All to Him I Owe

Certain people ought to be required to wear a label that says,

“Warning: Contents under Pressure.” Nearly every Pastor has applied

pressure on a person and gotten a reaction similar to a bottle of soda

exploding. When that response occurs, one of two things often happens.

Either the Pastor becomes gun-shy and afraid of ever applying pressure

again, or he gives an explosive reply himself and adds pressure to an

already pressurized situation. In order for Pastors to be able to balance

applying the right amount of pressure to people and responding

correctly to their reactions, we must have a solid, biblical understanding of

pressure.

First, we must remember that pressure can be a good thing if it is for the

good of the individual. God is our example for knowing how and when to

apply that kind of pressure—pressure that brings about change in the lives

of others. His chief agent is the Holy Spirit, without which nobody would

ever realize his need for a Savior. What Christian has not found himself

under the conviction of the Holy Spirit and been brought to a place of decision

because of His pressure? James 1:2-4 says that we should rejoice at the pressure

God brings into our lives; it enables us to become what God wants us to be and

is for our good. Unfortunately, Pastors often apply pressure in order to see a

job completed, not for the good of the person involved.

Second, we must know how much pressure to apply to a person. 1 Corinthians

10:13 tells us that God, the master manager of pressure, never

gives us more than we can bear; He always gives the perfect amount.

People don’t come with pressure indicators or warning labels, so how

do we humans know how to give the right amount of pressure?

If we have our peoples good in mind, we will consider the agents of

pressure (i.e., the Holy Spirit, a husband or wife, or assignments at work)

that may already be at work in an individual, outside the workplace. In

other words, we need to keep a ministry mind-set while being a Pastor.

We should not be afraid to ask personal questions in order to get to know

them better and find out what’s really going on in their lives. Knowing,

then, the pressures already going on in a person’s life ought to affect how

much pressure we apply at work. For instance, if I know that one of our people

had a tremendously stressful weekend, I may postpone a

pressure-causing meeting with him until later in the week. Notice that I’m

not removing the pressure, just waiting for the right time to apply it. Our

knowledge of pressures outside of church may allow us to use the pressure

we’re applying to help this person in another area of his life.

But then, how do we know if we’re about to apply too much pressure?

Remember three things. First, a little pain is not a bad thing. Everyone

who exercises regularly knows that there will always be a certain amount

of stretching and pain in order to stay in shape. The same is true in the

lives of individuals: the pain of the pressure keeps people growing, improving,

and learning. The answer is never to remove all pressure. We should

always be tracking the growth of our people to see who needs new pressure

or pressure in a different area to keep them growing. Their growth is the

reward of the Pastor who applies a little pain in the process.

Second, we must remember that each point of pressure must be applied

by someone with an eternal perspective. In other words, we’re not trying to

quickly solve all of our peoples problems or bring him to a place of

perfection all at once. The weightlifter who now bench presses 300

pounds did not start with 300 pounds: he worked with smaller amounts of

weight and added pound by pound as he grew stronger. We must continue

to add pressure to our people but not all at once.

Third, we must make it as easy as possible for our people to let us

know in the right way that they are under pressure. We should keep an

open-door policy, make routine trips into their lives to give them

the opportunity to flag us down and let us know what is going on, ask them

questions on a routine basis, and ask others that work with them how they

are doing. We must be looking for the other areas of pressure in their lives

and keeping good track of them.

In short, in order for us to manage pressure correctly, we must be more

concerned with helping our people grow spiritually than we are with

getting a job done.