One of the joys of being a pastor is getting to know the people in your congregation. Often, this happens during very personal and intimate moments as you walk with them through these significant milestones.

Babies and Child Dedications

In my experience, it is not unusual for the pastor to be one of the first ones outside the family to be welcomed to the home of new parents. Sometimes my wife and I have even visited the new parents and baby at the hospital to meet the baby and pray for the family before they are sent home. What a special privilege!

Often families arrange with the pastor for a Child Dedication Ceremony. I love being able to hold the child and offer a prayer of blessing on the child and the parents. What a profound moment as we ask God’s blessing on the young life – and I get to do that!

Conversion and Baptisms

Many parents have been excited to share with me that their child prayed to surrender their life to Jesus. Then later, I get to walk them through a baptism class and baptism. Often the family invites me and my family to join them for a celebration with their family and friends after the baptism. They want us to participate in the celebration!

Weddings

This is a fun one! I love to walk with young couples as they prepare for their wedding. I enjoy the conversations my wife and I can have with the couple as we teach and encourage them and help them prepare for this new journey they are beginning. It is a lot of fun to celebrate with them and their families on that special day.

Sickness

While this is not a fun one, there are times when families face serious illness and long hospital stays. It is a privilege to visit them in the hospital, to be there as a friend and a representative of God. It is good to be present with them, and to pray with them. And it exciting when we see God give them restoration and new health.

Funerals

One of the hardest things to do as a pastor is to walk with a family I have known for a long time as they cope with the death of a family member. I may be able to give a hug or an encouraging word, but most of all, I get to point them back to God and to scripture.

Some pastors have been at the same church long enough to walk through a few of these, or all of these special moments with the families they serve. Now they are marrying the same adult they dedicated as a child years ago.

As a pastor, I get the privilege, very often with my wife, to be part of some significant moments in other families lives because they love us and want us to be part of their family celebrations. What a joy to walk with people during some of their best and their worst times in their lives!

It is a privilege to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe