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Bringing in the Sheaves - What is the Work of the Lord?

by Jerry Ousley  
11/07/2009 / Christian Living

For nineteen years Deb and I were the senior pastors of a small congregation in Crothersville, Indiana. The title "senior pastor" sounds like a very important position and in a way I suppose it is. But what is expected isn't always what we imagine when we think of a senior pastor. I don't know how it is in the large churches; perhaps the senior pastor stays busy taking care of assigning jobs and tasks that must be done. But when you're associate pastor is also your sister-in-law (as in our case), there isn't much task-assigning going on. To be frank, everything from doing weddings to mowing the lawn and cleaning the restrooms falls at your feet.

There were periods of time during those nineteen years that Deb and I both worked full-time jobs while serving as pastors, and there were other times when she didn't hold a full-time job. During those times I think she would have rather have had a job away from home because what she discovered was that she was doing most of the work at home and at church. Instead of eight hour shifts she found herself working twelve and fourteen hour shifts. When that happens there is definitely something wrong with that picture.

I'm not against pastors getting a salary, if their congregation can afford it, to help them. After all, they have bills to pay too. Some congregations may own a parsonage and the pastor gets to live there for free, but other pastors have to own or rent their own home. They usually have children who have school needs and like to eat once in a while. So there are definitely expenses that have to be met. But I must say that it really surprises me how much many people of a congregation begrudge what a pastor gets. For some reason they envision him or her sitting at home twiddling their thumbs while they work and slave on their jobs.

Folks it isn't quite that way. Most pastors of average size congregations not only have to spend time working on sermons and Sunday School lessons but they are also expected to do marriages of the people of the congregation, funeral services, often they are the church janitors, they constantly get phone calls from people wanting advice, and if one of the congregation gets sick in the middle of the night the pastor is expected to get up no matter how busy his day has been and cheerfully rush to the hospital to be by their side. He is to always have the right answers in times of need. If you really think about it that's a big demand on a person's time and a lot of pressure to know the right answer to everything.

Psalm 126:5-6 says, "Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." We've discussed the work of the Lord. But the question arises, just what is the work of the Lord? We tend to define a lot of what I call "busy work" as being the work of the Lord. There are many things that need to be done in a congregation of people. Most churches have some type of fund-raiser going on, or, as we've already mentioned, keeping the building clean inside and mowing yards and doing gardening on the outside to keep the building looking pleasant and inviting. While these things may be necessary they aren't really "the work of the Lord."

Working for the Lord is doing what He puts in our hearts to win souls to Jesus Christ and to encourage, teach, and also discipline the people of God to make them better Christians so they can have a more fruitful life. This is the true work of the Lord. I personally believe that the Church is doing way more busy work today than they are the real work of the Lord. As times get tougher and tougher financially I believe that we should be looking for ways to do church business and busy work more simply instead of more elaborately, and concentrate more on the real "work of the Lord." There are too many Christians these days who are burdened down and that isn't what the Bible says about the work of the Lord. Perhaps we should be asking God what we really need to be doing to further His Kingdom instead.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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