October, or “Pastor Appreciation Month,” is nearing its end, a wonderful occasion started by the late Reverend Dr. H.B. London, Focus on the Family’s “Pastor to Pastors.”

H.B. stepped away from the demands of day-to-day pastoring in Pasadena, California, after his cousin, Focus founder Dr. James Dobson, asked him to come to Colorado Springs and minister to those ministering to millions. Dr. Dobson saw the pressure many were under. His own father had been a pastor, and he understood full well the challenges they faced.

Over 30 years later, the shepherds of our churches remain in culture’s crosshairs. Many are bi-vocational, juggling spreadsheets during the day and preparing sermons at night or making hospital and home visits whenever the schedule will allow.

If you haven’t recently thanked your pastor, this would be a good time to do it. A simple card and heartfelt word would be greatly appreciated and go a very long way. 

But there’s a whole legion of pastors many of us appreciate for whom no card or note will be necessary. These giants of the faith don’t need our praise. In fact, they don’t require anything.

These are the saints of yesterday, pastors who were rewarded their rest – and yet continue to preach to us from beyond the grave.

For older Christians who grew up in the Church, there’s likely a pastor who comes to mind – that minister who complemented your parents’ teachings and who might have seemed larger than life to your younger self.

Joseph Lawlor was my childhood pastor. He’s long gone, but I still think of him. To be fair, Pastor Lawlor was brusque and direct. He’d fuss at people for standing in the back of the church while he preached. When he retired, I portrayed him in a school “This is Your Life” production. We later became friends. I found his sincerity and integrity inspiring.

I credit him with nurturing and shaping my new and tender Christian faith. Perhaps the most powerful thing he did for me was model what a good shepherd looked like. 

There are a whole host of other pastors who continue to teach and preach, even though they’ve been gone for years – even decades and centuries. This is the power of a changed life that carries and manifests the teaching. It’s also the power of the sermon, whether recorded or transcribed. This is also the reach of books, tools that capture and preserve unique thoughts and insights. Books might be inanimate things – but they animate, inspire, and instigate action.

Just the other day I was listening to a message preached by the late Warren Wiersbe who pastored Moody Church in Chicago. The message was decades old, but his perspective was fresh.

“There are two outward tests of a person’s character,” he observed. “Find out what makes him laugh, and find out what makes him cry.”

Every person who’s dating should remember that one.

Do you ever get frustrated with the way lies are traded as truth, especially during this political campaign? I just heard Dr. Adrian Rogers, who died in 2004, and who pastored Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, say:

“A Christian with a testimony is never at the mercy of an infidel with an argument.” Dr. Rogers was right.

Dr. Bryant Kirkland was the longtime minister of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City between 1962 and 1987. Thanks to podcasting, I recently heard him give a convicting message on the fragility of life.

“Even with the increasing longevity of man’s life, his span on earth is not long enough to fulfill our heart’s desires,” he suggested. Dr. Kirkland was echoing a reminder from C.S. Lewis, another influential deceased “pastor” who left behind this golden nugget:

If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.

William Bell Riley was another pastor of another era. Born in 1861, “W.B.” was nicknamed “The Grand Old Man of Fundamentalism.” He was once asked how he knew a pastor was really preaching and not just giving a speech. 

“It’s when my heart is so warmed by what has been said that I must go out and do what has been assigned,” he stated.

Then there’s the late Vance Havner, a delightful itinerant preacher whose timeless messages from decades ago still help frame and explain life in 2024:

The devil is out to disable the body and deceive the mind and discourage the spirit. He tells sinners they’re saved, and he tells Christians they’re lost, and he gets everybody upset. 

Vance Havner would have enjoyed Pastor Appreciation Month, but I don’t think he would have wanted to linger for too long on any celebration. 

Citing 2 Corinthians 11:2, Havner stated, “A true pastor must not only feed the flock, he must warn the flock. He must not only be zealous, but jealous.”

Whether still on earth or in Heaven, we give thanks for our pastors.

Image credit: Focus on the Family / Love Worth Finding / Wikipedia