"My Pastor"
#91-45Presented on The Lutheran Hour on July 7, 2024
By Rev. Dr. Michael Zeigler, Lutheran Hour Speaker
Copyright 2025 Lutheran Hour Ministries
Reflections
Text: Acts 20:28
He cradled the button between his thumb and his forefinger, holding it like a precious family heirloom. It was loosely attached to a dress shirt, white-collared, button-up, the kind I'd seen him wearing during the week, crossing the parking lot where we played basketball at recess. He was our pastor, the sole pastor of our small church and school. The first person I remembered thinking of as my pastor.
Pastor Duane was a large man. He had gray in his beard and thinning hair combed over a generous forehead. Pastor Duane wouldn't ever be featured in a Preachers 'n Sneakers Instagram post. But he did look like he just stepped away from brewing beer in some medieval monastery, now disguised in a button-up Land's End® dress shirt. The dress shirt he held during the children's sermon that morning was one of his own, but he'd since stopped wearing it because he told us the button was coming loose.
He held up the malingering button and began to pull it away from its place on the shirt. He pulled and pulled, and the button got farther and farther away. Now, as an adult thinking about this, I've come to appreciate the behind-the-scenes work that must have gone into this object lesson that morning. Because I've since seen a button come unraveled in the wild. And I know that there's not enough thread tucked up inside it to reproduce what Pastor Duane demonstrated that morning at church, a button stretched three feet from its home, but still hanging on by a thread.
And I don't know whether Pastor Duane got up early or stayed up late one night that week to rig this trick button on his own, or if he asked his wife Elaine to help him. But I do know that a fair amount of preparation and a whole mess of thread went into this brief communication with 10 or 11 fidgety kids at 8:30 on a Sunday morning. And 37 years later, I still remember it. At nine years old, I couldn't comprehend how a pastor might be compelled to communicate, laboring to speak simply and clearly and memorably with people young and old, in season and out of season, for decades.
I couldn't comprehend the behind-the-scenes work, but I did catch the meaning of his object lesson that morning. He said that sometimes it might be like this for us, as followers of Jesus, we might start to come unraveled. We might stop listening to God's Word. We might stop coming together to worship and sing and pray. We might stray from God and His people and do things we're ashamed of. We might become like this button, he told us, pulled from its place hanging by a thread, in danger of being lost forever.
But then came the moment in Pastor Duane's message that morning when the magic really started. Because with his left hand, Pastor Duane never let go of that button. And with his right, hidden underneath the rest of the shirt, he started to slowly pull it back in. Now, having served as a pastor myself and having tried to reproduce this object lesson myself, I realized that to do this, Pastor Duane would've had to practice. Because it's one thing to come up with an idea for an object lesson in your head, and it's another thing to pull it off in real time, to create some of that magic that makes a message like this memorable for a nine-year-old.
Thirty-seven some years later, when I think about that object lesson, some of the magic is worn off. But the mystery is still there. Because what Pastor Duane said through that button was true. He said that even if we get lost, Jesus will pull us back and make a place for us.
Pastor Duane was my pastor. What about you? Do you have a pastor or did you have one growing up? Pastor is the Latin word for "shepherd." In the earliest Christian writings that were produced when the followers of Jesus were first organizing, their spiritual leaders are referred to by different titles: ministers, overseers, stewards of the mystery, elders of the church. But these different titles describe basically one job, one calling: pastor.
A lot has changed with the Christian church in the last 2,000 years. The church now is very different from what it was back then, when the New Testament was written. There were no dedicated church buildings, no formal Christian schools or universities, no billion-dollar Christian music industry, no Christian broadcasting networks or publishing conglomerates, no Christian T-shirts, or Christian lobbyists, or bumper stickers. The church back then was very different, and much has changed since. But one thing that has been constant from the beginning is that there were pastors, men called by Jesus, appointed by the church to gather people, to speak to them, to keep pulling them back to God. When the New Testament pictures a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ, it's more than just having a personal relationship with God. It's more than having a biblical worldview. It's more than holding to certain moral values. In the New Testament's way of seeing things, to be a Christian is to have a pastor or many pastors pulling for you.
