When I was preparing to be a pastor, an older pastor told me, “Love the people. That’s the biggest thing. You’ve gotta love the people.”
As a young, idealistic pastor-in-training I had no idea what that really meant. If you asked me to nail that down, I suppose I would have said something along the lines of, “Be nice and talk to them. Shake their hands. Something like that?”
After 21-years of being a pastor, and now being out of pastoral ministry and observing pastors from the “layman’s” perspective, here are the top things I think it means for a pastor to “love the people.”
1. Love rejoices in the truth.
Love doesn’t mean tolerating sin or downplaying scriptural standards of Christian conduct for fear of offending and losing attenders. The pastor who told me to “love the people” frequently told people their sin was ok, that they didn’t have to worry about it because of grace. His idea of love meant “be inoffensive” to people. If you are not pointing out truth and error you are not loving people.
2. Love feeds the people.
The idea of preaching and teaching the Word is repeated in the Pastoral Epistles something like 12 times. It’s a big deal. People in your church have been put under your charge. You are the one primarily responsible for feeding them. If your people are starving, it’s hard to see how you are being a good shepherd that loves his sheep. Give them solid meat to chew on!
3. Love protects the people.
Shepherds feed and protect the sheep. There are plenty of wolves out there, some in sheep’s clothing and some very plainly walking around looking like wolves. Be on guard. Warn the people. Protect the people. Call out sin and false teaching. Don’t be afraid to enact biblical church discipline for the purpose of restoring people into paths of righteousness.
4. Love shows up.
Be there for people. Don’t get so sucked into your schedule that you can’t take time out to make a hospital visit or be available in crisis moments. Also, don’t just wait for crisis moments! Be with your people. Know them. Set up times to visit their work place or homes. This used to be common, but with texting it is less so. Some people are uncomfortable with the idea so check first. But be available. There are always healthy limits, but there are probably other duties you do that can be put off or delegated so you can be with the people.
5. Love knows how to listen.
Some think “love the people” means to be an extroverted schmoozer. That’s not it at all. Shut up and listen! It’s awful hard to know what to say to edify people if you’re never hearing what they are saying. Shut off the auto-responses, the pastor voice, and trite answers. Drop the knee-jerk defensiveness that keeps you from being corrected. Shut off the part of your brain that formulates responses before the other person has stopped talking. Listen. Listen to the extent that you remember stuff. Bring up that stuff later. Ask follow-up questions next time you see them. People in our world are not used to being listened to. Be an exception.
6. Love serves.
Be available for menial tasks. Clean the toilets in your church every once in a whole. Don’t be above others. Not saying you do everything, just saying be careful not to get uppity, feeling like you are above others or above certain jobs. Be humble. Look for opportunities to humbly serve. Wash some feet out there!
7. Love is strong.
Make sure you’re growing. If you’re not advancing in your faith, how will you help others advance in theirs? Bear burdens. If someone in the church has to sacrifice, let it be you. Again, there are healthy boundaries, but lead in sacrificing. Take a pay cut instead of cutting support for struggling but faithful missionaries. As the KJV says, “Quit ye like men.” Be strong. Set your face like flint, armor up, take up your cross, and bear one another’s burdens.
There are probably more things to add. Love is a gigantic topic in the New Testament, kind of the whole deal. Pastors, you gotta love the people. I hope this helps you think through better how you can do that.
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Failing Pastor 