Pastoral Pitfalls

Shepherds (Part 2):  Limits of Pastoral Ministry  

This follows on from a post I did a little while ago, on the pastoral heart underpinning all branches of ministry.  It rounds it out, with some counterbalancing issues and risks.

It starts where the other one ended, that passage about God himself being a shepherd.

“He carries his lambs close to his heart.”   (Isaiah  40.12)

So, being carried as a lamb, is not an end in itself. It that should take us somewhere - should be "carried along" - the original context was return from exile; the homecoming. It should also bring us close, to hear his heart. 

Pastoring cultivates prophetic hearing

So to put that together, one can say that a common fruit of true pastoral ministry, should be the knowledge of His heart, or development of greater prophetic insight. Does that perhaps seem a stretch? Well lets look at a couple of examples.  

Think of John, leaning on Jesus at the last supper. That place of intimacy, of being carried close to his heart, means he is enjoying love and care. It also means he can communicate better with Jesus. The others at the table request that he ask Jesus a difficult question – who was the betrayer among them?

Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, “Ask him which one he means.”Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?” 

And John does get an answer from Jesus, one that triggers events to roll forward. So being carried close to his heart, means the intimacy is deeper; the prophetic question and answer, the dialogue with Jesus, is richer – more is entrusted there. 

And where does that hearing of His heart lead, in John’s case? To a gospel that is quite unique, draws out different aspects of the life of Jesus, son of God, than the 3 "synoptic" ("summary") forms. John's gospel is written last, and seems he has been entrusted with reaching further afield, both deepening and simplifying the cultural terms - he speaks of light and life, more than kingdom. 

For a second example of how pastoral care leads to prophetic heart, consider David's famous revelation of pastoral care: 

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures. 
He leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. 

And so being led by a shepherd, indeed Yahweh himself, in green pastures, leads to the still waters, the deep, the place where visions of the heavens form. 

Its notable that he skips straight past any idea of human pastors to Yahweh as Shepherd, and declares His first work is to get us to lie down- the place of surrender, reflection, of interior vision.   

Consider John again from that angle, he is entrusted with more than a unique gospel; he is also given the final vision of revelation. He had been one of the three in the inner circle, had leaned on His chest in intimacy, had written a gospel naming himself as the one that Jesus especially loved ... and yet when he sees Jesus afresh after the resurrection, he falls down as though dead at the fresh revelation: 

The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire.  His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.  (Rev 1)

So, pastoral ministry is not an end in itself. It carries us somewhere. It should develop ones who know the voice, who hear it resonating in all sorts of new ways, who know the Voice and the Person. The safe space should lead on to greater vision.

Pastors can cultivate teaching, and practical care 

As well as developing prophetic hearts, pastoral care, the work of the shepherd can underpin other modes of ministry. It commonly leads  to teaching. This is well understood - the famous charge to Peter, "feed my sheep" is often interpreted as "provide teaching".  Similarly Mark 6:34 says Jesus was moved with compassion when he saw the crowds, saw them like sheep without a shepherd … and it launched him into teaching.  

And we know Jesus showed practical compassion for those who needed food, after days of teaching, and that leads to the feeding of the 5000. So teaching, and literal food and care, are more obvious pastoral expressions. (I've emphasised prophetic development as its also a natural fruit of pastoral ministry, but less commonly understood to be so). 

Limits and risks of pastoral ministry

The point is that pastoral ministry is not an end in itself, and should not be left to itself.  The word pastor occurs only once in english translations of the bible, and that in a list with 4 other roles (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher are all identified as ascension ministry gifts to the church).  We're on shaky ground if we major on that gift (or any ministry gift) without the counterbalancing  expression of other roles. 

Many have noticed that a mild version of the pastor/teacher gift is running most churches - and so its bumpy and underpowered, like a car running on only 2 cylinders, but designed for five. In many places the sheep may get warmly welcomed, and may get fed, endlessly learning, but nothing much else will happen.  Those aspects are great if part of an ecosystem that cultivates the full expression, but is a problem otherwise.  Strengths, left alone, also become limiting weaknesses. Consider how that works here. 

Emotional sensitivity can appear to be prophetic, but  .. 

Pastoral people are sensitive to others emotions. They can be intuitive, and read how people are feeling.  That's often a good thing and the other roles benefit from that foundation.  It means people are emotionally balanced, not unnecessarily treading on people’s toes.

