You didn’t think I would neglect this concern, did you?
After devoting an entire message about how to please God in the way we treat Pastor Eric, I can hardly neglect offering some guidance in how to love Jordan well as she partners with him in their TRBC adventure.
Here are three questions with answers I want to pose to challenge our thinking and aim our intentions for pleasing God in our treatment of our new pastor’s wife.
One, how should we perceive her? As this question was all important and foundational with respect to Eric as pastor-teacher, so it is with respect to Jordan as his wife. Answer: She is first-and-foremost the man’s bride and mother to their five precious children. View her consistently through Proverbs 18:22 lenses:
The man who finds a wife finds a treasure, and he receives favor from the LORD (NLT, emphasis added).
She is a priceless gift of God’s favor for the blessing of her husband and the “kiddoes,” as Eric likes to call them, way before she is that for our congregation. Pray and support her in a ferocious prioritization of the shalom of their marriage and household.
Two, what should we expect of her? Answer: The same thing we should expect of every other wife in our congregation—she is first-and-foremost a support to her husband in the vocation to which God has called him. View her consistently through Genesis 2:18 lenses:
Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him" (ESV).
Her primary ministry in the church will serve to assist Eric in the work of the ministry by her prayers, counsel, hospitality, and whatever else they decide together that the Lord will require. Her secondary ministry in the church will surface in due time as she exercises her spiritual gift(s), as we expect of every other covenant member (1 Peter 4:10-11).
Please recognize that it will take some time for them to figure out the new normal at TRBC and life in the Clearwater Valley. Be patient. Be helpful. Be cheerleaders, not just for Eric, but for Jordan as well. That goes for their children too, but I plan to tackle that in the next post. Stay tuned.
Three, to whom should we compare her? Answer. Do I really need to say it? NO ONE—ESPECIALLY JAN! Just as I warned against the danger of vain comparisons of Eric with me, the same goes for any of that fleshly nonsense with Jordan of Jan. Don't go there, please.
These are two rockstar sisters in Christ at different stages of life, with different temperaments, personalities, and gifts, and likely different ways of navigating life and ministry with all the challenges. View her consistently through 1 Corinthians 15:10 lenses:
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain (ESV).
If husbands please God by living with their wives in a 1 Peter 3:7 understanding way, then church people please God by doing the same with their pastor’s wife.
May we at TRBC excel in these understanding ways and more to the glory of God and the fruitfulness of the Botzets’ ministry among us.
