I awakened at about 4am this morning, and immediately began praying for the pastors in my area, and others I know around the country. Now, that’s not because I’m so spiritual (I’m generally comatose at that hour and definitely not spiritual!) but because my years as a pastor conditioned me to an ‘early Sunday morning anxiety.’

Pastors experience a lot of pressure in American Christianity. Folks expect a lot. Not only is the church to be open, clean and comfortable, and well stocked with grinning greeters, coffee, handouts, and a variety of classes, groups, or lounges, but the pastor needs to be ‘ON!’ He needs to be sparkling in personality, wit, wisdom, and encouragement! Insightful but not intrusive. Instructional but not demanding. Serious but yet entertaining. In short, the pastor has become, as Eugene Peterson points out in his devotions on The Message, ‘the quality control engineer in this (religious) operation, ensuring sterling production and Christian productivity.’

But any pastor worth his salt has a certain anxiousness about whether or not the whole thing is what God has in mind for these folks at this time. As Glenn Foster taught us in the 1970’s, “The man of God is never a perfect man. He’s not always a good man. But he is a man that, for a certain people at a certain time, represents God’s point of view.” When I pastored FCF, I often awakened early on a Sunday with deep concern about whether or not I had actually heard something from the Lord to pass on to His people. Someone in that congregation would be hurting, or dying, or ready to leave their mate, or give up on the whole ‘Christian thing.’ Is what I have to say going to make a difference in people’s lives?

Many of the good folks who take part in The Antioch Group are also connected to traditional churches. I urge every believer to pray for the Man or Woman of God that speaks into their lives. It is challenging to try, within a limited amount of time and energy, to help people manage their problems, and at the same time try to manage your own! And there is always a population within the church that is sure the pastor is ‘above’ most of the frailties and foolishness that plagues them. I remember the stricken look on the face of a good Christian woman (in the 1980’s) Jeanie and I were fairly close to when I disclosed a certain attitude and reaction I experienced after a recent confrontation with someone. “I never dreamed you had thoughts like that!” she exclaimed.

Preachers are special, but only because of the constraint the Spirit has laid on them to ‘act as a shepherd’ to God’s precious sheep. They don’t always ‘wow’ you, or entertain you, or even keep you awake. (I had one church member whose best sleep, I swear, was between 11 and 12 Sunday morning. I opened my Bible and he closed his eyes) The issue is not how stimulating he is, but how faithful he is to the Word and Spirit of God. We must all be good stewards of the time we have to listen to the men of God. I have notebooks and Bibles full of notations from the many good pastors I’ve been privileged to sit under. I still, after 20, 30, even 40 years, go back to those yellowed pages to rehearse the wisdom I once thought valuable enough to capture.

Yes, an early Sunday morning is a special time. Outside the streets are quiet, but often, inside a pastors home, the light comes on and the Man of God prays, and wonders, and hopes he’s made a vital connection with ‘the power of the world to come.’ He’s in the battle for souls, and he needs our prayers. That’s something kingdom people understand. You understand, I know.

Roger