Welcome to Season 1 Episode 36 of the Your Church Matters podcast. In this episode, I identified 4 unrealistic expectations that church members often place on pastors and that pastors place on themselves even if pressure is not coming from their members.
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4 Unrealistic Expectations (Alliteration warning): It is NOT your job to:
- Make them happy.
- Make them holy.
- Make them healthy.
- Make them hungry.
3 Realistic Goals: It IS your job to:
- Teach them how to discover happiness, holiness, health, and hunger.
- Encourage and equip them on their path to happiness, holiness, health, and hunger.
- Model happiness, holiness, health, and hunger.
Scriptures Referenced:
Happiness – Matthew 5:3-13, Good News Translation (GNT)
3 “Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor;
the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them!
4 “Happy are those who mourn;
God will comfort them!
5 “Happy are those who are humble;
they will receive what God has promised!
6 “Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires;
God will satisfy them fully!
7 “Happy are those who are merciful to others;
God will be merciful to them!
8 “Happy are the pure in heart;
they will see God!
9 “Happy are those who work for peace;
God will call them his children!
10 “Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires;
the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them!
11 “Happy are you when people insult you and persecute you and tell all kinds of evil lies against you because you are my followers. 12 Be happy and glad, for a great reward is kept for you in heaven. This is how the prophets who lived before you were persecuted.
Holiness – Ephesians 1:3-4, English Standard Version (ESV)
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
1 Peter 1:14-16, English Standard Version (ESV)
14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
Health – Ephesians 4:11-16, English Standard Version (ESV)
11And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 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, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Hunger – Matthew 5:6, New American Standard Bible (NASB)
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
John 6:35, English Standard Version (ESV)
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
To comment on this episode or leave a question for a future episode:
1. Comment section below
2. Email: contactgerrylewis@gmail.com
3. Voicemail: 817-929-0643
4. Direct tweet @drgerrylewis
*Special thanks to Keith Cooper (Guitar Music)
