One of the great privileges of the pastor is to shepherd church members through difficult seasons. What can you do as a pastor to help and encourage? 

1. Point them to the Lord. We can and should pray for people. We can and should encourage them. We can and should share biblical truth with them. But their primary relationship is not with us but with the Lord. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee” (Isaiah 26:3).

“Rene, you have stage three cancer.”

My dear wife, Krisy, was seated next to my bed waiting for me to wake up from the biopsy on my throat. We knew this diagnosis was a possibility. In fact, the doctor had said he had “a strong suspicion” that the tumor on my larynx was malignant. But we had hoped and prayed for better news.

Prior to the procedure, I had asked my pastor to gather the staff and deacons and pray for me. In obedience to James 5:14–15, he had anointed me with oil, and several men prayed aloud for my healing.

We are tempted to think that the time in which we live is the worst time in the history of civilization. That’s nonsense. The Bible speaks of a time when “every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 21:25). What is new, however, is the way in which Christians have succumbed to social pressure during such a time. I believe some Christians’ lack of indignation at what we see in our world today is not a sign of their spirituality but of their indifference.