The pastor is not the hired employee of the church board or congregation. The minister is on a God-assigned mission/vocation. Most people, though they have spent their lives around the church, do not grasp the size and scope of the pastor’s job. He does not punch a time-clock or give an account of every single thing he or she does. It is not an office job; it is living in pastoral relationship with the sheep. It is spending hours in study preparing food for the flock. It is a stressful job; take my experienced word for this. It is made more stressful by individuals and parish committees who think they know better what the pastor ought to be doing to fulfill some very unrealistic expectations. Pray for and love your pastor; offer encouragement as he or she does what God has called pastors to do. Look at the pastoral role from a spiritual perspective and not from a business model.
“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,” (Ephesians 4:11–13 ESV).
