This transcripts was taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program originally aired on 10/17/23. To listen to the program, please click HERE.
Jamie Mitchell:
Well, hello friends. This is Jamie Mitchell, Director of Church Culture here at the American Pastors Network. I’ll be your host today for Stand in the Gap. Back in 1992, amidst the Promise Keeper movement, October was designated as a month to celebrate and love on pastors and missionaries and others who serve in ministry. And just like we have special days to acknowledge grandparents, secretaries, moms and dads, during the month of October, believers are encouraged to encourage their shepherds. And today we want to help you do that.
And as part of that, today’s program is entitled Care for Clergy: Both Practical and Personal. And we’re going to have a number of guests on today and the first half of our program. I’m so glad to welcome to Stand in the Gap today, Jerry Whitely. Jerry was a pastor and he understands the challenges and struggles of ministries that pastors and their families meet, and one of them is the challenge of finances and specifically planning for retirement. Some 10 years ago, probably more than that, Jerry left full-time ministry to devote himself to helping pastors find financial freedom. Jerry, I’m going to stop there. I don’t want to do justice to your story. I want you to share a little bit of your story, but welcome to Stand in the Gap. I am so glad that we met. What a joy it is now to have you on Stand in the Gap.
Jerry Whitely:
Thank you, Jamie, very much. It’s my privilege to join you today.
Jamie Mitchell:
Well, Jerry, we’re helping the people listening today so they can help their pastor. There may be board members, deacons, elders, trustees, or just lay people in the church who may be able to come around their pastor and help about the financial issue. I want you to just share briefly with the audience your story. How did a person trained to preach and shepherd end up leading a very successful financial planning business? Why did you make that move? What was the motivating factors?
Jerry Whitely:
Well, I appreciate that. So I began ministry when I was a child. That’s really all I dreamed about. Everyone else was throwing a football or catching a baseball, and my uncle built a little pulpit I had in the carport and I would set my two little brothers there and make them listen to me preach because I needed the practice and they needed the preaching. So that was always my dream. And started out, I went to school not to be a minister, but ended up in ministry my senior year and started as youth pastor, was a senior pastor for almost 28 years.
In 2005, literally on February 19th, 2005, my spouse, my partner, we’d built two wonderful churches together, was diagnosed with breast cancer. And then five years to the day she was diagnosed like five years, and 10 minutes, she passed away literally sitting in my lap in our living room with my two sons holding her hand. So that was one of those moments in my life that unfortunately many of us have had the experience, but it began a journey of what we’re talking about today. Although we pastored larger churches, we built those churches, but I’d chosen to be somewhat by vocational throughout my ministry career and often wondered why. But after she was gone, I realized that my financial services career may be more impactful than my pastoral career because I felt like I could influence ministers financially. I thought I knew the rules after 28 years of pastoring and being involved in financial services.
And I began to realize over the next couple of years of putting this together that not only did I not understand the rules, that I didn’t know anyone that did, denominationally, pastorally, even CPAs and tax attorneys. I just found there’s just this giant gap in understanding. And so I just gave myself to it. There’s a lot more background information there. I remarried, Sharon and I started this journey together and God’s really blessed it about 60 advisors scattered around the country, different offices from Portland, Oregon to Miami, Florida. And so God’s really been good to us.
Jamie Mitchell:
Well, Jerry, that is such a unique position to be in, having been the minister and faced a lot of these financial issues and having been in ministry myself, I know that it’s interesting that pastors and equally so churches and church leaders, they don’t like to discuss pastor’s salary, retirement, money needs and those kinds of things. Why do you think that’s a topic that we seem to avoid in the church?