Consider the book of Acts. It's the account of how the good news of Jesus spread from Jerusalem, across the Middle East into Africa, along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. In Acts we're told that when new communities of Jesus followers were formed, the people who started those churches, those communities, before they moved on to start new ones and new places, they appointed elders for them in every church. (See Acts 14: 23). Later, we're told that these elders were appointed to oversee the churches, to serve as pastors, as shepherds for the people there.
One of those traveling church planters, a man named Paul, encouraged those elders like this, he told them: "Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to be pastors of the church of God, which He bought with his own blood. Keep watch, because fierce wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from among your own number, men will arise and distort the truth to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard." And then Paul concludes encouraging these pastors, "Now I commit you to God and the Word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all who are set apart to belong to God." (See Acts 20, beginning at verse 28.)
Elsewhere in the New Testament, we hear something similar from the disciple Peter, one of the original 12 followers of Jesus. Peter says it this way, "To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, as a witness of Christ's sufferings and one who will share in the glory to be revealed. Be pastors, be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers, not because you must, but because you're willing as God wants you to be. Not greedy for money but eager to serve. Not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples for the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, when Jesus returns, you will receive a crown of glory that will never fade away." (See 1 Peter 5.) If you consider yourself a follower of Jesus or are considering following Jesus, then by definition you have a pastor and you need a pastor. Ultimately, according to Peter, Jesus is your pastor. Peter calls Jesus the Chief Shepherd, the Principal Pastor, and Jesus as your pastor wants to give you a local pastor.
Now, if you listen to this program regularly or some other on-air or online or in print preaching or teaching ministry, the speakers and the writers there may be something like a pastor for you, but Jesus wants more for you than that. He wants to give you a pastor who knows your name and who walks alongside you. He wants to give you an under-shepherd, someone who will give you a call and come looking for you when you're in trouble.
One day Pastor Duane rushed over from the church office over to the school building to check in on us. He must have figured that there was some trouble because of all the commotion in the school gym that afternoon. The source of the uproar was a rogue bird that had flown into the gym and was soaring around the rafters. I don't remember what kind of bird it was, but it was big, pterodactyl sized. And it must have had a big breakfast, because before the bird made its escape, it dumped a load on Pastor Duane, left a brown streak running down his nice dress shirt.
Being a pastor is messy business. Pastors get dumped on just like everyone else. And just like everyone else, they carry the stains of fallen humanity with them and in them. When you see the fully human nature of a local pastor, it's easy to become disappointed and disenchanted, especially if a local pastor has let you down or harmed you. Pastors are people. They need forgiveness and patience and grace just like everyone else.
But also in the church, no one except Jesus holds the title of pastor permanently. The church has always had pastors, and the church has always held her pastors accountable. And when necessary, the church has been willing to say to those who failed to represent Jesus faithfully, "You're not qualified to be our pastor any longer." One bad experience with a bad pastor can make you skeptical of all pastors. Just like how a bad experience with a bad friend can make you skeptical about the idea of friendship.
But you know the reverse can also be true. One good experience can change everything. One good experience can make you hopeful again. Let Jesus be that Friend for you. Let Him be that Pastor for you. Because He rushed into the mess, and He wore our stains to make us clean again. With His death and resurrection, He can be that one good experience who holds the rest of us up, holds us like failing friends, disappointing pastors, malingering buttons, hanging on by a thread.
In 2010, I completed my training to become a pastor in my church tradition, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. I graduated from our seminary in St. Louis. Now, not every church body prepares its pastors in the same way, and not every pastor has to go through a four-year graduate degree program, but that's what our tradition has done and it works well enough.
There were 94 men our seminary sent out that year to be pastors. Recently, a classmate of ours looked us all up and sent us a big group email, which was followed by several reply-alls and updates of some of what has happened in the last 14 years. As far as I know, three of those men have since died in the faith, ten are no longer serving as pastors. As for the other 81, some have served as missionaries in other countries, some as military chaplains, police chaplains, fire chaplains, some as professors training future church workers. Some have published books, created podcasts, hosted radio programs. But most are serving local churches. Some have served two or three churches. Some have served in the same church for the last 14 years. And over the last 14 years, all of us at times have felt like we were just hanging on by a thread. We've served in churches from coast to coast on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line, in the inner city, suburban, rural, small town, in western Nebraska. Out on the farm, one pastor from our class helps a parishioner give nasal inoculations to 150 calves. In Kansas City, another pastor helps manage a revitalized urban forest with resident bobcats and coyote. Another one shepherds his small town parish for the last year without pay. All have been sent by Jesus, called by the church to preach, teach, visit, baptize, serve the Lord's Supper, and whatever else it takes to look after the Lord's flock.
