October is

Clergy Appreciation Month, a special time that congregations set aside

each year to honor their pastors and pastoral families for the hard work,

sacrificial dedication, and multiple blessings provided by these special

people. It is typically scheduled in October but can be and should be

observed once a year. Dr. James Dobson has been the heavyweight in making

October Clergy Appreciation Month truly a national emphasis. His web page

features a whole section on how churches can honor and recognize pastors,

in particular: https://www.family.org/pastor/cam/

This special

emphasis gives me opportunity to dedicate my October columns to an inside

look at the person and position of pastor. I've been one since a little

church in North Vernon, Ind. gave me the opportunity to serve about seven

or eight families as pastor. As I stood Sunday by Sunday to talk about

God and his Word, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Since, other

perspectives have arrived on the scene. But today I want to give you an

inside look at the pure and glorious joy that comes by serving as pastor.

First, the

office of pastor puts him (and I realize some of hims are hers) at the

junction of God and humankind. As none other he can sit down with broken

and hurting people and share, without fear of correction, about a God

who restores, forgives, and empowers one to overcome the greatest adversities

that life can hurl. Just this past week I served as an awesome junction

so that a mother could talk to God about the sudden and near life-crippling

death of her unborn son. It's not a petunia or petticoat junction, but

a junction of power, prayer, and possibilities. To be able to leave the

scene of that kind of criminality of life and know you have been a junction

for people to get back on track oh, the joy!

Second, the

pastor stands and presides at some of the most quintessential moments

of people's lives. What jubilation it is to lift up an infant child to

God as parents dedicate or baptize him or her unto the Lord! What exhilaration

it is to stand before a man and a woman wearing their finest adornments

and lead them in pledging to one another, "For better, for worse,

in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, for as long as we both

shall live." What ecstasy it is to soar with the eagles as you are

fully aware that as you preach the Word of the Living God that you are

being used to heal deep wounds of self-doubt and family-related inflictions.

What deep-down satisfaction it is to know that on a one-on-one conversation

you can represent the love, forgiveness, and esteem of the Almighty God

to a depressed, depreciated human being. Then, to see that same person

reclaim her life mission. That kind of satisfaction doesn't get any deeper.

But there is

also a third: serving as pastor gives you Carte Blanc to talk to people

about their spiritual lives. In the early days of my ministry, I would

walk into people's homes and try to carry on mindless chit-chat about

Saturday's football game, the latest political happening, or the price

of gas in Saudi. Gradually, it dawned on me that my visit was too precious

to waste on such trivialities. A brief story will illustrate: I went to

visit a church member who was a patient in a hospital ward. I went, greeted

him, and had prayer. As I was leaving the ward another patient called

out to me to stop by his bed. I did. I engaged in a bit of chitchat. Then

I asked, "Would you like me to have a word of prayer with you?"

The patient responded, "That's why I asked you over in the first

place."

There is such

great and wonderful joy that, as pastor, you have the privileged responsibility

to talk to people about

the most important things and issues in life. Would I really want to do

anything else? Not for all the gold in Fort Knox, all the tea in China,

all the oil in Saudi, and all the stock of Bill Gates. By the way, they

call on Bill to pay, but not to pray. Prayer provides access to a hundred

times the net worth of a Bill Gates (as of Oct. 5, old Bill was worth

$35.17 billion).

John

Hatcher is pastor of

Outreach International

Center

1091 South Jeff Davis

Drive

Fayetteville, Georgia

30215

770-719-0303

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