Friday evening was our Conference’s Commissioning and Ordination Service.

Here’s what our Bishop prayed over our newly-commissioned pastors:

Pour out your Holy Spirit upon [Name].

Send him/her now  

to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ,

to announce the reign of God,

and to equip the church for ministry,

in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Tucked right there in the middle is a succinct job description.

In three words, here’s the key to what we’re to do as pastors: proclaim, announce and equip.

Later in the service there is an expanded version of this. We’ll examine that next weekend.

But those three verbs are the core of our pastoral responsibilities.

Question for pastors: What do you need to dial back in order to have more time and energy to proclaim, announce and equip?

Question for everybody else: What can you do to help you pastor be better at her/his primary call to proclaim, announce and equip?