So who is your pastor? If no one comes to mind, who could it be? Pastor Duane was the first I remember thinking of as my pastor. In some ways he was larger than life. Not only could he do magic during children's sermons, but sometimes when he stood up in the pulpit to preach and he really got into what he was saying, with beads of sweat forming on his forehead and just the right amount of static electricity in the air, his thinning comb-over would stand up on end.
He tried to comb it back over with his handkerchief, but it would keep rising up as though he were electrified. He would stand up there and preach and speak of Jesus with such conviction and love and devotion. There have been, and there continue to be seasons and moments when I stray, when I've become a failed friend, a disappointing pastor, a malingering button. But even then, I can still hear the Shepherd's voice calling me, and you can hear Him, too. Because even when we are unraveling, Jesus keeps pulling us back just like Pastor said He would. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
Reflections for July 7, 2024
Title: The pastor's job description
Mark Eischer: You're listening to The Lutheran Hour. Want to hear more? You'll find an archive of previous messages going back to 2001, as well as other FREE online resources at lutheranhour.org. Now back to our Speaker, Dr. Michael Zeigler.
Mike Zeigler: Thanks, Mark. We are visiting with Dr. Jeff Gibbs, a beloved Bible teacher and regular conversation partner with us. Welcome back to the program, Jeff.
Jeff Gibbs: Thanks, Mike. It's a pleasure to be here.
Mike Zeigler: The message today was about pastors. And we hear in the book of Acts how, when the followers of Jesus planted new Christian communities, they also went back and made sure to appoint elders for these communities.
Jeff Gibbs: Right.
Mike Zeigler: Then later, in Acts 20, we hear Paul call a group of those elders together and he says to them that God the Holy Spirit has made them overseers to be shepherds or pastors—
Jeff Gibbs: Right.
Mike Zeigler: —for God's flock, His church, which He bought with His own blood.
Jeff Gibbs: Right.
Mike Zeigler: So we've got a lot of names for this position. They're called elder, pastor, overseer, minister. Could you give us a simple job description?
Jeff Gibbs: Yeah. That's a great question. It's carrying on the great tradition that you see already in the Old Testament where the God of Israel is Israel's Shepherd, "the Lord is my Shepherd." And yet, He also appoints representatives, emissaries. He calls men to, in a unique way, pray for the people if they are priests, to intercede and offer sacrifice but also to teach. And so this office, we could call it a responsibility of teaching, has been something that God has always done. Now, in the New Testament, it's a little different. We wouldn't draw a direct line between, for instance, Old Testament priests and New Testament pastors. The New Testament doesn't want us to do that, but it does share that continuity. And I would say that the continuity of all those offices—How do you shepherd? How do you oversee? How do you care for?—would be primarily the spoken Word of God and the embodied Word of God.
And by that Word of God, of course, I mean all of God's counsel. But especially the Gospel, especially the mercy of God, the unconditional love that's ours in Jesus. So it's that Word, spoken, taught, and then also carried out in a lifestyle by the representatives that God has appointed. As Paul says, "The Holy Spirit has appointed." Even though he probably picked them. I mean Paul, he and whoever local members, they said, "Okay, this person." See, but he says that was the Holy Spirit doing it, so...
Mike Zeigler: So, God wants to care for His people and He wants to share this work. He appoints under-shepherds to help Him do this.
Jeff Gibbs: It seems like a good idea to Him. On a bad day, you wonder. But no, this is the way He's always done it.
Mike Zeigler: And it's not by authority in the sense of a secular lording it over with the heavy hand, but with the Word and primarily with the Gospel.
Jeff Gibbs: Exactly. Sometimes I have said before that the church has two weapons that we can use. The first one is words, and the second one is love. And we would wish sometimes, again, on a bad day, that we had more, but we really don't. And if we try to add, quote, unquote, "weapons" to our—
Mike Zeigler: To the arsenal.