Jerry Whitely:
Well, I think number one is just a lack of understanding. Everybody treats a minister differently. If I walked into the last town I pastored in, and I haven’t pastored in many years now, I could go to Walmart in that town and it wouldn’t be but a few minutes till someone walked up to me and called me pastor. That was my identity. It was my name. And because you’re a minister, you’re treated differently. Your family treats you differently, your friends treat you differently. Your parishioners, your members of your church, the general public treats you differently. Even God treats you differently if renting your garments was a common practice of mourning. Even David himself did it when he lost his first child with Bathsheba. But when Aaron and I call him the first preacher in the Bible, when he lost his sons, the Lord spoke to him and said, “Do not rent your garments. You can’t do what other people do.”
And then if you take that even another step deeper, the IRS treats ministers different and you may have a CPA and an attorney on your church board and they don’t understand ministerial finances. And so I think number one is a lack of understanding. I think also number two, perhaps there’s a taboo around maybe the last two generations, especially a taboo around pastoral or ministerial income. There’s an old notion that a pastor needs to take a vow of poverty, and I just don’t agree with that. And so it’s just wrong in my opinion. So we have a couple of generations that are struggling in retirement.
We have pastors that have stayed on many years after their most effective years of ministry are gone because they couldn’t afford to leave to retire or the reverse, we have ministers that retired and literally have nothing. They lived in the parsonage, they opted out of social security. They don’t have Medicare, they didn’t save any money for retirement. And it’s an epidemic, and that’s not a word I use lightly, but it is an epidemic in ministerial circles today all across the nation. And I feel called and uniquely equipped by God to address this. And so yeah, I think again, I just think it’s lack of understanding and it’s taboo and it’s just very seldom discussed and very poorly understood.
Jamie Mitchell:
Hey, friends, the statistics are frightening. Not only are most Americans not ready for the future regarding their money, woefully too many of pastors, the person who preached to you this past Sunday has probably put off putting his house in order. When we return, Jerry’s going to share some remedies for financial dilemmas that pastors face and help them put their house in order. Come back and join us for the second segment of Stand in the Gap Today.
Jamie Mitchell:
Well, we’re discussing caring for the clergy as part of Pastor Appreciation month, trying to be practical and personal.
And our first guest today is Jerry Whitely, the President of Guardian Financial Group. He’s been helping churches to get their ministers financially healthy and ready for retirement. Jerry, we’ve been talking about why it matters, the matters of pastor’s finances are like the third rail of a train track. You dare not touch it, but you meet with a lot of boards. Matter of fact, you sit down with boards and you try to encourage them and teach them and train them. What are some specific things that you speak to boards about that they really need to focus in on to help their shepherds?
Jerry Whitely:
Well, that’s a multifaceted question. I’d start out by saying that many times a pastor refuses, especially in a growing church or a small church, over the years I’ve met with hundreds of pastors that have refused raises from their board or from the church. And my challenge to the pastor is your primary responsibility if you’re married is to your wife and your family and secondarily to the church. And so I’ve seen pastors sacrifice their family at the altar, the church, and I don’t know any stronger way to say that. And I think that’s just exactly backwards of the way it needs to be. So a lot of times it is the pastor’s fault. Sometimes it’s the fault of, not the fault of the board, but just a lack of knowledge and understanding. Timothy said that a worker’s worthy of his hiring, and we should not muzzle the ox that treads the grain.
And so where does that began? It begins by education. Again, I think I said earlier that you’d have a tax attorney and a CPA on the church board, and most likely they’re not going to understand ministerial income, how ministers should get paid, what is housing allowance, which is if I could use the King James, it’s kind of the wheel in the middle of the wheel that everything a minister’s income should revolve around. What is a 403 (b) (9)? It’s a deferred compensation plan for churches. In the independent space, we see a lot of churches that actually have the wrong compensation plan or deferred compensation plan.
So we also see about a third of the ministers that became conscientious objectors to social security and Medicare and don’t even really understand. Unfortunately in America today, there are still bible colleges and seminaries that are teaching ministers to opt out of social security. And I can’t tell you the ministers I’ve spoke to that did that, and I’ve never spoken to one that didn’t regret it. And most of them also did not understand that they also opted out of Medicare. And that’s one of those things we can help resolve that there’s some ways to at least get the Medicare qualified and we can help them on that. Should a administer payoff his home? How much of a minister’s salary should be in housing? How much should be in deferrals for retirement?
