Two Personal Areas to Which Pastors Must Pay Careful Attention

We pastors are constantly looking at things through the lenses of shepherding. We think about how certain events or happenings will affect our congregants. The longer we pastor the more ingrained this becomes in us. This is a good, even necessary, thing in order for us to be good pastors to our people.

However, as the apostle Paul is speaking to a group of pastors and elders from Ephesus, in what will probably be his last time to communicate with them or see them, he begins with another emphasis. In addition to having them focus on the flock God has given them to shepherd, he tells them one more group to keep watch on: themselves. In Acts 20:28 Paul tells them,

Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

Notice what precedes the call to watch the flock. He pleads with them to pay careful attention to themselves. They are called to keep a close eye out on their own hearts and lives. In order for shepherds of God’s flock to faithfully shepherd they must first keep a close eye on themselves.

What does it mean to pay careful attention to yourselves? It certainly entails the importance of walking with the Lord daily in personal devotions. It includes keeping a close watch on our doctrine and theology. It means we seek to be obedient to the Lord and His commands in all we do. But I have discovered two areas of my own heart where I need to pay careful attention to myself. I doubt that I am alone in these two areas. I want to be completely transparent in hopes it will help other pastors as well. I must pay careful attention to myself in the areas of 1. being in the inner-ring and 2. platform envy. Read More