You Aspire, but Are You Willing?

Young boys spend their afternoons shooting hoops with hopes of being like Steph Curry. Musicians riff endlessly aspiring to be like The Beatles. Entrepreneurs look for the next big idea like Steve Jobs. Politicians imagine being the next president. Yet as they aspire, they’re not always willing to pay the price.

So with young pastors. They dream of preaching like Spurgeon, winning souls like Whitefield, writing theology like Calvin, and pastoring like Baxter. But somewhere along the way their willingness to persist wavers. A congregation opposes them. Their preaching feels futile. The church numbers dwindle. They lose friendships because of a stance they took.

It’s easy to aspire to be a great pastor, but are you willing to do all that it takes?

The apostle Peter exhorts pastors to shepherd the flock of God or exercise oversight “not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock” (1 Pet. 5:2–3).

What Shepherds Are Getting Themselves Into

Peter focuses less on what elders should do—“exercising oversight”—and more on how they do it. He gives three contrasting pairs of phrases that describe what is appropriate and inappropriate in exercising oversight.

First, shepherds must pastor “not under compulsion, but willingly.” They should not just want to be shepherds, but to shepherd. The impulse to lead must come gladly from within. Otherwise, there is no reason to serve when the demands of or opposition to ministry become heavy.

Second, shepherds must pastor “not for shameful gain, but eagerly.” Peter does not mean they should be unpaid. Paul says they should be (cf. 1 Tim. 5:17–18). It’s not “gain” that Peter denounces, but “shameful” gain. He doesn’t want men who love money, comfort, prestige, platform, and leisure more than the flock of God.

Third, shepherds must not “domineer” but be “examples.” Leading, not lording. Any so-called shepherd who is always exerting power, always demanding, always insisting on his own way, always flaunting his position is no willing shepherd of God.

Instead, willing shepherds must be “examples” to the flock. Examples of what? In 1 Peter 2:21–25, he writes,

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

A pastor’s life should be a picture of the life of Christ for the sheep in “God’s flock.” He should be an example of humility, self-sacrifice, love for God, passion in congregational worship, generosity, devotion to family, and, most of all, obedience to Jesus in all things. A pastor’s life is to match his message, a message he has learned to preach and live by studying the gospel and the life of Jesus Christ.

A Heart Check

So I ask: are you willing to pastor?

You may aspire toward pastoring, but are you willing to pastor when friends disassociate themselves from you—or leave the church—because of the counsel you’ve given?

You want to pastor, but are you willing if the only call to pastor is to a small, rural church in an obscure town?

You may have willingly begun the work of pastoral ministry, but are you willing to continue when the congregation resists your leadership?

You may want to preach and teach, but will you be willing to set aside precious study time to visit a member in the hospital or tend to a broken marriage?

You may want to begin the work of pastoring as quickly as possible, but are you willing to follow the counsel and leadership of your current pastors, perhaps even to the point of delaying your pursuit of ministry?

You may want to pastor by shepherding others, but are you willing to be shepherded by those currently in authority over you to prepare yourself for the task ahead?

To the aspiring pastor, as you seek to prepare yourself for ministry, seek to grow in your willingness to do the shepherding work that reaps no temporal rewards, but earns an unfading crown of glory.

Recommended Additional Reading

• Bobby Jamieson’s The Path to Being a Pastor: A Guide for the Aspiring is an excellent resource for those exploring a desire (i.e. aspiration) to serve in pastoral ministry.
• Gregory the Great’s The Book of Pastoral Rule is helpful in exploring the duties and obligations of pastoral ministry. I suggest this because only reading modern books impoverishes our understanding of pastoral ministry.
• Harold L. Senkbeil’s The Care of Souls: Cultivating A Pastor’s Heart is helpful in highlighting the ordinary tasks of a pastor that are extraordinarily rich in their impact; these ordinary tasks are the heart of the calling of the willing shepherd.
• Eugene Peterson’s The Contemplative Pastor—despite all my disagreements with Peterson—is helpful because he understood the importance of the minister’s pursuit of “congruence”: completeness, wholeness, integrity. He understood the gap between our public service and private devotion exposed a problem in our spirituality, even if we “faithfully” prayed regularly, read the Scriptures daily, met in a worshiping local church on Sundays, received baptism, shared in the Lord’s Supper, or pastored a congregation.