Pastoring Vs Controlling

What does it mean to pastor someone through something? What does it mean to be pastored? What does it mean to let your Pastor pastor you through your God experiences?

Pastoring is not control. A good pastor will not tell you what to do. And he won't try to do it for you. He will give you wise guidance from the Holy Spirit that will guide you through it, and, if you're lucky, even stretch you uncomfortably a bit.

For a godly, wise pastor, it's ok for you to be in process. He doesn't (and often won't) tell you everything he knows or thinks right away, because he senses you probably can't handle it all at the moment. But he will follow the Holy Spirit's prompting and share with you what you need to hear at that moment, whether you want to hear it or not.

Ever see a hockey player take the puck down the ice? He rarely belts it straight down the ice. No, he keeps it in range of his stick and gives subtle, gentle corrections on each side, so the puck zig-zags down the ice, but generally moves in the right direction overall.

A good pastor does the same thing – giving us loving but bold instruction and even correction when we need it so we keep going in the right direction toward the goal.

It's a privilege and a huge blessing from God to be pastored through our God experiences. We just need to be spiritually mature and humble enough to accept it.