Juan Sánchez: Pastors Need Thick Skin and Soft Hearts

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Juan Sanchez
And so one of the things that I would say is we need to develop a thick skin and a soft heart. We need to be able to understand we are to endure evil, right? We’re to bear and to forbear. And so we have to be willing to take the hits.

Juan Sanchez
So one of the things I would say to young pastors starting off, number one, the most important thing is your personal faith. You’re a Christian, first and foremost, secondly, understand that you can always find another church. You don’t want to have to look for another family. So care well for your family. Understand what it means to love your family well, that’s your first congregation. And then understand who you are, personally and personality wise and psychologically, we all approach things in different ways. Some of us are prone toward workaholism, some of us are prone toward sloth, and some of us use different kinds of spiritualized language to excuse our workaholism or our sloth. And so figure out who you are and fight against those tendencies. But then, love the church. Love the church, not the idea of the church. So sometimes, as young pastors, we love the idea of the church and we want to pastor a church in our mind, and we’re not pastoring the church that we’re with. So love the people you’re with, not the people you wish you were with. And then the other thing is, is just preach the Word. Everything else can fall by the wayside, but the ministry of the word is the foundation upon which Jesus is building his church. So give yourself to the ministry of the word, to be faithful, and then love the people. Love the people. Well, be honest. Help. Ask them for help when you need help. And then, here’s a really important component, starting off to Timothy two, two, begin your ministry with the understanding that you won’t always be there. So seek to raise up faithful men who are able to teach, who will train others also. So start from the beginning to build a gospel legacy. So if the Lord calls you away in 123, years, or if you’re there 2030, years, whenever you leave, you will leave a gospel legacy. I grew up in the Roman Catholic Church, and so I came to faith in crisis 17. And so I didn’t grow up with all the jargon and the lingo that Christians talk about and so very quickly. I mean, at at 17, I was in boot camp in San Diego, and I just was reading my Bible, and went to first Southern Baptist Church of San Diego, and then came back to University of Florida as a midshipman. And I thought, You know what? Since the Lord drew me to himself through student ministry, I’m just going to help it at church. And so I was helping at a church, and I was on a career to be a naval officer, and I realized, you know, this is what I want to do. So I didn’t have the language of call to ministry or how things work. Didn’t have a church or pastor speaking to my life. I just had a real strong sense this is what I want to do. And so I relinquished my scholarship, finished my enlistment, and then came back to University of Florida and started serving in a church, and it was really more like an evolution, yeah. I mean, as a young pastor, the biggest mistake that I made that I remember, because I made a lot of them, but probably one of, one of one of the biggest mistakes I made was just assuming that if I was faithful in preaching the Word, the Lord would bless the word in a way that the church would grow, Christians would grow, unbelievers would come to faith in Christ. And I learned very quickly that the word cuts both ways. The word builds up and it tears down, and especially if you go in a place that has a history and a tradition. As you’re preaching the Word, you may begin to preach a word in such a way that people aren’t accustomed to, and that’s going to begin to cut away at certain man made traditions and other kinds of things. And so you want to be faithful, you want to be slow, you want to be loving, and you want to bring the people along from where they are to where they are, where Jesus wants them to be, to ultimately present them completing Christ. Probably one of the hardest things in pastoral ministry as a young pastor is when you first face opposition, you think, I’m faithful, I’m preaching the word. What does anyone have against this, but Satan will seek to distort, confuse and divide the congregation. People are possessive about certain ministries, and when we’re young, we’re not necessarily alert to all those things, and we tend to have thin skin. And so one of the things that I would say is we. Need to develop a thick skin and a soft heart. We need to be able to understand we are to endure evil, right? We’re to bear and to forbear, and so we have to be willing to take the hits understanding that we don’t know why people oppose us. We don’t know why they’re having these issues. We don’t know why they say the things that they’re saying, but understand the cliche, and it is so cliche, but it is so true, hurting people, hurt people, and so rather than react, because I think this is a culture that we’re in, is a culture of emotional reactivity. What people need is a stable Shepherd, someone who’s not swayed by every opinion, someone who’s not destroyed by a simple criticism, but someone who is able to stand firm, to be stable and to understand, just like someone like a loving parent. You know when, when your three year old says, I hate you, to understand, okay, you don’t hate me, and you know, I love you, but obviously I need to care for you in a unique way right now. And so just thinking the best of people, not presuming the worst. And it’s hard work not presuming the worst, thinking the best of people, and probably one of the hardest things I have had to learn in ministry is the difference between Second Timothy two and Second Timothy three, where in Second Timothy two, Paul says the Lord’s servant must be patient. We’re seeking to lead people to repentance that the Lord may grant them a knowledge of the truth. And then in second Timothy three, where Paul warns against those who are always learning and never able to arrive at the knowledge of the truth, and so that that discernment between those who are hurting, those who need real shepherding care, and those who are wolves. And again, we have to know ourselves sometimes that we’re we have thin skin. We very quickly label someone a wolf, or if we are conflict avoiders, we’re very unwilling to label someone a wolf, and so we just need to know ourselves. And that’s again, that’s why plurality of elders is just so wise and helpful. Pastoral ministry is hard. It’s the second hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life. The hardest thing has been parenting, but but pastoral ministry is extremely hard because in many ways, it’s a lot like parenting. But what you have to realize is oftentimes, we struggle because we’re doing things in our own strength, and we’re to find our strength in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, Paul says something really fascinating to me that’s challenging. He says, I do everything by the grace of God, and I work harder than anyone. So there’s that, that tension of everything we do, we do by God’s grace, but we do work hard. And so the reality is, is that we can burn ourselves out when we’re pursuing the wrong ends with the wrong type of power. And so we need to learn to rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. The reality is, though, that sometimes we have difficulties from the outside. You know, Paul says, all who desire to live godly in Christ, Jesus will be persecuted. There’s that reality. There’s also, as Paul says, the burden of the church, or in his case, the churches, there’s just a real burden for caring for people when you not only have to care for your own situation, your own family, your own needs, but also the needs of the members of the congregation. It’s a heavy emotional weight that should drive you to prayer. Should drive you to your needs. It should drive you to dependence upon the Lord. But what’s really important that I’ve learned,