Jeff Gibbs: Exactly. Then, sooner or later we make big mistakes. And so, God's representatives have those same two tools or instruments. And it means, as we see throughout the book of Acts, that you'll just have to depend on the Spirit. You can't make the things happen that you want to make happen. Only God can do that heavy lifting. And that's what He's given us to use, is the Word and love for one another.
Mike Zeigler: And we see that in Paul's instructions to the elders in Acts 20. He's giving them over to the Word of God and His grace, which can build them up. He's concerned about teaching. He says there, "Watch out! There's going to be false teachers who rise up and try to twist the truth with words."
Jeff Gibbs: Got to defend the sheep. Right.
Mike Zeigler: And then the rest of it is, set an example, work with your hands, so you can share with those in need and give first, and it's more blessed to give than to receive.
Jeff Gibbs: Right. The only recorded—here's a fancy word for you, you probably know it, an agraphon. It's a saying of the Lord Jesus which is not written down in one of the Gospels.
Mike Zeigler: Yeah. It's in the red letters.
Jeff Gibbs: It's in red, but that—
Mike Zeigler: So Jesus said it.
Jeff Gibbs: And as we know, the Lord Jesus said a lot more—
Mike Zeigler: Right.
Jeff Gibbs: —than has been written down in the four Gospels. So here's our one example of words in red that are not in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. Well, I guess, Revelation has some, too.
Mike Zeigler: Yeah. And these are good to remember that these are words specifically spoken for elders or pastors, as they do the work that God is entrusted to them.
Jeff Gibbs: Exactly.
Mike Zeigler: So, back to Paul's encouragement to these pastors. In Acts 20, he talks about the threat of false teaching and temptations associated with power and privilege and possessions. You've been a pastor; you've been preparing pastors and involved in that work for over 40 years. Is that right?
Jeff Gibbs: That's correct.
Mike Zeigler: How would you emphasize and clarify Paul's words for us, for our time?
Jeff Gibbs: I think that we always exist in a moment in time and in a culture. And American culture—which is the only one I know, even though I know it imperfectly, of course—has an obsession with a certain kind of authority and popularity, celebrity status. Right? And of course, it's often associated with how much money you have or what you look like physically. Are you attractive in a certain way? And those things are very dangerous because they can leach over into the way the church thinks about her leaders, and about how those leaders think about themselves. This was a problem in Jesus' day, of course. He castigated the Pharisees because they loved the first greetings in the marketplace, not because they got them, but because they loved it.
And so, there's a great temptation here for pastors to forget that the only authority to have is the authority of Jesus. But it's mediated and delivered through very cracked clay pots. And we can't claim, in a sense, anything of our own. So there's a certain intrinsic humility to the office of pastor that there's so many things that are necessary, but that's necessary. All around us are voices that say that if you want to get something done, you have to be strong and determined. And that's fine. If you're a strong and determined person, that's fine. But only God can change hearts and only God can reign. Only God can be King.
So pastors, I think, in our day, along with all those other important things, necessary things-faithful to the Scriptures and to, in our case, the Lutheran Confessions, what our church believes—those are all necessary. But a kind of simple humility, and you see this distributed everywhere in the book of Acts where somebody makes a plan. Guess what? The plan doesn't happen.
Mike Zeigler: Never works.
Jeff Gibbs: It never works. I'm not saying we shouldn't make plans. And there's no virtue of being disorganized. But as in Acts, Jesus is continuing to do things, and the reign of God is continuing to come.
Mike Zeigler: Why is it still good for every Christian to have a pastor?
Jeff Gibbs: God thinks so. That's why, yeah. And I think there's a lot of reasons why it's good. There's a power in hearing it from another voice. I think in some sense we were meant to be open to that outside word coming from another source. And so that's obviously, just a fellow Christian can be that voice, right? But pastors are appointed and again they're trained and prepared to protect the sheep, but also to nurture. And I just think it's a way of saying, "Look, I can't do this by myself." And in our community of believers that gather regularly around God's Word and God's Sacraments, we need a man who can humbly and clearly speak to us the Word of God and the Words of Jesus, so...
Mike Zeigler: Thanks for your time. Thanks for being with us again.
Jeff Gibbs: It's great to be here.
Music Selections for this program:
"A Mighty Fortress" arranged by Chris Bergmann. Used by permission.
"O Christ, Our True and Only Light" From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House) Used by permission.
