the services are over, they go home. I go home. I suspect the pastors might get together socially with the elders, but I’d never dream of darkening the door of a pastor or an elder, and if they came to visit me, I’d expect it to be a disciplinary or obligatory visit. Even if I’ve visited, I was a visitor, a guest, not a member of their preferred community – and inviting them over to my place? Inviting them over sufficiently that they felt comfortable calling and saying, “We’ll be there in 30 minutes”? (Please, Lord, don’t ever let them feel comfortable enough to show up without at least 30 minutes warning! You know how I hate surprises)
          Now, I understand – different personalities and interests – it’s entirely possible that I wouldn’t hit it off with this pastor or that elder, and I completely understand that no pastor can possibly be close with several hundred members of a congregation. The point is, though, that I suspect a lot of the members of most congregations wouldn’t even consider being part of the life of the leadership of the church. The church is an organization. Its leadership is in charge. They lead, they don’t fraternize with the common folks. Maybe there’s some noblesse oblige. We might not use those terms… our pastors are busy, they have way too much work to do, they don’t have time. We don’t want to impose….
          Scripture tells us to remember our leaders, and to imitate their faith. We can’t do that, and we can’t encourage them if we live in separate worlds. And it’s easy to say that it’s their fault, because they don’t… or we don’t want to bother them…. But are we being disobedient when we build walls? Or when we assume that they’ve built them?
           The idea of working on this terrifies me. Maybe on-line first.

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