Your Online Pastor Doesn’t Love You the Way Your Local Pastor Does
BY WES VAN FLEET | Local church pastors used to be highly respected, but now they are just one voice that is often drowned out by the guy with multiple books, podcasts, and conference appearances.
I will never forget the day I sat across from a young man in our church and was tempted to say, “Online Pastor [Fill-in-the-Blank] doesn’t love you the way I do!” I had been discipling him for a couple years, walked through a host of circumstances with him, and cared deeply for him. As his pastor, I took seriously the call to shepherd him as an under-shepherd of the Chief Shepherd (1 Pet. 5:1-4). That day was a culmination of months and months of time spent caring for him.
There was a specific danger before this young man, and I had to warn him…