Everybody pastor of a church faces pressure. The pressure to make the church grow, the pressure to have a healthy cash inflow to fund the work of God in the city, the pressure to balance ministry and family, the pressure to preach a new message week in and week out, the pressure to be pastoral in times when you don’t feel like being pastoral. All this pressure is normal. And this pressure reminds us to hold on to God.

As much as this stresses a pastor, it also reminds me that the leader of this church is not me. That spiritual growth is not about me. The financial health of the church is not about me. Yes I have a responsibility to lead with skillful hands as David wrote in Psalms but ultimately the result comes from God.

Our part is to plant and water but it is God who causes it to grow. We don’t manufacture growth. Our goal is to plant. The reason pressure mounts is because we are trying to make it grow and we can’t.