pastors and vacations

[Guest Gladiator4God]

i am minding my own business, like i said this is a question thats being rolled around by church members.......and there going to the elders about this not me i just posted because i wanted opinions is all

but as my wife stated if the shepard is away most of the time who watches the flock?

[irishcowboy]

vacations,

I believe it would depend on the number of days / weeks agreed upon in the contract......

as with alot of places, it would depend on the longevity of the pastor ( employee ) and the ranking of them.....

I do not believe the pastor at the assembly i attend, has actually taken a vacation..... there have been guest speakers and the pastor was there,

the pastor has been on the road for three days running taking care of buisness with in the church, ministering to a man that was involved in a semi/BMW accident ( the driver of the bmw pulled out in front of him on a highway that is listed at 65, and stopped, the driver of the semi, goes to our church, and is still reliving the incident....

then from there the pastor was at the hospitals, and then out on special visitation, and after running for three days, still was able to allow the Spirit to flow thru him and conduct service .......

this past week, the paster took a couple days to spend with his family, more specificlly, his daughter, who needed him.....

I do not recall where the Bible speaks on vacations, ( other then the 7th year, 14th, 21st, 28th, 35th 42nd, 49th or the 50th )......... i do not recall either where it speaks of retirement......

somehting to think about, not every pastor is an entertainer, some are speakers, some entertain, some are really good at putting people to sleep....

i have seen pastors that were great at keeping the attention of the congregation, but did not preach the truth, others were boring, and even almost insulting, but preached the truth.... seen some that spoke with authority, and spoke the truth, and stepped on peoples toes, and got fired for doing such, even thou they did keep the attention of the congregation......

what do you want your pastor to do????

me?? i want mine to teach the truth, if i get my toes stepped on, so be it, preach the truth.... for his sake and mine.......

if he takes a vacation, then great, i will support him in taking a vacation, for i know the schedual that he keeps.... if vacation time is not in his contract, and he wants a day off, then i will support him in taking time for himself and his family......

things are not always as they seem..... I know that our head pastor handles more then his share of load.... and i know the asociate pastors also carry more then their load for the church......

remember this, statistically speaking, ( in and out of the church, in and out of any organization ) about 95 % of the work is done by about 5 % of the people...... so, what are the other 95 % of the people doing???? Where are they??? are they on vacation????? probably......

whos church is it?????? is it the pastors??? yours??? or the Lords??????

maybe the pastor needs some assistance, other then the other pastors..... maybe he needs some one to assist in the hospital visits..... or the home visits.... or even assistance in praying for each and every member of the congregation....

the pastors job is a never ending job......one that has no retirement from what i have found in the Bible.....

be supportive..... maybe some of the congregation can even work up a lesson to be taught, or preached... as in a lay service......

are we pew warmers????? or are we servants????

who are we to serve????

did you realize that biologically, the shepherd of the flock can not produce more sheep??? nope, that is not the shepherds job.... the shepherd is to raise the sheep so that they can go out and produce more sheep..... but if the sheep are too lazy to get up off their backsides, the flock will dwendle down.. for there will be no sheep, producing more sheep.......

if the pastor, recruits one person into the congregation a year, and 10 die each year, you have a loss.....

if each member recruits one person into the congregation in a year, the congregation will double, or almost double with those that have died ....... ( died = gone home )....

we have two things we have to do here on this earth...

the first is to get saved.......

once a person gets saved, accepts the give of salvation, then their next job is to guide and deliver others to the Lord for salvation...... if we are saved, and not leading others to salvation, then we are wasting our time... we might as well go home now, and let some one else that is leading people to the Lord have our seat in the pew...

if we are not leading folks to the Lord, then we are wasting air, water, food, space, and well, wasting away, and will loose that which we have been given.....

we all have talents, what are you doing with yours????

we all have been called, are we listening and obeying? or are we ignoring the call?????

mike

[ColleenLovesMischief]

I have to add this. What about taking vacations when it is obvious the congragation sufferes while he is doing so. P.S our pastor has to basically be forced to do hospital visits. It's a small church too about 25 regular atendees. He goes on vacation and the churches budget suffers. Doesn't make sense. And I believe that the church belongs to the Lord and what happens in it should be dictated by the bible and the congragation should know what is going on.

[homebild]

If you examine the Gospels you will find that Jesus very often took time to get away from those He ministered to and even from His disciples and apostles.

If a Pastor spends all his time always giving to the sheep and not taking time for himself and for his own quality time alone with the Lord, where will the Church then be?

[ColleenLovesMischief]

I don't think Jesus left his sheep for 2 weeks at a time though.............let alone took at least 14 weeks of vacation a year. If he did he never would have accomplished what he did.....................plus the disciples handled the problems when Jesus wasn't there. Theyt didn't always say wait until He got back. 2 weeks is a long time to wait for a pressing problem.

[irishcowboy]

Has anyone approached the Pastor about his "excessive " vacation times????

do it biblicly...... do not openly admonish him...... please inquire about this in private, then, if he rejects your inquiry, or ignores you, then take another in the church and go to him..... and so forth....

do this out of love, not anger, you have already vented anger, and frustrations......

if you let this stay in you, with out talking to the pastor, you will be letting it build inside you.... there may be a simple logical explanation and it may be taken totally all wrong.......

as a young man told me one day, when some one elses attitude was getting to me....... " DONT LET THEM LIVE RENT FREE IN YOUR MIND "

satan is good with that, he lets some little petty thing that some one does, build and build and build from a pimple to a mountain in our minds..... this turns a minor disagreement into anger and bitterness, and that is like cancer, the longer it goes unchecked, the larger it grows, the larger it grows... the more anger we have, and the more bitterness we have and well, it kills us, and the congregation, cause then it comes out the mouth in gossip and gossip may start as truth, but almost always ends up getting twisted and then it becomes lies....

gossip never helps a situation, always hinders.... never edifys, or exaults, but tears down.....

take this befor the pastor, and if he is not receptive, then take a second person from the congregation with you, and if he is still not receptive, then it may be time for a recall vote.... before the entire congregation.....

mike

[ColleenLovesMischief]

Recall vote isn't likely since he was never voted in to begin with............In his eyes it is his church. I'm trying to get a few people together, but I anticipate his response already. He will say nothing is going to change, and probably cut more youth funding.

[irishcowboy]

when the truth is rejected, when the wrong doing is continuing to go on, even after corrective messures havebeen taken, in accordance with the Bible, then the next step would be to depart from that house, shaking the dust, and take the youth where they can be fed and nurtured, raised and prepared for life with Christ.....

please do not chance the lives of the youth over someones personal pride, if the people are being neglected, if the flock is not being cared for, then it is time to get a new shepherd, whether it is a new one for that pasture or moving the flock to another pasture....

mike.

[Guest Gladiator4God]

as i said b4 there is a group of people going to talk to him about all the vacations on his return and i belive they will do it biblically and i will restate i will not be part of that group i just wanted opinons is all

[Guest Gladiator4God]

i just got in from my church and would just add since the pastors absence things have gotten worse people take things into there own hands and one faction wars with another, its ashame i am just sitting back though i even had one guy get into my wifes face last tues night.......i am going to discuss manners with him soon