How Pastor’s Eat
In the land of unseen church, there are magical people, who do magical things, who need no food and have everything they need because of their magical pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. In some sense, this is how I thought pastors were when I was a teenager in our youth ministry. Many people, if we’re honest with ourselves, think similarly now. It’s not because we’re stupid, it’s just because we just don’t know.
Even before I became a pastor myself, I didn’t really know what pastors do all week, and isn’t it true that we often only expect that they “perform” and “feed” the congregation their spiritual food for the week on this one day, Sunday? But pastors know that getting fed once a week just isn’t enough for themselves. That’s why there are small groups, bible studies, online messages, books, phone calls, lunch meetings, emails, facebook and anything else that can grab our attention for Jesus. Feeding the congregation their spiritual food takes a lot of preparation in gathering the food, studying the food, knowing all there is to know about the food, knowing all there is to know about the audience eating the food, so that during the cooking and final presentation, all the bodies will be prepared to do every good work for God.
How does that happen? Well, pastors have to eat too. Pastors have to feed themselves by allowing themselves to be fed by other pastors, people in the church, books, the bible, and by listening to God. I listen regularly to other pastors like Craig Groeschel of Lifechurch.tv, Andy Stanley of North Point Community Church, Perry Noble of Newspring Church, Francis Chan of Cornerstone Church and Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church. I try to hold myself accountable to a bible reading plan (for me, it’s reading the bible through in a 3 yr plan). I use resources like youversion.com, Logos Bible software, and BibleWorks to study the bible. Check out my page on the books that I’m reading. I’m also part of a great life group that meets on Wednesdays. I also have a few relationships with guys and my leaders that I try to get in connection with on a weekly basis who challenge me to keep it all in a real perspective. And of course, you can’t overlook a good relationship with a wife who is growing in her faith as well to help keep the balance even stronger.
Obviously it seems like it takes a lot more work than first thought to not only lead a body of believers, but also to grow in their own personal relationship with God. Maybe, just maybe, all of us need to find ways to eat more often. Not to minimize or let the pastor off easy, but for our sake of our growth toward a healthy spiritual walk, do everything you can to supplement the diet.
