Praising the Pastors Spouse

English Standard Version
But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Ruth 1:16

• ·    She was supportive the day I told her I was leaving a full-time job and part-time ministry to finish my bachelor’s degree and enter the seminary for my master’s degree.
• ·    She was supportive when I asked her to leave the only home that she had ever known, and to go with me to a different state as to pastor a church.
• ·    She is supportive of me when her pastor husband has had a bad day, especially in the times when those that profess to be Christians can be the harshest.
• ·    She is supportive when I joy, but also honest when a sermon did not strike a chord in her.
• ·    She chooses to use her God given talents for our congregation.

Yes, the pastor’s spouse is a special type of person. The type of person that often gives away their family time, their privacy time, their ability to always be financially stable, and their ability to know that their location roots will be long term.

Today I speak to the pastor’s spouse and think of them in the Book of Ruth Text in which Ruth could have gone back to her own land and her own people, but she chose to stay with Naomi and follow her to an unknown land and what would await them. She decided to leave following pagan gods as to follow the God of Israel, the God of all and for all.

Often we think of the pastor’s spouse in regards to the wife, but pastor’s spouse are husbands as well that make the same sacrifices for the sake, for the benefit of their spouse’s ministry. Yes, they follow us to unknown lands, and often embrace themselves in the ministry of their spouse while trying to follow their own paths that God calls them to.

Today, let us lift up the pastor’s spouse in our prayers and let them know that they are a valued ministry partner, whose identity need not be wrapped around the ministry and identity of their spouse. Let our spouses know that they are not hired by the church and everything that they do for the church is of their choice, and their own feeling of ministry call. Let us thank them for all that they give in support and ministry to the congregations to which their spouses are called.

Thank you Lynne for being my partner in life, partner in ministry and my partner in love.

This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.