I was reading through the book of Judges yesterday when I came upon chapter 17 of the book where a man hired a personal priest/pastor to meet his needs spiritually.

Judges 17:6-13 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.  Now there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah; he was a Levite, and was staying there.  The man departed from the city of Bethlehem in Judah to stay wherever he could find a place. Then he came to the mountains of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, as he journeyed.  And Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?” ¶ So he said to him, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am on my way to find a place to stay.”  Micah said to him, “Dwell with me, and be a father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten shekels of silver per year, a suit of clothes, and your sustenance.” So the Levite went in. Then the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man became like one of his sons to him. So Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and lived in the house of Micah.  Then Micah said, “Now I know that the LORD will be good to me, since I have a Levite as priest!”

I think the verse depicts how we also treat a lot of ministers today whether pastors or priests. We have an expectation that they are readily available for us 24/7. We tend to forget that their main job biblically is not to minister to your needs or be your personal spiritual butler. Ministers are people to who have a life. So what does the Bible say our job is as ministers.

Ephesians 4:11-13 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,  for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,  till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;

The Bible makes it clear that the job of your pastor is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry so that the body of Christ maybe built up. So the next time you find yourself taking your pastor’s time too often because you expect him to be your spiritual butler – and not your spiritual mentor, then think about the dynamic of your relationship.

Same goes with the pastor reading this blog – ask yourself. Am I fulfilling the biblical mandate to equip God’s people for works of service so that the church may be built up or am I just being somebodies spiritual butler?