The greatest pastor I know

I wonder how many of my pastor friends will read this post wondering if their name is mentioned. Maybe the title was a good way to get them to read our blog!

One of the obvious challenges that comes with the battle against cancer is medical bills. Let me first of all say that I have never been so thankful for health insurance. I know that we all complain about the high cost of medical insurance, but if you ever go through a major medical crisis such as cancer you will learn to be thankful for it. Although insurance has helped us greatly, there are still major medical bills to be paid. So, before paying our first round of medical bills I did my due diligence and checked with one of the facilities about a pastoral discount that we have received in the past. We have been eligible for the discount before as I am a licensed minister in full-time vocational ministry. Unfortunately, I was told that the discount no longer applies to family members and only to the pastor himself. So this time, they asked me if my wife, the patient, was a pastor as well. My immediate response, and I guess the technical and/or legal truth, was that she is not a pastor. As a result, she is not eligible for the pastoral discount.

A few days later, I was telling my parents about the new protocol for the pastoral discount. I told them that they had asked me if Heather was a pastor. My mom didn't miss a beat and asked, "Did you tell them that, yes, she is a pastor? Just tell them to go read her blog and they will understand that she is very much a pastor." I don't think that my mom was encouraging me to lie, but she was making a very clear point that Heather could be considered just as much of a pastor as anyone.

The more I have thought about that, the more I agree. She may not be a pastor in the traditional definition of the word ("a minister in charge of a Christian congregation"), but she fits the bill for other definitions of the word ("shepherd" or "having spiritual charge over a person or group").

First of all, she is copastor of our family of four. In fact, she is probably a greater pastor to our family in many ways than I am.

Secondly, she pastors a group of kids every day. If you know her, you know that she takes that mission field very seriously, and she is an amazing shepherd to that flock.

Heather is also a pastor to a group of people that seek out our marriage ministry for encouragement and advice. You know her story and have followed her journey through our website and this blog. Many of you have seen her live out her testimony in the most difficult of circumstances in public. There is now a group of people that would probably say that Heather's testimony has pastored them through some dark days of their own lives.

Finally, she is now pastoring all of us through her attitude and strength as she fights breast cancer with amazing faith and courage.

Pastor is probably not the correct word to be using here, but I hope that you can see that we can all be pastors in some sense of the word. I know that I can only hope to be as good of a pastor as my wife. She is the greatest pastor that I know.

Rusty