Juan Sanchez
I wish I had learned it sooner, is that you need other brothers around you. I don’t think it’s an accident. When the Scripture talks about pastors, it’s always in the plural. And so from my from my perspective, I think all pastors should seek to raise a plurality of elders around them. And if you don’t have that, seek faithful pastors around you in the area where you’re shepherding, and spend time together, encourage one another, pray for one another, and then if you’re at the point where you don’t know what to do, Paul says in Romans chapter one, verses 13 through 15, the fact that He was compelled to preach the gospel, and that’s been really significant for me. I’m compelled to do this. There’s nothing else I want to do, nothing else I desire to do. And so if you’re at a point where there are options, pastoral ministry is not a vocational option. It’s not. An option among several. We’re compelled to do this because we’re set apart by the Spirit of God to do this, and the Lord will equip us to do this ministry. And it could just be that you may need a vacation, you may need a sabbatical, but don’t be afraid to ask for help from other pastors, from the pastors that serve alongside of you, or even from the church, be honest with your congregation. Just let them know I’m I’m at a place where I’m not in a place of good health. And for the sake of your ministry, for the sake of my ministry, I need you all to pray for me number one, so invite the church into that that situation, and I need you all to help me find some time where I can spend some time in pray and refresh so that I can come back well and so long term, those rhythms are so important, of rest and work, the regular weekly rhythms, but then times of vacation, times away, All those kinds of things show our utter dependence upon the Lord and and if you have a wife, a godly wife, you know, seeking counsel from her, as well as seeking counsel from other faithful men in the congregation. But don’t go at it alone. Don’t do it in your own strength. Trust in the Lord.