How do we avoid disinheriting our spouse? Because if a minister has a housing allowance in retirement, which most ministers don’t even realize they can receive housing allowance in retirement. But again, it’s even more important in retirement than it is while you’re working. But if you are receiving housing allowance and you predecease your spouse, which we did a study in West Texas a couple of years ago, 94% of the ministers that had passed away in the last several decades had predeceased their spouse. So if a man and a wife are the same age and the man’s a senior pastor is a 75% chance and the general population, but we found it even more so in ministry that if you predecease her, then she cannot use your housing allowance in retirement. So how do we build that? And just a little bit of education with the board, with the pastor, with the staff goes a long way.
What if a minister lives in a parsonage? What if a minister lives in a parsonage, he opted out of social security, he has no money saved or isn’t saving anything currently for retirement? It’s an epidemic. But if there’s a 60-year-old minister and he has planned poorly, there are specific opportunities within the IRS code that are different from any other profession. The IRS is very liberal in general when it refers to ministry as IRS code 107, and there’s some the rules that allow ministers to do things to plan for retirement that aren’t available to the general public to help him catch up. If you look at the life of a minister, I liken it to a three-legged stool.
If life is physical and it’s spiritual, and then that third leg is financial. I mean, you go to the gym every day and you’re praying and you’re devout, but your finances are a mess. I don’t know how you succeed in ministry. And I think it’s the most neglected, again, the most taboo subject in ministry today. And I’ll do a breakout session. You were in one of those sessions, Jamie. So I’ll do a breakout session at a church conference somewhere, and my session will be attended much more than the others because no one’s ever heard the information to a man, to woman. The people that sit in those meetings are like, “If I would’ve heard this 30 years ago, how different my life would be today and we’re perishing for a lack of knowledge.”
And so we need to educate the church boards. We need to educate the ministers. We need to educate their accountants, their attorneys, and no one understands the rules. And so our job is we’re running around the nation, all of us with our hair on fire, trying to get as much of this information into as many hands as possible to help so this next generation doesn’t have to suffer the same mistakes of the last couple.
Jamie Mitchell:
Jerry, one of the things that I’ve heard you say numbers of times and having heard you speak was just a tremendous thing. But one of the things about being a pastor is almost like you are an owner of a small business where you’re trying to get something built, you’re trying to get something grown, you’re in charge of everything. And if you were an owner of a small business, then you would dictate what your salary is and what you would do for your finances. But you don’t have that as a pastor. You have all of the responsibility, but when it comes to this piece, you don’t. And you’ve said to me that one of the things that’s really necessary is to have an advocate. What do you mean by that?
Jerry Whitely:
Well, in the South we call that a bell cow. But having someone on the board or however your church government structure, but having someone in a position of decision making that can influence the other decision makers on your behalf because it’s very awkward. Like you said, you’re in charge of everything, but when it comes to your personal finances, you’re not, whereas in any other CEO type position you would be. But to have an advocate, someone that believes in what you’ve done, you’ve buried their dad, you’ve baptized their family, you’ve married their children, you’ve done all these things.
And so there are folks in your congregation and the leadership in your church that would love to do the right thing if they only knew what the right thing was. And so having that advocate I think is very important. And we have a meeting tomorrow night with an advocate in a very large church in Houston to do that, to educate him as to go to the rest of the leaders in that church and said, “This is what we need to be doing for our pastor.” So, yes, sir, that’s a huge issue. And if you have just somebody that understands the rules besides the pastor, then that really helps.
Jamie Mitchell:
Jerry, in our last minute or so, what must the pastor make sure he’s doing to be ready for a future financially? And on your website, you have something called the Guardian Promise. What does that mean and what should the pastor do the one thing he should do?
