We live in an era of free-agent Christianity and it is out of control.
No one in the whole wide world of sports plays for themselves. Athletes have coaches. Football teams have someone calling the plays. Baseball teams have someone making the hand-signs. Even individual sports like golf or tennis have a coach to train and instruct the athletes.
So why do so many Christians today think they can win on their own? Why do they think they will play better without a coach telling them what to do or other team members helping them out? It’s like Kobe saying he is going to start his own team. No more Lakers. No more Phil Jackson. Even Kobe knows that no single player has ever won a championship.
Likewise, the Christians who think they don’t need a pastor or a local church can expect one thing: spiritual defeat.
In fact, if you are not under the authority of a pastor as your “spiritual coach” then you are already in sin.
Hebrews 13:17 - Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.
Scripture is clear that as Christians we submit to those who are over us. Specifically, this verse commands us to put ourselves under those who are going to give an account for our souls. This begs the obvious question: Who is watching over you soul? Who is your pastor?
If you can’t answer this question then how can you say you are obeying this verse?
Every one of us following Christ needs to have a personal shepherd. This doesn’t mean we just get Bible teaching from popular Christian authors or off the Internet. It means we are placing ourselves under the spiritual oversight of a man we have some relationship with. We hear him preach every week. We follow the ministry structure he has established at his particular congregation. We seek to develop a personal connection with him or another pastor or ministry leader he has set up for us to be accountable to. We pray for him constantly and take his words not as suggestions, but as a coach telling us to get in the game.
Here at Compass, we are blessed to have Pastor Mike. And as this verse says, we need to make sure that his job is a joy as we submit to his spiritual leadership. Currently, Pastor Mike is teaching us on the issue of parenting. This is a great example of whether we are going to obey our leader or not. It is not a battle of opinions. It’s not a tug-of-war between what Pastor Mike says and what we think. As our pastor, he is serving us up a slice of God’s Word and he speaks with the authority of Scripture. He is telling us what we need to hear as an overseer of our souls. If we do not listen, then we are choosing to disobey God himself.
If you are in our high school ministry, then I am your pastor. And I think you should take me out to Taco Bell. Not just because I like the food or think it would be fun. But you need to tell me what is on your soul. You need to open yourself up to some accountability from your pastor. And because it is not practical for me to meet with all of the students at True North, we have established a structure of small group leaders you can talk to. I train the leaders and work closely with them so that you can have spiritual oversight in your life. As a high school student, you need to make sure you are following those who are spiritually leading you.
God wants his people to have a pastor. He wants you to be at church and ready to here us preach. He wants you to embrace us as your very own. I know we aren’t perfect, but God has commanded you to follow spiritual coaches. This is his game plan for victory in life.
Just please don’t dump Gatorade on us when we’re done preaching!
Pastor Bobby, I hear you….sometime easier said then done, the view from the pew is that its hard to be accountable to a pastor or someone in leadership with the kind of numbers we have in our church, so direct involvement with the Pastor or Pastors is not realistic. Shepherding then is a little more difficult as in the early church, that is now done with certain ministries set up by the local body such as Compass does. Accountability though is even more difficult as we grow. Sometimes we who view from the pew might need to diligently seek someone , one on one to be accountable too, women with women, men with men , someone to pray with, be transparent with and hold each other accountable in our walks. This is not to say that we arent accountable to God first and foremost but this would be something that we submit to , because we want to. Pastors cannot be everywhere and cannot do everything, though they desire to be there to help the body, it just cannot be done, The Lord provides people in ministries, and some leadership who can fill the gap, the view from the pew is that we need to be accountable to someone we feel we know personally and can be transparent with, that dosent always happen with a pastor, or even a ministry leader, sometimes its just with another Christian who takes time to get to know me on a personal level and seeks my growth in the Lord as important.
I hear you,
I promise not to dump the Gatorade!
What an encouragement! And we are definitely blessed to have pastors like we do at CBC! But like you’ve said, we could have the best pastors, but it does nothing for us if we are not submitting to what they preach from God’s Word. Not doing so is rebellion against God, not just them. Thanks for the encouragement and challenge to make sure we are putting God’s words to us through you into practice!
And we should definitely hit up Taco Bell sometime. But i can’t promise no gatorade…
Submitting to the authority God has put over us… That includes submitting to parents too! #5 on God’s top 10 commands. I pray that we, parents, submit to God’s will and that obedience, in turn, blesses the kids in the True North ministry. Who’s your pastor?
Taco Bell with the pastor… Not a bad idea. Good way to get some prime “spiritual coaching”. Just like Phil and Kobe.
I like this line a lot ” It is not a battle of opinions. It’s not a tug-of-war between what Pastor Mike says and what we think. ” I feel like this is often the attitude of our hearts when we hear something we are not used to or when we feel convicted. We autimaticaly stumble into the sin of pride and think that we know better than the pastor or person in leadership. When in reality God appoints the pastors and leaders in our lives to guide us in our growth and likeness of Him. The only way that system of leadership and growth is going to work is through obedience to the authority, no matter how different or outrageouse the thing we hear is (as long as it is backed up in scripture of course
).
As a pastor and one who has had the privilege of serving in ministry for 34 years, I have never read a finer, more concise article on shepherding. At the same time, we as pastors have to make sure we are not using our authority as club or weapon. Our accountability before God is a heavy weight, but when that we take with joy in loving others.
Oh, by the way, Pastor Mike and his brother were in my youth ministry wwayyyy back when in Long Beach, CA, and he never took me to Taco Bell!
Ray Schwartz, Lead Pastor, Pinecrest Community Church, Parker, CO.