{"id":821565,"date":"2024-02-21T05:00:42","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T11:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?p=821565"},"modified":"2024-05-25T08:58:22","modified_gmt":"2024-05-25T13:58:22","slug":"just-some-thoughts-about-my-pastoral-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/just-some-thoughts-about-my-pastoral-heroes\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Some Thoughts about My Pastoral Heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I grow older, I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about my pastoral heroes\u2014both those still living and those now with the Lord. Here are some thoughts that come to mind:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n
      \n
    1. These men are some of the most prayerful men I know.<\/b> Prayer is in their DNA.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
    2. These prayerful men are also most committed to Scripture reading and memorization.<\/b> The Word of God just drips from their lips.<\/span><\/li>\n
    3. These prayerful, Scripture-saturated men are some of the godliest people I have ever met. <\/b>They\u2019re sinners, too, but never have I heard them cross lines with their words or seen them transgress boundaries with their actions.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
    4. These prayerful, Scripture-saturated, godly men are deeply committed to their family.<\/b> You just know that they see their family as the gift of God they are privileged to lead. Their family adores them, too.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
    5. These prayerful, Scripture-saturated, godly, family-focused men are also some of the most evangelistic people I\u2019ve ever known.<\/b> It\u2019s fun to watch, actually, how these brothers naturally and passionately move a conversation to Jesus and the gospel.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
    6. These prayerful, Scripture-saturated, godly, family-focused, evangelistic men are also some of the most Great Commission-minded leaders I\u2019ve met. <\/b>These men have hearts that break over their lost neighbors <\/span>and <\/span><\/i>over unreached peoples. They make time to travel overseas, and they also call out the called to the nations in their pastoral ministries.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
    7. These prayerful, Scripture-saturated, godly, family-focused, evangelistic, Great Commission-minded men are dedicated to discipling other young men.<\/b> That is, they do not keep their lives to themselves; they instead pour their lives into the next generation. They can name the men they\u2019re investing in.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
    8. These prayerful, Scripture-saturated, godly, family-focused, evangelistic, Great Commission-minded, disciple-making men rely on the Spirit.<\/b> All the men I\u2019m thinking of today speak often of the power of the Holy Spirit. They do not hesitate to talk about and rely on God\u2019s presence and empowerment within them.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
    9. These prayerful, Scripture-saturated, godly, family-focused, evangelistic, Great Commission-minded, disciple-making, Spirit-led men also recognize the reality of spiritual warfare.<\/b> It\u2019s interesting, really, how consistent it is among them\u2014all these men understand that a supernatural enemy wants to devour them. They don\u2019t live in fear of the enemy, but they are ever aware of his arrows.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
    10. \u00a0<\/span>These prayerful, Scripture-saturated, godly, family-focused, evangelistic, Great Commission-minded, disciple-making, Spirit-led, warfare-aware men deeply want to finish well.<\/b> Some already have finished well, of course, and others realize that the finish line is not getting farther away. What\u2019s most powerful to me is their commitment to fight for godliness all the way to the end. They pray, I suspect, something similar to one of the seven prayers one of my pastoral heroes prays each day: \u201c<\/span>that I would do nothing that would give the Adversary an opportunity to mock my Lord<\/span><\/a>.\u201d<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      I realize I\u2019ve just piled up the characteristics here, but I\u2019m simply reporting what I\u2019ve seen. My pastoral heroes follow(ed) God with all their heart, their soul, and their mind (Matt 22:37)\u2014and every area of their lives reflects the Father. Their commitment is hardly a \u201chit and miss\u201d commitment; they\u2019re all in.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      God, help me to do the same. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As I grow older, I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about my pastoral heroes\u2014both those still living and those now with the Lord. Here are some thoughts that come to mind: These men are some of the most prayerful men I know. Prayer is in their DNA.\u00a0 These prayerful men are also most committed to Scripture…","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":821566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"0","publish_post_category":"1","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,175,14796,180,18470],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-821565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers","category-grow","category-monday-wednesday-featured","category-outreach-and-evangelism","category-prayer-grow"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nJust Some Thoughts about My Pastoral Heroes | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As I grow older, I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about my pastoral heroes\u2014both those still living and those now with the Lord. 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