“Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 11:1

Eugene Peterson once quipped that for many people, “pastors are invisible six days a week and incomprehensible the seventh.”

Rather than taking offense, Peterson admitted there was truth in the observation. Much of pastoral work is invisible.

“The only time that most of the people in our congregations see us at work is when we are leading worship on Sundays. There are few other occasions when we do our work in public—conducting a funeral, blessing a wedding, preaching at the high-school baccalaureate—but when we visit the sick, only the sick person or his family knows of it. When we write a letter only the person who gets it knows. When we pray, only God knows.”

I have thought about this often because of a phrase in my original Terms of Call. The church promised compensation so that I would be “free to devote myself full-time” to ministry.

That phrase has stayed with me.

First, because it reminds me that pastors are not compensated merely to complete religious tasks—to attend meetings, create programs, manage events, or grow an organization. The purpose is to free someone to live a life devoted to the ministry of the Gospel: praying, studying Scripture, shepherding people, and embodying the grace we proclaim.

Second, because it reminds me that my calling is not fundamentally different from yours.

The pastor is not paid to live a special version of Christianity. The pastor is freed to give focused attention to the same life every disciple of Jesus is called to live.

Paul celebrated this in the church of Thessalonica. Ordinary believers lived their faith with such visible conviction that their witness spread throughout the region:

“You became imitators of us and of the Lord… And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.” (1 Thessalonians 1:6–7)

The invisible work of pastoral ministry exists to equip the visible ministry of the whole church.

This is why I have a very ordinary view of pastors—not because the calling is unimportant, but because it was never meant to be a title of elevation. “Pastor” simply means shepherd. And shepherding is the pattern of Christian leadership given to all of us.

Some shepherd a congregation. Others shepherd children, friends, coworkers, neighbors, and communities.

The goal was never a few professional Christians living out the faith on behalf of everyone else.

The goal was always the whole people of God carrying the grace of Jesus into every place they go.