But there are some traps to watch out for here.

That sensitive reading of the heart, and the flow of compassion, can become a subtle substitute for the true ministry of the Spirit. For those who are called down John’s path, building from pastoral intimacy into prophetic heart, that natural sensitivity can actually overload the heart with too much intel, a flood of unusable discernment.
One of the early books on the prophetic movement, The Elijah Task, by John and Paula Sandford, addresses this – there are those who pick up heart issues so easily, just by being near people, that it overwhelms them. They called it “burden bearing”, and insist that the gift must be surrendered at the Cross, in order to be healthy and useful.

In these cases the heart is so attenuated, so tuned to every passing pain, even to these just walking nearby, that the emotional radar needs to be brought into order. That sense of connection may seem to be abundant, and at first glance may look like prophetic intel. However its just the human spirit picking up issues from people, and compared to what God wants to say, it's still from a lower realm. It can leave the recipient overwhelmed – touched with the feeling of every passing issue, but not able to address most of them. 

Some intercessors also have this issue – in their case not just picking up issues in the room, but also remotely. Both modes need to be surrendered to be healthy –the channel  does not always need to be “open”.  Its like trying to listen to a radio station that keeps getting interference from 6 other stations.  It needs to be surrendered and tuned only to the right issues.

And even when its valid to pick something up via this empathetic sensing, the Holy Spirit wants to move us into and past that empathy for others' heart and troubles, to the revelation of what heaven thinks about it. What is His voice saying about it?  

An example may help. I saw this play out once at a conference.  I recognised a  colleague, a chaplain from a school I’d taught in, on the other the of the room. I knew she had been through some hard times.  And now from the other side of the room I could feel her pain as I thought about it. My eyes welled with tears of compassion, and I might have reached out in that compassion, if we’d been in proximity. 

But then I thought out the teaching we’d just heard. The speaker had explained how he often prayed for sick people, and often saw healing. He explained his method was counter cultural, because he refused to major on empathy – he could not sit by a hospital bed and empathise in sombre tones. Some may be able to do that, but for him it undermined faith and the dynamic of healing. So instead of that solemn empathy, he would come and release laughter. Joy was the medicine he had to give, and laughter was the container. And indeed many people got healed as he laughed over them. Joy was the higher frequency input they needed, and stepping down into too much empathy was unhelpful for healing. 

Sometimes he’d be asked “can you come and pray, but could you not do the laughing thing?” But for him it was one or other, come with healing laughter, or no point coming at all.   (Notice how Jesus removed the mourners out of the room before raising the girl, and Proverbs affirms that laughter does good like a medicine). In that sense, the new wine can be brash, raw, startling.  Light does not empathize with darkness, and for some that means emotional separation. 

And so I asked Him that day - how do You want me to see that chaplain’s situation? – the one I’d just been in sympathetic tears over. Instantly I saw a field of flowers where she was running and dancing. The sympathetic pain I was feeling gave way to joy. A wave of it went through me, as deep as the tears had been, but in the opposite direction, and I could not help but laughing loudly. 

 (Similarly Paul says, we don’t grieve as the world grieves – we have hope. The emotional cycles need to be genuinely moved through but can happen more quickly - sometimes much more quickly - with this wine in place.) 

Surrender the gift of burden bearing in order to stay effective

So, we sow in tears, reap in joy (Psalm 126). We have to move through the tears, though they be valid, to the joy. 

So … pastoral sensitivity is valuable. Compassion can motivate, and empathy is good. However the sensitivities of the heart are not, in themselves, God’s word on things, and if we’re going to see healing and life and full revelation, we have to keep all that surrendered.  Otherwise empathy can become a gooey substitute, an emotional fly paper that captures all sorts of issues.  

Others don’t start with that pastoral compassion in place, and need it developed. Paul says he learnt compassion some through all of his battles, You can see that in 2 Corinthians 1 – the extreme difficulty leads to revelations of God as “Father of Compassion”. 

Strong leaders often get that added as they mature; the pastoral heart is sometimes carved into place over time, as discussed in part 1. Conversely those gifted with it from the word go, those wired to be pastors, need to realize that while they carry a gift that the body needs, and one that can help catalyse other ministries in their early stages  – its also a gift that can be unbalanced and overloaded, and thus diminished effect, if its not well integrated and laid down.