Page 80 - Pastoral Ministries -Student Textbook

The pastor has a responsibility of teaching and encouraging young widowers to see to it that they help
themselves.

Concerning the aged widowers, if they are people with great complications that they cannot help themselves,
the church has the responsibility of taking care of them especially if they are left alone. We know that they are
vulnerable just like other vulnerable people that God teaches us to look after.

Pastoral ministry toward aged people

The pastor as shepherd should make sure that older people receive great attention just as the young generation.

This passage encompasses everyone who is old.
Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in
endurance. Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or
addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their
husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject
to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. (Titus 2:1-5, NIV)

The role of a pastor to both old men and women is to teach. They are to be taught to be people of good
character, people who live an exemplary life so that those who come behind them may learn from them. The
characteristics that old men are taught to have are like those who are to be overseers (1 Tim 3) and likewise the
older women to that of a wife of an overseer. This clearly shows that all members of the church must have what
the overseer has in order to serve God faithfully in their area of life.

As people grow, there are complications that come along with old age. The church must be able to have
program that can give aid to old people so that they can sustain their lives.

It is good for the church to add to her church structure committee that will investigate the needs of both
widows and widowers who are really in need of help. When the church makes a budget, the executive secretary
of the committee can submit the list of things they need for that ministry. It is to the Father’s glory that we
enjoy our fellowship with each by meeting the needs of our fellow believers.

Pastoral ministry toward orphans and vulnerable children

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in
their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:27, NIV)

This is one of the most important ministries that the church should never neglect. The ministry is pure and
faultless and acceptable before God our Father.

The bond of “your children are my children” is created when the Christian community puts this in mind and act
on it. In the Old Testament God was concerned about the orphans just as He was concerned about welfare of
the widows. God said, "Never take advantage of any widow or orphan. If you do and they cry out to me, you can
be sure that I will hear their cry (Ex 22:22-24).” Some people who have forgotten the ways of the Lord tend to
take advantage of the orphans by forcing them into handling hard labor even depriving them of good education
or even their basic needs. There is a warning to everyone who takes advantage of the orphans.

The church of God is a household of God. All those who come to the faith are made part of that family.
Therefore, when we are looking at those children left by our brothers and sister, we realize that we have a
responsibility of raising them in the way pleasing to God. We want to make sure that every opportunity given is
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