Well, we welcome you back again to another podcast of Struggling Well and my good friend and Our producer, Tim Briggs, is going to step out from behind the mic and going to be a help in this week's podcast. Tim is a pastor of a 5-year-old church called Steadfast Church here in the Charlotte area. And so he's right there in the midst of doing pastoral life. And Tim, we're going to talk about some of what you face as a pastor. We have pastors who listen to this podcast and their families. And so I'm sure there'll be shared head nodding if we could see what's going on and maybe some amens as well. At least if they aren't Presbyterian because they don't say amen. That is not true. Well, maybe it is, but anyway, that's not the point. And but more than that, the majority of these people who listen to this podcast, I'm pretty sure go to church, so they have a pastor. So, maybe this will give some insight into them as to how they treat their pastor. You know, in the book of Hebrews, it says this in the 13th chapter, remember leaders who taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come from their lives and follow the example of their faith. So from the very beginning, the church has set up the idea that as leaders it is our responsibility to open up God's word to teach it but to live it out in our lives. So that's a long introduction to ask you what are the challenges for you as a pastor as you head into 2025 in your setting that maybe not just unique to you, but would be there for pastors no matter where they are.
Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for having me on. It's a humbling thing to be on the Struggling Well podcast. So, always grateful to have the invitation. I think for people listening to this, this will sound strange, but I think it's helpful for you to see your pastor as a human being.
And I say that because I've done this before. I mean, Jimmy, you were my pastor. I've had other pastors in the past, too. But we either consciously or subconsciously put pastors in a different category in our head.
Yeah.
And I think it's because of the authority they have, the spiritual authority they have, the place that they have in our lives. And so we can see them as something other than human beings. And you and I both know
we're just human beings. and so think of your pastor as yes, someone who has spiritual authority, someone who opens the scriptures, someone who cares for you, but also see them as a human being. And I know for me you talked about resolutions last episode. If I have a resolution for 2025, it would be friendship because the work of pastor ing is isolating work. you're often the only person in the church spending the amount of time working in ministry or thinking, caring about what's happening at the church as much as you are. And it's a lonely thing. oftentimes it's only other pastors or missionaries who quite understand that rhythm of life. And so, if you're a churchgoer listening to this, pray for your pastor. See them as a human being. Know that it's lonely, isolating work and that they need friendship.
Yeah, that's interesting you say that, Tim, because I think back to when I got started in ministry back in the late 70s. and when I was installed, my senior pastor, who I who was my senior pastor growing up, came and spoke and he said to me back then and to Suzi he said you cannot have friends in your congregation and I remember thinking to myself I can't do it that way but I do think there is that sense that there was a season maybe still is when there are people who would say that to you as a pastor you can't have friends the problem is the whole circle of your life is around that church so loneliness becomes a real issue.
Mhm.
And you need you do need friends inside the church and outside the church. I mean, so when you're a pastor, it's not a it's not a check-in checkout job. You're not a you know, a spiritual contractor that the church says, "Well, we'll bring this guy in to preach and we'll bring him in to do weddings and funerals and then he's separate from the church." No, the pastor is a part of the community. and in fact, if he's not, there's something probably wrong there. So the pastor needs friends within the church. The pastor needs people honestly who are supportive, encouraging, who ask him out for lunch or coffee without an agenda. people just saying, "Hey, how are you doing?" Like how are you really doing? that the pastor needs those people inside the church. And so if you're listening to this, you know, be a friend to your pastor. Be curious. think of him as a human being. And then of course pastors need that idea of being known outside of the church with somebody who understands the rhythm of the job, who they can talk shop with, you know, and understands all of the highs and lows that the job, you know, has.
And that really is where you I believe you need to have other friends who are pastors who understand, like you said, the all the behind the scenes things that go into it. And don't see other pastors in your city as competition, but see them as people who you can build friendships with and that you can build relationships with. Because quite honestly, there's some things that they alone will understand that you're going through as a pastor.
Yeah. CS Lewis has that quote about friendship. It begins at the moment when you say you two. Yeah.
You know, and pastor I mean I it's funny.
I could meet a pastor who whatever pastors in De Moines, Iowa, and if I know they're a pastor, we can immediately just start talking. because we share a vocation, we share struggles and it's very easy just to connect with that person over this very quirky profession that we have called
called pastoring. And so, yes, pastors are human beings and they need friends.
Yeah. And you live that out, Tim, as an example. I And not going into the details, but you had a friend who's in ministry in another state and recently went through some tough times within his own congregation and you and Jenny chose one Sunday just to drive to his location and show up to encourage him,
which is the living reality of what you've been saying that you need those kinds of friendships that would do things like that. That guy wasn't expecting you to do that. but you did it and that's because of the friendship and the bond that you shared as pastors.
Yeah. I mean in that situation we were thinking what would we want if we were them and would we want to feel like we have some allies and some people rooting us on and some people smiling at us in the congregation encouraging us. Yes, we would. And so we wanted to be the sort of people that we would want in our lives. so yeah.
So all this to say is you look into 2025, your pastor is a real person with real needs. if you have your pastors up on a pedestal, I tried to do everything I could to knock myself off those pedestals. because we're no different. We our profession may be different, but we're no different. So in a congregation, whatever congregation you're in, be it large, be it small, whatever size, know that you can make a huge difference in the life of your pastor and his family by regularly committing to pray for him to ask questions to ask specifically what are the things that I could be praying for in your life and to allow them allow your pastors even though they're leaders even though they have a responsibility to you to shepherd you and to feed you God's word. Let them be real people with real needs and minister to those needs by prayer and other means. Tim, thanks so much for joining us this week and we'll be praying for you.
Thank you. Appreciate it.