Mammas, Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Pastors
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:14-17
There’s an old country song that implores mothers not to let their babies grow up to be cowboys. After all, “cowboys ain’t easy to love.” They like, “smoky old pool rooms and clear mountain mornings.” “He ain’t wrong; he’s just different.”
And the chorus sings:
Mammas, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys
Don't let 'em pick guitars or drive them old trucks
Let 'em be doctors and lawyers and such
Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys
'Cause they'll never stay home and they're always alone
Even with someone they love
This week at our pastors’ conference, we heard there are 167 pastoral vacancies throughout our national church body. In addition, there are 143 churches without a pastor. That’s up about 20% from six months ago. It’s up over 150% from five years ago.
The main for this, we were told, is that many older pastors have been retiring. In the 70s and 80s, large numbers of pastors graduated from our church body’s seminary in Mequon, WI, classes of 40 or 50 men. In recent years, those numbers have been much smaller, often classes of 20 men.
I don’t write this so you’ll have pity on your pastor. But pastoring isn’t the most attractive or lucrative career. You don’t make a lot of money (that’s obviously not the point). You’re down in the trenches with people at their worst. It can be draining. 80% don’t make it ten years in the ministry. 91% say they’ve experienced burnout from ministry.
Not to mention all the statistics about pastors’ families.
So, why would any mamma want her baby to grow up to be a pastor?
The passage at the beginning of this devotion was written to a man named Timothy. He was a pastor. He followed St. Paul around, learning how to be a pastor from him. But Paul mentions this training began long before he even arrived in Timothy’s hometown of Lystra. “You know those from whom you learned it,” Paul tells Timothy. He wrote earlier in this letter, “I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also” (2 Timothy 1:5). It was the faith Timothy’s grandmother and mother passed down to him that first equipped him to become a pastor.
And it was this faith that motivated Eunice and Lois to encourage Timothy to enter the ministry. Yes, it would be hard. But it would be incredibly worthwhile work. “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction” (2 Timothy 4:2). “He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:9,10).
Everything this Sunday comes together. It’s Mother’s Day. It’s also Good Shepherd Sunday. Mammas, let your babies grow up to be shepherds under the Good Shepherd to lead people to eternal life in his name.
But even if your babies don’t grow up to be pastors, teach them like Eunice and Lois did. Share the faith you have with them so that they will be firmly grounded in Jesus. Show them how to serve alongside pastors so that when they grow, they also serve in God’s kingdom. Teach them the value of eternity over the temporary so that the kingdom of God may continue to grow according to his will.