A traveller was walking along a beach when he saw a woman scooping up starfish off the sand and tossing them into the waves. Curious, he asked her what she was doing. The woman replied, “When the tide goes out, it leaves these starfish stranded on the beach. They will dry up and die before the tide comes back in, so I am throwing them back into the sea where they can live.” The traveller then asked her, “But this beach is miles long, and there are hundreds of stranded starfish. Many will die before you reach them – do you really think throwing back a few starfish is going to make a difference?” The woman picked up a starfish and looked at it, then she threw it into the waves. “It makes a difference to this one,” she said (The Starfish Story, by Loren C.Eisley). 

Each year, churches are busy with events or programs for Good Friday and Passover. We know that the centre of it all is to proclaim the meaning of the death and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why was Jesus Christ crucified? Why did he suffer so much by the shedding of his blood? Why was he raised from the dead? What does it have to do with me? How should I respond to it? I am not going to answer those questions in this article as I believe that your pastors are working hard to answer them in the upcoming services.  

Instead, I want to use this time to encourage all of us who sit under the pulpit, the church members, the “usual” Christians. Do not get me wrong here. I understand that most of us are involved in church ministries, some even do more than one. Without undermining other ministries, pastors, however, are unique. In the Old Testament, a prophet is someone who speaks on behalf of God: a spokesperson or mouthpiece of God. Moses was the mouthpiece leader to the Israelites; Nathan was the mouthpiece adviser to king David. Pastors are also the mouthpieces of God who speak God’s word so that we live a good life in His presence in holy reverence, walk in His path, love Him, serve Him with everything we have, and obey His commandments (Deut. 10:12-13).

In the fight with the Amalekites, Moses’ hands grew weary (Ex. 17:12). In the New Testament, Paul toiled and went without sleep, food, water, nor proper clothing (2 Cor. 11:27). Ultimately, our Savior Jesus was fully man and fully God who felt all the same things: hunger, thirst and exhaustion. Even worse, Jesus was lonely when his brothers and sisters questioned and did not believe in Him (Mt. 13:55-56, Jn. 7:5). The climax was before his death, crying out with a loud voice saying “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt. 27:46). If people in the past and Jesus Himself were not immune to exhaustion and loneliness, then pastors are not either. 

You might wonder why I began with the starfish story. God’s intervention often consists of empowering His people, both corporately as a church and sometimes individually to rescue the lost. I am not sure whether you see yourself as the woman in the story who takes tangible works to rescue one “starfish” at a time. But at least, allow me to assume that you must belong to a church, and to believe that your church is led by a pastor who acts like the woman in the story, who is lonely and has a long way to go.  

Let me share six practical ways we can serve our pastors in rescuing the “starfish:” Pray, Ask, Samak, Trust, Obey, and Rest. 

1. Pray: Start with this. Pray specific prayers. Paul made specific appeals to his brothers and sisters in fervent prayers to God so that he will be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, his service will be acceptable, and God may open to them in preaching the Word clearly and boldly (Rm. 15:30-21, Col. 4:3-4). Pastors need specific prayers that goes beyond generic “bless our pastor.” Pray with them, or if you are still not comfortable, bring them in your personal prayers. For instance, prayer for his love to Jesus, prayer for his marriage and family, prayer for his heart purity so that he will not fall into temptation, prayer for God’s wisdom in directing the church, prayer for teaching sound doctrine, prayer for responding to negative criticism and false expectations, prayer for help and blessings (Jn. 21:15-17, Eph. 5:25, 1 Tim 3:4, Ps. 24:3-4, Jms. 1:5, Tit. 1:9, Prov. 26:4, 2 Cor. 1:11). 

2. Ask: Ask pastor-centred questions. How often do we come to our pastors with a self-centred question, “Can you help me? Can you pray for me?” Just imagine if 50 of us ask him only 1 question! Then, we also need to repent in having expectations that our pastors have all the right answers. Do you see my point here? Can you imagine our pastors’ position? So, please understand this, our pastors are also human like us. So, limit asking a self-centred question. Instead, ask pastor-centred questions. A simple example, in relation to the previous application, “How can I pray for you?”

3. Samak: The psalmist said, “Though he falls, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord grasps his hand in support and upholds him” ([AMP] Ps. 37:24). Samak is the original Hebrew word of support. As we easily forget common vocabulary, I introduce the word samak with the hope that we can remember it longer. The psalmist tells us that the Lord will samak His people, including our pastors. However, as humans, we need real samak which we can feel, grab, see and touch with our physical bodies. Hence, please samak your pastors in anything you can: prayers, thoughts, time, and even financially, and hope that they can experience God’s samak through our service.

4. Trust: We cannot samak someone we do not trust. “And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding” (Jer. 3:15). In the church you belong to now, you need to trust the Lord that your pastors are His shepherds to nurture you as the flocks of God.

5. Obey:” “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you” (Heb. 13:17). This is hard. To obey and to submit are things we do not like. This is where we need to remember the previous application, trust. If we trust in the Lord, we can also be grateful in our obedience to our pastors as God’s appointed to oversee our souls, to shepherd us. A positive correlation is available between our obedience and our pastors’ joy: when we obey, they do their ministry in joy. See this as a practice of our obedience to the true Leader, our Lord Jesus Christ.

6. Rest: What if we have prayed, asked, samak, trusted, and obeyed them, but all seem to fail? We tend to find more ways to fight this. Be very careful here; do not try to be smart. All in all, we do not know the full picture of what our pastors are facing. One thing we can do: we need to bring him rest in Jesus’ invitation, “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest” ([MSG] Mt 11:28). Your church needs to give your pastors real rest. We need to allow them solitude on their days off, retreat and sabbatical leaves.

Friends, how are you caring for your pastors? Their responsibilities in teaching the Word and shepherding the flocks of God are hard. Pastors are human; pastors are under the most pressure; pastors get weary; and pastors are lonely. I pray and hope that the PASTOR practical ways encourage you to samak your pastors. 

Going back to the starfish story, Jesus “tossed His life” by the shedding of His own blood to rescue us, the dying “starfish.” If pastors are the woman in the story, I was once the “starfish” she tossed. Now, I see myself as the traveller who instead of just watching and questioning the woman, supports her in rescuing the “starfish.” Friends, would you please join me to samak pastors?