Jerry Whitely:
Well, so no plan is a plan. It’s just a terrible one. And so you need a plan. Every minister needs a plan. And if you opted out of social security and Medicare, how do you solve that? Make sure you have the proper deferred compensation plan. Get a plan. Don’t be afraid to discuss where you’re at on your journey. Sticking your head in the sand is not going to fix the problem and talk to us. We’re not going to send you a bill, we’re going to help you. And we have literally thousands of references that we’ve changed the lives. Our motto is changing the lives of those that change the world. And guardian promise isn’t just a promise, it’s an organization.
It’s a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of ministers focusing on ministerial financial health. And I have an external board of pastors from all around the country that help us maintain that focus. We’re here to do something that I don’t think has ever been done to this extent in ministerial circles before. And it’s our honor and our privilege to… I feel like it’s a gift from God. It is my calling, and as long as there’s breath and life in me, then I’m going to be preaching this sermon. And it’s just my honor to do so. And I really appreciate you letting me participate in your program today, sir.
Jamie Mitchell:
Well, Jerry, Hezekiah was told by God that he would die and that he needed to get his house in order. And then God let him live for another 15 more years. And we want to see pastors get their house in order. And then Lord willing, God give them another 20, 30 years of ministry. Jerry Whitely of Guardian Financial Group has been helping us know how to practically help pastors. You can find out more about Jerry and Guardian by going to guardianfinancialgp.com. Now, when you come back, we’re going to move from the practical to the personal and talk specifically about how to care for the emotional, relational, spiritual needs of a pastor and their family. Join back with us as we are caring for the clergy today, Stand in the Gap.
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Jamie Mitchell:
Well, welcome back. Our focus today is caring for the clergy. We’ve already looked at how to help a pastor get his house in order and specifically financially. But the second half, I want to look at how you can encourage your pastor to have his home in order. With all the stresses of ministry on a pastor, nothing is more adversely affected than a pastor’s family. It seems that more pastors, spouses, and kids get put on the altar when trying to serve God. And most times, churches don’t even realize the toll that ministry is taking on their shepherd’s home life. And most times, the pastor and his family suffer in silence.
Gary and Cindy Blunier have dedicated themselves to care for the personal side of those in ministry. For 29 years, they’ve served with FamilyLife Ministries and they serve in the role as staff chaplains. Their job is to pastor and care for those who are devoting themselves to serve Christ and serve families across the country and keep them healthy and keep their families healthy. Gary and Cindy, welcome to Stand in the Gap.
Cindy Blunier:
Thank you.
Gary Blunier:
Thank you, Jamie.
Jamie Mitchell:
Well, this is fun. I got to have self-disclosure here, Gary and Cindy and I, we’ve known each other for more than 30 years because when our son came into this world, God found fit to place him in their hands as initial foster parents. And for all these 30 years, we have kept this friendship, and this is a real treat for me to have them on today. And what a blessing. Gary, I want you to inform and enlighten our audience today. Many love their pastor, and they may not be even fully aware of the demands and pressures on those in ministry. What kinds of pressures do full-time ministers and ministry people face?
Gary Blunier:
Well, I think we could talk a long time on this, but I think some of the primary ways that pastors and full-time Christian workers struggle is they feel like they’re in the target. I mean, people are watching them. They might even have judgment call on what they’re buying, how they’re living. And so that’s just on the personal side, but there’s another factor that I think is even greater, and that’s that most of our ministry leaders don’t have a safe place to decompress. Cindy and I just returned about, what was it, two, three weeks ago from a pastor’s retreat. It was rest and retreat down at WinShape, and that’s what we found that these pastors really have no safe place to talk through things that they’re going through. They can’t go to their elders, especially if they’re struggling maybe in their own relationships, with their kids or what it might be. They’re afraid of judgment, so they don’t usually have a safe place to go. So I would say, Cindy, would you have any others?
