We all have favorite recipes. I have perfected a whole wheat bread recipe. How do I know it’s outstanding? Eaters have told me so. Speak about recipes! Are you a pastor or church attender who wants other people involved in your church’s ministry? I have just a recipe.

As great whole wheat flour is essential to great bread so pastoral care is essential to strong congregational involvement. Ministry is so much more than praying and preaching. Without consistent high-quality pastoral care, your church will not be all God wants it to be. It’s not how many you have in your church that counts. It’s what people do with what they have that really counts. For example, remember that boy who offered Jesus five barley loaves and two fish (John 6:9)? Jesus blessed what he offered, and wow, it multiplied. So God can multiply people involved in your church’s ministry. God can bless any recipe!

What makes my bread recipe unique is my including a quarter cup of gluten. Whole wheat bread is heavy and dense. Yet with extra gluten the bread is light and soft. So it is with pastoral care. Pastoral care is the gluten that helps a congregation to not have hard hearts towards one another. Having open, caring hearts towards others saves a congregation from being impersonal and just formal in their relationships. Eating the bread, experiencing it first hand, is so different then just explaining the bread to another. So it is with pastoral care. To actually experience Jesus-like pastoral care is so much more than just a verbal explanation.

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Consistent high-quality pastoral congregational care causes a higher percentage of people to be involved in the church’s ministries.

Another key ingredient is molasses. Molasses not only sweetens and gives the bread a tan color, but it interacts with the yeast to create a light, airy texture that is chewy. Love is like molasses. As we care for one another in the church, the love of Christ works in us and we want to offer that same loving care to others. Caring for one another then causes others to want to be more involved in the church’s ministries. Consistent high-quality pastoral congregational care causes a higher percentage of people to be involved in the church’s ministries.

The oven temperature that rises dough to turn into bread is like the Holy Spirit. Long before bread is ready to pull out of the oven, we smell an aroma that is so pleasant to our senses. Prayer that is truly from people’s hearts and heads causes a certain Holy Spirit aroma within any church building that draws the best out of people.

So think about how you as a church of believers care for one another. As Christ commands us to love one another, may we bathe all we do in consistent prayer for one another. As Christ intercedes for us, may we intercede for each other in prayer. Stand back and watch the Holy Spirit bake the bread — of each other’s lives.

Watch the Holy Spirit through consistent high quality pastoral care cause others to want to be more involved in your church’s ministries.