Responsibilities of a Pastor - Part 1 - Prayer

I am currently being considered for the position of elder at our church. And in this process I have had time to reflect on some things that I don't usually think of so concretely. Out of concern for the people in our church I wanted to communicate to them what I felt my responsibilities would be if I became a pastor. As the second pastor in our church, they would surely be wondering about this. So, I plan to spell this out in a short series of articles that may not necessarily be in order of importance. However, I believe that this first article is of first importance in the order of responsibilities.

The first and most important responsibility of a pastor is to pray. He must pray for himself, his family, and the body. Prayer is of such great importance because it is the catalyst for all other spiritual growth. Let me explain what I mean. Let's say you are in a spiritual drought. You haven't been reading your Bible, you haven't been praying very much and when you do it doesn't seem to help, you act irritable towards family members, and maybe you just lack joy, in general. What can you do to help? Scripture won't come alive to you, so that doesn't seem to be helpful. Talking with others helps to understand the problem, but may not be the helping hand to lift you out of your valley. The starting point is to focus on prayer. God is the changer of hearts and the reviver of them, too. What will be helpful is to ask, plead, and beg God to make your mind and heart interested in the things of God again. Abandon your "routine" prayer. Being realistic with God about your situation and what needs to happen will be greatly beneficial. This might look something like "God, I honestly don't desire to know/love You more right now. I feel content in my relationship with you and have no motivation to serve You. I know this is wrong. Please, help me. I believe your promise that you won't leave me in such a state, but will continue the work you started in my life. Father, please change my heart."

I believe that this example helps to highlight the importance of prayer. If prayer is our aid in our worst spiritual state, then it will certainly be helpful in all lesser trials. Even more importantly, God is clear about the importance of prayer and its effectiveness. And because of the emphasis that our Lord puts on prayer, I feel it would be my first duty to pray for those under my care. This is not to say that all people shouldn’t be praying in such a way. I believe they should. However, as an elder has specific responsibilities to shepherd and to oversee souls, I see this means of change in people’s hearts and lives as of first importance.