Cindy Blunier:
Yeah, I think that’s an important thing that they do have somebody that they can talk to, a place that they can go. I think those are all really important because when they get isolated, that’s when it’s dangerous, I think, for the pastor himself and for his family.
Jamie Mitchell:
Well, I always say that with a pastor, his family life, his work life, his church life and his community life are all forced together. There is no compartmentalization. Unlike people in our church, they have four different places they can go for support and help, and if one goes bad, they at least have three others to go to. But if one goes bad in a pastor’s life, everybody gets affected. Cindy, I’m most interested in this. I guess you get to talk to a lot of spouses and you get to hear a lot of their concerns and heartache. Many of these wives when they got married, they knew what they were facing. But what do you hear regarding the pressures that spouses face while they’re supporting their husband and ministry?
Cindy Blunier:
I think that’s a really good question, Jamie. One of the things that I find is it’s very hard to compete with God because we all know that God comes first. And when you love God the most and you feel like your ministry is important, it’s like where does your family fit in there? Because it’s easy to be trumped by God, but it’s like what is God really asking you to do and who is he really asking you to love? I remember recently reading an article about A.W. Tozer, the famous theologian, and he had such a deep passion for God, and he’s very honored for that. And although there was no scandal in his life and he was never accused of any immorality, the discredited ministry or anything like that, what was disconcerting was his mediocre attempts at loving his wife and shepherding his children.
I found that in his life, prayer and preaching and writing, travel and mentoring young men took up most of his hours and left very little time to develop the marital intimacy that his wife craved. So after he passed away, some of her friends just said, she remarried, by the way, to a man named Leonard Odam. And her friends were like, “What’s it like being married to Leonard and after being married to the famous A.W. Tozer?” And she said, “I’ve never been happier in my life.” Aiden loved Jesus Christ, but Leonard Odam loves me. And I just think how pitifully and painfully lacking was his example if he loved Jesus so well that failed to love the wife for which Christ died. So I think my takeaway from that was just to live in such a way that your family has no doubt that you love Jesus and love them well.
Jamie Mitchell:
Gary, question for you. You’ve been at this now 29 years. You’ve seen changes in ministry, you’ve seen changes on ministry families and their lives, and obviously being a part of FamilyLife ministry, you must talk a lot about this. What kind of changes have you seen in ministry family lives over the years?
Gary Blunier:
Well, I think one of the things that I’m noticing, especially even right now in our culture, is it’s becoming very divisive, even in the church because we have different… Let’s just take COVID, we just went through COVID. And during the middle of COVID, you had some people in their church most likely that said, “We should wear masks. We need to wear masks, and we need to take the vaccine.” And then you had other people that said, “No, no, no.” And so we’re talking about people in their same church that couldn’t agree. And so the pastor’s trying to juggle those two opinions. And then you put on top of that, everything has gone down politically right now, and their pastors are stuck in the middle and they’re in a glass house because everybody’s watching them.
And these polarizing political choices that are being made out right in the midst of the church. When do we open a church after COVID? Those kinds of questions. It seems to me that the problems are that we can’t… It doesn’t seem like the church, the people in the church, the people that we love the most, aren’t getting along very well. They’re struggling to get along within the church. We’re seeing divisiveness within the church.
Jamie Mitchell:
And this is so important for us to talk about this today because as our audience is listening, they’re more likely in the church. They’re sitting in the pew Sunday after Sunday, their pastor comes, he ministers, they go home, their pastor goes home. And they are somewhat, I don’t want to say isolated, but maybe ignorant of some of these pressures. Everybody has their own pressures, but this really weighs down, does it not, Cindy? On the pastor’s family, because of just what Gary said, they’re in a fishbowl. Everybody’s watching them, aren’t they?
