In Praise of the Small Town Pastor

In the scheme of things, you’re unknown. You don’t have a social media following, a blog, a cable network, or conference named after you.

You’re a small town pastor.

You’re the one who welcomed us with smiles to Sunday School.

You’re the one who arrived early, not to study, but to turn on lights and heat, to set up chairs, to scrape ice from slippery walkways and a million-and-one little tasks that needed to be done before the congregation ever arrived.

You’re the one who spent countless evenings discipling our parents so they could teach us.

You’re not a popular conference speaker. I haven’t seen you on any soft-focused, glossy brochures or flashy websites. You’re the one who never wore an earpiece or had a flashy stage. You pastored before the days of high-tech broadcasting, and you rarely traveled beyond the church walls.

You’re not a well known author, though you wrote thousands of sermons in your lifetime. Your sermons, though unread and unpublished, were read by all as you lived them out in front of us. Not perfectly, but humbly.

You’re the one whose reach is not measured in Facebook or Twitter followers. Your reach was actual not virtual. Hands on, authentic, real. You influenced the lives around you because you cared enough to show up. You answered the phone when we had questions, visited our sickbed when we were hospitalized, sat with us as loved ones died.

You’re not the guy driving around in the nicest car in the neighborhood or wearing the on-trend clothes. You sacrificed money for the Lord and for a congregation that is often times uninterested, worldly, critical, and disloyal.

You’re the guy who listened to hours and hours of phone calls and did one-on-one counseling. Your “thanks” was often that people ignored your counsel or just left the church without a word. Or if there was a word, too often it was a drive-by verbal-shooting of all your shortcomings. Awesome.

You’re often over-worked, over-looked, under-paid and under-appreciated.

As far as celebrity Christianity goes, you never made a splash. But you were there for the people around you. You showed up and ministered to us. You loved us enough to tell us the truth, encourage us and point us to Christ. What more could we ask for?

And even if you never receive accolades here on earth, you were content to serve the One who called you. Your reward will be great in heaven, faithful, no-name, small town pastor. Because all of the behind the scenes work WAS seen by the One who matters and your name, in love, was graven in His Hands and on His heart. And your influence has left deep impressions graven on my heart, and now my own children, and someday, by God’s grace, on my children’s children.

Thank you!