In 16 years as a pastor, I learned two things well.
First, Sunday mornings are a stressful time for pastors.
Second, most people who attend church love their church – and love their pastor.
Combining those two, I want to help any way I can to make the Sunday morning experience the best it can be for my pastor friends and the church. I used to get asked frequently, “Pastor, is there anything you need me to do for you?” “Or how can I best support you?” I love those questions. I knew they always came from a sincere heart.
That’s the purpose of this post. Here are some easy ways you can help your pastor this Sunday morning.
I should note. I have been in churches which, for the most part, did each of these well.
Here are 7 ways you can help your pastor this Sunday:
Pray
Pray for your pastor. It may sound trite or too simple, but it really is the greater work. I was in a church recently that had a whole room of people praying for the pastor during the service. What a blessing!
Ask God to open the ears of the people, to guide your pastor’s heart and to bless the services with His Spirit. As your pastor is preaching, pray for the pastor’s mind to remain focussed and sensitive to the Spirit’s leading. I’ve been preaching, lose track of my thoughts – probably obvious, and literally felt God’s presence guide my thoughts back on track. God answers the prayers of His people.
Don’t critique
There may be plenty to critique, but Sunday morning is usually not the best time to bring complaints. You might be surprised how often this happens to pastors. (And, it’s probably not Sunday afternoon either.) It is very distracting when the pastor is about to speak to hear criticism, which will have to be dealt with later. It weighs very heavy on the mind and gets in the way of focusing on the message.
Hold those until Monday, but even then, ask yourself if sharing it is personal to you or genuinely helpful to the entire body. Is it for your comfort or a greater Kingdom good?
Don’t share something you want the pastor to remember past today
This is huge. Most likely the pastor will forget what you told them by the time Sunday is done. Send us an email later or call us Monday morning.
(And, this won’t apply to every church, but if it’s a larger church, the pastor may not even be the best person to share it with. It was amazing how many people would tell me about a coffee spill near a Bible study room on the other side of the building – as I was about to preach. And, there may have been several other pastors standing in the hallway near me. In all honesty, with things like this, I wanted to say, “Would you mind cleaning it up?”)
If it must be shared on Sunday, please write it down so the details can be remembered. The mind of the pastor is so clouded on Sunday – thinking about a million different things. The pastor tries hard to keep focus on a message they hope God will use.
Be Kingdom-minded
Think of others interests even ahead of your own. (That’s actual Biblical.) Keep in mind the temperature in the room may not be your ideal temperature, but it may be exactly the right temperature for someone else. Your song may not be sung today, but it could be the song which leads another to the throne of grace. The message may not address what you’re dealing with right now, but for someone else, it might be life-changing.
Be a part of the crowd that says, “I love what helps another person grow closer to Christ” and you’ll help your pastor and the church greatly on Sunday mornings.
Find a place to serve
The work of the church can’t function with only a few people. And, that’s not Biblical. I’ve never met the church, which had too many people volunteering in preschool ministry, too many greeters, or too many people serving in the parking lot. And, every pastor loves people willing to do whatever it takes to make a Sunday work.
Introduce us to visitors
Introduce visitors to the pastor or someone on staff. Most pastors love to meet visitors, especially after the service. And, as much as we may love meeting your cousins from out of town, this is especially true of visitors who are seeking a church home. We know that one connection may make the difference for them. Even more, the pastor know when the church is bringing people with them or meeting new visitors as they arrive, the church is being the church. It’s encouraging.
Pray
It really does begin and end with prayer. More than anything, we want your prayer support. And, the battle is real on Sundays. The enemy reminds us of our frailties, our sins, and causes us to question the message we have prepared. The Spirit of God seems to respond when people pray. It’s amazing how I could always feel the presence of other people’s prayers on Sunday – more, it seemed, than on any other day.
Pastor, how else can people help you on Sunday?
Occasionally, if it’s sincere, thank your pastor. We’re human. Praise and thanks work wonders for morale and alleviating the day-to-day grind.
Amen
Catch others doing things RIGHT!
— a culture of praise and encouragement is so exciting for pastor & member BOTH!
Amen.
