Dear Sir,
I wish to remain anonymous but feel I must respond to a letter in May’s en entitled ‘caring in the church’
Written by a former pastor’s wife I was deeply saddened by the tone of the letter and what came across as an attack on a young pastor and his wife. As a former ministry wife the writer should be all too familiar with the pressure that our pastors and their families are under.
The biblical design of a pastor is someone supported by the church to dedicate themselves to the preaching and teaching of God’s Word – and although I would expect a pastor to enquire about sick members and show care it seems that if the writer had issue with this then the right thing to do would be to speak to her pastor and share the hurt she felt – writing a letter in the paper is not how we are told in the Bible to solve problems with our brothers ad sisters.
As a pastor’s wife myself I can bare witness to the immense pressure our husbands are under, they are in a daily spiritual battle – wrestling with God to get the message right, fighting the temptations the devil puts in their paths, weeping over their congregation as they plead with the Lord to be at work. It is a huge task our pastors have, a great responsibility that is only made all the more difficult by those who judge and find fault! What I am trying to say to the writer of that letter is this, go to your pastor if you have a problem, but first sit back and ask yourself this ‘am I doing my very best as a member of this church to support and encourage the man God has ordained to be our pastor?’
Are the church supporting his family or is the wife having to work – a pastors wife will not have time to fulfil all the demands this writer seemed to think she should be fulfilling if she has to have a job of her own? (I am not saying it is wrong for a pastor’s wife to work outside the home, but that it should be considered when placing expectations upon her).
Anyway, I just hope and pray that we will all be less judgmental of our pastors and their wives and more supportive and prayerful. I thank the Lord for our own church which has been so supportive of us over the years.
Yours respectfully,
Editors Note: Now and then we publish letters which anonymously point out deficiencies in the churches in order to flag up the kinds of failures we are all prone to make. We tend not to report on moral scandals in evangelical churches and if we never mention our failures we can give the wrong impression. Also, it is sometimes right for Christians to vent righteous anger as the Lord Jesus did in the temple. If any churches are convicted by such anonymous letters of failing their members then we need to have the grace to acknowledge this and repent and make amends.