Cindy Blunier:
They really are. And I feel like their children are on display and the children’s choices are often considered to be reflective of the pastor himself, whether or not he made those choices. I mean, Adam and Eve had the perfect parent and the perfect environment and everything they needed, and they still made choices that were wrong. So I think a lot of pressure is put on our pastors and his family.
Jamie Mitchell:
You encourage, and we’ll talk about this probably before we end today, but certainly like you just came from a retreat for pastor, it’s so crucial for pastors to get away and to reflect and work on these things, but that doesn’t take the pressure away. It does give them some relief along the way. Friends, the struggle and heartache and pressures are real for those in ministry. And that’s why we’re doing this program today, both on the financial end, but at home, the pressures of ministry, the pressures of raising their family, being in center stage. And sadly because pastors are spiritual leaders, we raise them up and think they should be able to handle these things without making a mistake. And it’s just a heartache for them. They feel that they can’t be vulnerable, they have to stand in ministry, and they don’t even get times to grieve.
And so when we come back in our final segment with Gary and Cindy, we want to suggest how to support, how to encourage, how to care for your pastor, but this is pastor appreciation month. And I want to encourage you even now that you write your pastor, you call them, you reach out to them, you find ways to bless them. They’re not perfect. They probably have even failed you. But encouraging your pastor is the key. And when we get back, we’re going to talk to Gary and Cindy and put some other practical things as we find ways to care for our clergy. Just to mention, last week or so, I was out at Answers in Genesis at the Ark, saw Ken Ham, and we’re so thankful for their partnership with the American Pastors Network and encourage you to get out there. What an amazing place.
And every month you’ll hear the Answers in Genesis staff as they do our apologetics days here. And so what a blessing to have them as part of the APN team. Also, don’t forget, Tuesday, November 14th is coming upon us, our 10th anniversary celebration with Michele Bachmann, George Barna, and all of our hosts will be there, Gary, Dave, Isaac, Sam, myself. And we just would love for you to be as part. Go to our website and sign up so that we know you’re coming. We can plan ahead as well as to keep you informed of any updates.
Jamie Mitchell:
Well, time has flown by again, and we’re at the end of another Stand in the Gap. Our focus today has been on practically and personally preparing to show care for our pastors and their families. Gary and Cindy Blunier, chaplains with FamilyLife Ministries, are helping us understand the pressures on a pastor and his family. Gary, one of the things we want to make known to our people today are just ways that they can help those who serve the Lord. What can people do for their pastor? And then I’m going to have Cindy jump in here about wives and kids, but why don’t you focus on the pastor? What kinds of things should the people in the pew be doing to encourage and help and support and care for their pastor?
Gary Blunier:
Well, I think there are several things. We may have pastors listening, and I think we need to look at it from that perspective too. But if you have lay people, maybe elders that are listening, people are trying to figure out how to care for a pastor, I think the first thing it would be to provide a safe place for them to decompress. We find that that’s extremely helpful from our perspective with our staff. And really what safe means is that they can tell you what’s going on in their life and they’re not going to be judged by that. And that we’re going to listen carefully and we’re going to keep that confidentiality. Confidentiality is everything. If that pastor fears that something he shares with you is going to be put on social media or shared or gossiped on, it’s not a safe place. And so I would say that would be the first thing.
And then when there are struggles, when a pastor does share maybe an area of struggle, maybe he’s struggling with a choice that his child made or something like that, be there with them throughout the struggle. Don’t say, “Well, I’m going to pray for you,” and walk away. I think you need to be there and check in with them, say, “How’s it going?” Cindy and I used to joke, our staff would come in and one of the first things they would tell you is, “Well, we’re going to have to leave staff.” And they would share something, maybe a choice that their child made and we’d say, “No, you don’t have to leave staff for that. That choice is made by your child.” And I think pastors need that same permission. A child may get pregnant out of wedlock or something. We don’t know. The bottom line is those things do happen.