I feel PRAYING is VERY IMPORTANT ALSO XOXO
Insightful. I would also like to add that one of the ways we can assist our Pastors is by remaining loyal and faithful throughout our stay in the church as members. Many issues will come in that can cause us to deviate and turn against the leader, but loyalty will ensure that we're planted where God wants us to be. A great resource for this Biblical doctrine can be found in Dag Heward-Mills' "Loyalty and Disloyalty"… check it out 🙂
Thank you.
Thanks for this, Ron – and thank you for the inclusive language when referring to pastors!!
I so appreciate this article. So true! I have noticed that most of the 'reply's' are from Pastors or people involved in Ministry. I have been a Pastor's wife for 26 years and the longer I am in Ministry the more my heart bleeds for the people of our congregation. I am learning that people will not treat us fairly and they seldom give a thought to what their Pastor faces. But when we least expect it people will express their love and appreciation for us. Being in ministry is to be called to love the people of God unconditionally. I try to remember that if Jesus' heart broke over those that He loved, so will ours. I so appreciate the fact that the about list opens with praying for your family and ends with praying for your family! Our ministries may be difficult but our reward will be great! Thanks again for the article
Thank you so much
Ron! Great list. I'll be sharing this one on Facebook this morning. I've been seeing it making the rounds on social-media but just now popped over this morning. Glad I did! Take care.
Thanks!
well nicely written post Ron! Pastors need as much prayer and support (if not more ) as the congregation!
Amen. Thank you.
Twitter: kmac4him
says:
As a former Administrative Secretary for a Pastor for many years, I gleaned and I learned many things about how the family of God works. People come to church on Sunday and I liken it to the "family living room" they all feel they have the desire to get into the face and space of the Patriarch. But the mom says: "Give your dad 5 minutes, he just got home and he needs time to change hats from work to home" So it became a family rule dad gets 15 minutes and then you can all "pig pile on dad" LOL! Family rules are meant to be "spoken" shared out loud and they are not really understood if shared in non verbal ways. The heart of our Pastor was for the people, yes, he wanted to touch each one, BUT on Sunday his role as being called to God 1st, is to impart the food, feed the sheep and that takes a lot of focus and much energy is needed to be able to do that and he knows he needs a vital-vertical connection to do it, a connection not broken by a horizontal relationship with us, the "sheep". So the Pastor "non verbally" communicates this, but very rarely do you hear it communicated verbally. We began to communicate it verbally. Sunday is a day for the pastor to speak to us as a whole, like Jesus did. Jesus He spoke to the multitudes, he spoke to the 12, he spoke to people one on one and all those ways are good. We communicated it to the people on Sunday for them to come to the Admin staff, we became His Ambassadors… On Sunday morning, before the service, Pastor got a time out and the church was reminded verbally about it, respected it and understood the need for it. They knew He loved them, they knew His priority was them, but they also knew His 1st call was to feed the sheep on Sunday morning and in order to do that with excellence, he needed a "time out" and we were all happy to give it to him because we got blessed more when HE made that vital-vertical connection with God on Sunday mornings.
Great reply.
As Pastor's wife in a single staff church, I could not agree with you reply more! I LOVE the article and your analogy just tops it off perfectly! Thank you.
Nicely informing.
Thanks
I love this! Great post, thank you for writing!
Thank you!
Great list! I would have liked one that said simply "Be on time!"
I like it.
"Kingdom-minded" That's huge Ron. What a game changer it would be if more and more people could grasp this simply, but profound truth
Great post, Ron.
One thing I appreciated as a pastor and am subsequently trying to apply in this season as a volunteer is people who were available but not demanding. I want my pastor(s) to know I am there, I'm ready to help, and if there is something they need to communicate with me about after a service I want to make it easy for them to do so. However, I know Sunday morning is NOT the time for me to, for example, ask about scheduling a meeting for later in the week. As a pastor I found it was often helpful for key people to make their presence known in a simple, non-demanding way, and this was especially helpful in reminding me if I had something to communicate to them.
Absolutely. Thanks.
Twitter: raystrauss
says:
Amen! Ron, you nailed it.
I wonder how many pastors have moved to praying backstage or staying on stage before the message to avoid the people who do not realize this? I know I’m guilty at times.
You are a blessing.
Good point. Thanks.
Offer to take me out to lunch. LOL
Ha! I'm ready to crash usually.
Twitter: bryankr
says:
How about attitude? We could always show up with an attitude that says "I'm glad I came", rather than one that says I could be ome in bed, I could be in a deer stand, I could be…..
That would be a great help!