Mark Barclay - How to relate to your pastor

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR

I am the pastor of a local flock in Midland, Michigan. I thank God that He has called me to this, according to Ephesians 4:11. He has placed me in the office of pastor to the entire body of Christ. I don't feel as though I am a special person but I do feel that the anointing to pastor is a special one.

As I have pastored and taught in other churches, I have noticed one frustration that seems to be world-wide. "God's people want to properly understand and relate to the man of God whom Jesus has placed over them as pastor, and they know not how . "

Many churches today are non-denominational or interdenominated . What does this mean? This means that one man (pastor) is working hard at gathering many people from various religious backgrounds into one flock, all of which are to speak, think and do the same thing. WHAT A JOB THIS IS!

In the church that I pastor, there is almost every background of religion. As you think on this, you will begin to see how this could cause problems. The greatest of these problems is misunderstanding of what the Bible says a pastor is to do and how God's sheep are to respond to him.

The biblical church, the New Testament church, the church of which Jesus is the head, the church that is governed by Jesus and then the pastor, the church that is governed by the pastor and not the board, is much different in authority and discipline than many of the churches from which our congregation came. Their backgrounds of religion and denominational experience were not the same as the things they now know. What did this do? It caused God's people to become slightly frustrated. Why? Because they could not properly relate to their pastor. What is the solution to this problem? The book called the Bible.

Using the Bible, I have written this book, "Seven Bible Ways to Properly Relate to Your Pastor," to show God's people avenues in the Bible in which they can respond to the pastor God has set in their church. As you read this small book, you will see that God does care for His church and through Jesus, the head, He is still governing it.

I pray that pastors will provide this book for their people to read and that God's people will be set free as they see the avenues to bless, join with and work with God's manthe pastor.

God's people all over the world are looking for ways to bless their pastor. Many want to know their responsibility to God in the way they treat him. They love their pastor and his wife and they want to have a biblical relationship with them but just don't know how.

Enjoy this little book as you examine God's Word. Experience the contentment, pleasure and joy of working closely with Jesus as the head of the church and the man who he has given to perfect you to do the work of the ministry.

Mark T. Barclay

INTRODUCTION

The Lord taught me some very positive things about how to pastor supernaturally. And that's what I want. Don't you want your pastor to be supernatural? I just believed God on how to do things supernaturally. But you know what I found out? As I received those things and started to put them into operation and tried to get out of my mind the background of theologies and ideas of what I was " supposed " to be as a pastor and listened to the Holy Spirit, something happened and it wasn't what I wanted.

I wanted everything to just flow and be productive. But you know , I started to look at some of my prime workers and ministers in the church. They were frustrated. They were having trouble getting things done. Well that sort of bothers you if you're the pastor and you know that they are good people. You know from their past experience that they know what they are doing and that they hear from the Lord. They have been with you long enough that you have confidence in their ministry, which I did, but I started to see them become frustrated. Just tighten up like a knot. It wouldn't flow anymore for some reason. So I went to the Lord (He's the best one to go to, I tell you).

I began to really examine the situation and as I observed, I found that God's people did not know how to relate to me any longer. I had shifted gears on them. I began to think and do things supernaturally and they no longer knew how to relate to that kind of pastor. They were used to me being the typical "follow the format and guidebook" pastor.

(Lord Jesus, please teach me in this matter). You know a pastor can get frustrated real quick if everyone around him is frustrated. If the jobs aren't getting done, people aren't getting saved, there's no healing and the anointing is all bottled up, it can become a real problemand does!

I started hearing things throughout the local church. Little murmurs. Little baaaaas from the sheep. Frustration! Because they did not really know how to relate to the shepherd. Then one got bold enough to come to me and say,

"I love you so much, pastor, and I love you as a man of God and I want to do what is right. I want to do this (what you teach us). I know it's the Bible. You open the Bible and you teach usbut for some reason it's not working for me. I don't know what to do."

They'd say things like,

"I used to go to a denominational church. I went to a church that was different than this. The pastor spent all of his time going from home to home and counseling, and he didn't teach us the things you are teaching us. He didn't expect us to do anything. There was no demand on our lives. And now, all of a sudden, we are here (from that certain fellowship, church, or denomination) in this local church and everything is different. I don't understand why you do this and I don't understand why the ushers do that. Please teach me how to relate to you.

I love you and Vickie so much and I want to be a part of this ministry. I want to do what's right. I want to love you. I want to be able to communicate with you. I want to see in the Bible the right way to treat my pastor."

Do you know what I said? "Um, um, well, golly gee, I don't know what to say." But in my heart I was determined to find out because I was more disoriented about this than he was. I didn't know what to say. I knew what "I" was doing, only because I would go to my prayer closet, open the Bible, and the Holy Ghost would say go do this, and I'd go do it and after I was done, I was back to the Lord for help.

So I began to seek God and His Word for wisdom on this matter. "Father, now you put sheep in the house of the Lord and you have told me to be a good shepherd. Some of the things I am to do is corral them, protect them, teach them and feed them. So please show me in the Bible something that will feed your people and give them avenues that will allow them to relate to Vickie and me as their pastor and, in turn, serve you more effectively."

The Lord showed it to me for the local church. As I taught this message to the church-people would come and say,

"We have never seen anything like that in the Bible.

No one has ever taught us this before."

Let me ask you reader ... in your heart right now, would you like to relate to your pastor? Would you like to know him and his wife? You see, everyone wants to relate to their pastor. You women of the church, don't you want to relate to your pastor and his wife? Get in there and get something to "hold on to." Get to know them. I like what one brother said,

"We are not looking for teaching centers . It is time to have churches."

Well, you know a pastor can just rattle his brains out, spend his life trying to relate to you, and, if you don't know how to relate in return, there is blockage. And, where there is blockage, no anointing flows. And, where no anointing flows, there are still yokes and bondages. Under these conditions, things just aren't going to work.

Some of you pastors, you need to hear this. You are going to be frustrated until you get people to relate to you and work with you ... supernaturally. You have to train them to do the work. You have to equip them to relate to you and work with you. Believe it or not ... they want to work and they want to relate ... but in most cases ... they need a leader.