We’re not perfect. None of us are perfect. And so I want to encourage these people that are listening today. I want to encourage your listeners to come alongside those pastors and really care for them in a deep and real way. A couple other things that I would throw in. I know our church really encourages our pastors to take a sabbatical, and that’s something that you have to put into your plan. And so every five years I think it is, they get a 30 days off sabbatical where they can just rest on their own and get away from the hustle bustle. And that takes a lot of intentionality. And so that’s one thing I think is really important in the life of a pastor. I think that one month every five years will cause their stay at the church to go longer. And then another thing, the last thing I would recommend is just for them to look for a pastor’s retreat.
The one we went to with, it’s called WinShape Marriage and they do like four a year, so pastors can sign up for a full week of rest and relaxation. And I’m going to say we were there and they had a full five days of R & R, and it was so cool. And so I think if I was in my church, I want to encourage our pastors, see the pastors to go to that because it just gives them a break in the action and a safe place for them to decompress and really spend some quality time, intimate time with their spouse because they’re able to spend time with them.
Jamie Mitchell:
Cindy, I’m going to get to you in just a second about the wives and kids. But Gary, one of the things as you were speaking, it may not be that the pastor even feels comfortable talking to somebody at the church, but you still can go to the pastor and say, “Pastor, do you have someone to talk to? Can we get you with somebody?” And encouraging them to have someone to talk to, isn’t that even a more wonderful way to care for your pastor by just acknowledging they need that kind of outlet?
Gary Blunier:
I would agree wholeheartedly. Every church is different. It may be a smaller church, and he may just may not have the relationship with anybody in the church where he can sit down and really be real. But I do think they need to be encouraged to do that. Just like you said, they need to be encouraged. And sometimes I see pastors from other churches get together. I’m not going to try to figure… I think I would pray about it because the Lord will provide a place, but it’s something that you have to be intentional about. You can’t just say, “Well, it’s not working out. That means you’re probably not being intentional.”
Jamie Mitchell:
Cindy, what about wives of shepherds and also kids? How can we come around them and bless them and support them in any specific ways?
Cindy Blunier:
Yeah, I feel like what Gary said definitely benefits the wives and the children as well. But Jamie, you mentioned earlier that the pastorate is often hard to compartmentalize things because you don’t go home from the job and you take things with you. And I think even though their job often is 24/7, there are ways that as a congregation we can help by making sure that their days off are days off, that we don’t interrupt, if not absolutely necessary, putting some boundaries on their work hours so that they’re not on call all the time, that they have some family time, maybe even just encouraging date nights with their wives and providing someone from the church to babysit and encouraging people to give them gift cards, but just things that you can do to help them keep some of those rhythms of life that people outside of the ministry often enjoy. But in ministry, it all gets rolled into one, and you feel like you’re always on call. So I think as a congregation, we can help the pastors and their families by respecting boundaries.
Jamie Mitchell:
Well, pretty interesting is this past weekend, I was out in Indianapolis where that little baby who you’ve got to hold before my wife and I got to hold, Alex, is now 32 years old. He has a child of his own, and I was interacting with him this weekend a little bit. I was reminded that the other thing that was really important for us as a family was that he saw the blessing of being in ministry. We got less than a minute left. That’s an important thing, isn’t it, Cindy? That the kids of ministers see the ministry as a blessing.
Cindy Blunier:
That’s true, because I think if they always see it as a heartache and they always feel like you’re struggling financially and you never have time for them, they’re not going to want to do that to their kids. I think the ministry being positive and being a blessing has a more likelihood of encouraging kids to go into ministry.
Jamie Mitchell:
Gary, Cindy, what a joy to have you. Ladies and gentlemen, it is early enough for you to put some ideas together and to show support and love to your pastor. Don’t let another day go by. Hey, listen, don’t just make it one month a year, do it all the time. We’re here to encourage you and to encourage pastors to live and lead with courage. Until tomorrow, this is Jamie Mitchell. Have a great rest of the day. Thanks for listening to Stand in the Gap today.
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