The Pastor’s Joy Challenge – Part Six: Obsessed With Joy

I can just hear the questions:

“Six posts about joy and you’re not done yet?” No, I’m not, actually.

“Are pastors really that miserable that they need all this?” If they’re not miserable, it’s because they’re already practicing some or much of what I’m sharing here (it isn’t new).

“Can’t you think of anything else to blog about?” You wouldn’t believe how many things I’m thinking about blogging about.

“Are you obsessed with this?”  Probably. I talk to lots of pastors and I help them – as best as I can – to have vibrant, thriving ministries.  I’ve been around the block enough times to know that their churches are not likely to be joyful if they’re not joyful, and if their churches aren’t joyful they’re not likely to make disciples and grow God’s kingdom.

So yes, until Jesus returns or the church is perfected, I’ll continue to be obsessed with this subject.

So far I’ve shared five reasons why the pastor’s joy is so important, fourteen reasons why it’s so challenging and seven suggestions for achieving “pastoral joy.”

1. Work at getting good at rejoicing in the Lord.
2. Take responsibility for your own joy.
3. Dig deep into your position in Christ.
4. Seek to get Jesus Christ obviously present and actively in charge of your church.
5. Pursue the joy that comes from fruit bearing.
6. Keep one foot on solid ground as you descend into the “hole” of another’s sorrow.
7. You’re gracious to everybody else; maybe it’s time to be gracious to yourself.

Let’s move on to four more.  As I said earlier, some of these suggestions are deeply spiritual while others are simple and down-to-earth.  Skip over the ones you’ve mastered and be blessed by those you need to work on.

8. Cultivate hope.

The word hope seems to be used in at least two wonderful ways in the Scriptures. (1) Hope sometimes refers to the substance of what we are expecting for the future: our eschatology, as in “the blessed hope” (the “glorious appearing” of Christ) in Titus 2:13.

(2) Based on that first type of hope, we are also blessed with hope in the sense of joy borrowed from the future. The believer in Jesus has an inexhaustible supply of joy stored up for him/her in heaven.

Picture a huge reservoir of joy that will never run dry.  On our toughest days here on earth, we can reach out by faith and latch onto, enjoy, drink down, swim around in, that joy. We can borrow joy liberally from our future without ever diminishing what we’re going to enjoy. That’s hope: joy borrowed from the future (Psalm 16:9, Psalm 42:5, Romans 5:3-5, Romans 12:12, Romans 15:13, I Thessalonians 2:19).

I love hope. I imbibe hope. I feed on hope. I can read the Word of God. I can sing about what we’re going to have. I can listen to others talk or sing about the joy we’re going to have. I can close my eyes and borrow some joy from the future. This is simple stuff: in the dentist chair I can think about the coffee I’m going to grab on the way home.  While shoveling snow I can enjoy some hope by thinking about the summer which will, eventually, come.

Pastors and other Christians who give themselves away for God’s glory are actually promised more future joy than most people, so we have more reasons than most people to enjoy hope right now (I Corinthians 9:23-27, II Corinthians 4:17).

9. Expect that trouble will increase your capacity for joy.

You’ve probably heard this claim before. I’m not sure I can prove it from the Bible, but I know that I’ve heard it from many saints I’ve known and I know what the joy-infatuated Apostle Paul said in II Corinthians 7:4b: “I am greatly encouraged; in all our troubles my joy knows no bounds.”

By way of a miracle of God, the sorrow and pain and trouble we experience – perhaps because it forces us to lean hard upon the grace of God delivered by the Spirit of God  – leads to our experiencing greater joy.  It’s inexplicable, but it’s true.

If you understand this better than I do, get it touch with me; I want to hear your story.

So, as a pastor, you have lots of troubles, right?  So, I guess that means that God is deepening your capacity for joy.

“Those whom God would greatly use He must deeply wound.” I’ve no doubt that God wants to greatly use you, and you know what that requires.

10. Share your story and His story.

You probably know this simple truth, but it’s possible that you’ve been too busy for too long to actually practice it much.

When you share your own salvation story – especially when you share it with non-Christians – it refreshes, resets, reboots your joy. It makes you feel like a brand-new believer all over again.

Just as wonderful: when you share His story, the story of Jesus and the cross and the resurrection, you, similarly, are filled with an inexpressible joy.

And I don’t mean to be unkind, but if sharing your story or His story doesn’t bring you joy – at least for a few minutes – you need more help than I can give you through a blog post. Please don’t try to merely “soldier on” as a joyless pastor.

Here’s the problem for many pastors: you simply get so busy taking care of your church attendees, and so bogged down with their problems and issues, that you don’t have time to rub shoulders with non-Christian people anymore.

I used to say that “the shepherd doesn’t reproduce the sheep; the sheep have to do that.” But the shepherd is the loser if he only sees lost sheep when they show up at his church.

The solution is simple and hard. Join something. Get yourself into some kind of regular responsibility, that you will faithfully adhere to, that will get you rubbing shoulders again with non-Christian people. You may have to adjust your official ministry description and you may need the support of your church board/council/consistory to pull that off.  If these folks are wise, they will let you make this important change. If they are resistant to such a change, let me talk to them.

11. Don’t resort to looking for bosom friends in your church; find a good pastor fellowship instead.

Many a pastor has shortened or soured his ministry with a church by seeking out an individual or two within the church and laying bare his soul.

If you have a trusted friend or two in your church, that’s wonderful (as long as you’re the same gender). I’m happy for you.

But even telling a true friend in your church about your struggle with joy is apt to backfire, because, unless this friend has been a pastor himself in the past, he has no idea what you’re actually facing.

Worse yet: tell this trusted friend about the individuals in the church who are making your life miserable.  Don’t do it. Just don’t do it. Do you hear me?

What’s the solution?  It’s not dumping everything on your poor, beleaguered wife. Find a group of great pastors whom you have abundant reason to trust – and this may take some time – or find a coach or mentor or denominational leader whom you genuinely trust, and pour out your heart.

Even pastor fellowships can be vibrantly healthy or not so healthy. Click here to read what I wrote about this subject a few years ago.  And may God lead you to one in which everyone laughs a lot.

Pastors: Here’s to your joy! 

• Cultivate hope.
• Expect that trouble will increase your capacity for joy.
•  Share your story and His story.
• Don’t resort to looking for bosom friends in your church; find a good pastor fellowship instead.

If you’d like somebody to talk to or pray with regarding any of this, send me an email at churchwhisperer@gmail.com.  I don’t have all the answers, but I can listen and pray.