As a pastor, one of the things we cannot escape from is the ministering of God’s word to our congregation on a more personal level. I do preach regularly but after the preaching, a lot of discipleship happens through VICTORY GROUPS and consultations. ( I deliberately did not use the term counseling since I don’t have a counseling degree and I don’t intend to counsel people professionally.)

So when well meaning people/couples come to us asking for help or consultation, we as your pastors know where our limit is. ( Well some pastors don’t, so this might serve as a good guideline on what we as pastors cannot do for our congregation)

1. We cannot save our congregation.

Only Jesus saves. We cannot save their family, their marriages or their business. Jesus does that not us. Only Jesus can save us from ain so we must always remind ourselves that we serve the Savior and we are not the savior.

2. We cannot solve their problems.

Sin is too ingrained in the lives of the people and in our culture and it would take forever if we are to solve it for everyone. The Holy Spirit is the only one capable of changing the hearts of people and solving their problem.

So what can we do?

What we can do is serve.

By the grace of God we can love and serve this people by telling them the story of the gospel and the redemptive work of Christ. We can remind them of the sanctifying work of the Spirit that can be achieved through faith and not by the flesh. We can remind them that apart from Christ, they are and they can do NOTHING.