The Greater Thing Most Pastors Keep Neglecting

Are you more concerned about what you do for God or the soul you bring to him?

There are moments in ministry when a passage you’ve read a hundred times stops you cold, not because it changed, but because you saw its truth in a fresh way. A devotional from In Touch Ministries caused me to ask: am I neglecting something greater for something lesser?

That question has a way of settling into the quieter moments of ministry, the ones between the demands. Now, before you answer another email, prepare another sermon, or take another call, ask yourself: what is the condition of your soul?

Some of you may be in a good place. The ministry feels meaningful, your relationship with God is alive, and you’re leading from a full tank. Others are grinding through difficulty after difficulty, and the soul is weary in ways you may not have told anyone. And perhaps many of you are somewhere in between, not in crisis, but not flourishing either.

Wherever you are, your story is still being written. And Jesus has something to say to you.

A Story About a Meal

The story begins when Jesus visits the home of two sisters, Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38–42). Martha opens the story by making a genuinely good choice. Martha is doing what a host in her time and culture was expected to do, she is being hospitable and doing it well. She is working to care for every guest in her home. There is nothing wrong with what Martha is doing.

Mary also makes a good choice, just different, she chooses to learn. In a culture where formal learning was typically reserved for men, Mary sits at Jesus’ feet and listens to His teaching. The guests seem unbothered. But, someone in the room can’t let it go.

Martha interrupts Jesus directly while he is teaching. She asks Him to step in, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me.”

Martha expects Mary to face a reprimand and come help her. What she gets instead is a response she did not see coming.

Jesus’ Tender Correction

Notice how Jesus responds to Martha. He doesn’t agree with her or scold her; He gently corrects her.

“Martha, Martha”—He repeats her name. In the scripture this kind of repetition is a way to capture complete attention. It is the tender voice of someone who wants her to truly hear what he is about to say.

Then He says, “You are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

Jesus is not dismissing Martha’s great service. He is redirecting her, calling her away from the many troubling and competing concerns that have pulled her away from the “one thing necessary.”

This is not a conversation about right versus wrong. Both sisters are making good choices. Martha is making the expected choice. Mary is making the necessary choice. However, Jesus is asking Martha to also choose something “necessary” over something “expected.”

What the “Good Portion” Really Means

The phrase “good portion” carries more weight than it might first appear. Jesus is drawing on deep Old Testament language and thought.

When Israel settled Canaan, every tribe received a land inheritance, except the Levites, the priestly tribe. Their inheritance was God Himself.

“I am your portion and your inheritance.” (Numbers 18:20)“The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup.” (Psalm 16:5)“God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Psalm 73:26)“The Lord is my portion.” (Lamentations 3:24)

When Jesus says Mary has chosen the “good portion,” He is not saying she made a better choice of learning. No, He is saying, she has chosen God Himself as her inheritance, the one thing that cannot be taken away. Not by critics. Not by church conflict. Not by aging, retirement, or death.

Mary did not choose a good activity over another good activity. She chose God over activity.

That is the choice Jesus is setting before every pastor reading these words.

The One Thing We’re Neglecting

In 2022, Soul Shepherding conducted a survey on the state of the American pastorate. In this survey it found that 72% of pastors are not regularly seeking God. Not occasionally inconsistent, but “regularly” not seeking God. That means potentially three out of four pastors are carrying one of the most demanding callings in existence with depleted souls and on human effort alone.

Too many pastors are choosing the many good things. Things like sermon prep, counseling appointments, hospital visits, board meetings, emails, phone calls, all at the expense of the “one thing necessary.”

When we operate out of an empty tank, it catches up to us. There will always be more to do than we can do. There will always be expectations we can’t fully meet, needs we can’t fully fill, pressures we didn’t anticipate. But when we neglect time at the feet of Jesus, we stop leading from a full tank and begin to survive on fumes, sometimes mistaking them for fuel.

Your congregation needs you to leave some things undone. Even if they don’t know it, they need a pastor whose soul is being fully filled.

When the Tank Runs Dry

This pattern shows up in more pastoral lives than most would admit. Many pastors have been faithful for decades, yet somewhere along the way, through a major life change, a loss, or the quiet accumulation of hard seasons, they stop. They stop reading the Bible. They stop praying. What had been a daily rhythm for years simply goes quiet.

The drift is rarely dramatic. It is gradual. The soul that was once full runs down to empty. Yet they keep moving, keep functioning, keep showing up, while the “one thing necessary” gets set aside. The cost is always greater than anticipated.

Finding the way back takes time. But the return itself is the very essence of choosing the “good portion.” It begins simply by opening the Word again, returning to honest prayer, and seeking Him once more. And slowly, the empty tank begins to fill.

Many pastors are like Martha. Anxious and troubled about many things. But aching to be Mary.

The Invitation

Pastors, this is not a call to do less. It is a call to protect the one thing that makes everything else possible.

There will always be more to do: a congregation member who needs more, a board that expects more, a budget demanding more. You cannot do it all. You were never meant to.

But there is one thing that must not be left undone. It’s choosing the “good portion.”

Choose to sit at His feet. Open His Word. Pray. Let it be daily and non-negotiable. It’s the one thing you protect when everything else is pressing in. The God who called you to this demanding, often lonely, profoundly meaningful work … He is your portion. He is your inheritance. And that will never be taken from you.

Pastors, leave some things undone, so the “one thing necessary” gets done.

About the Author:

Pastor Greg WilliamsPastor Thrive, Director of Operations

Greg serves as Pastor Thrive’s Director of Operations, a ministry that exists to offer steady encouragement and meaningful support to strengthen pastors and churches. He is a two-career professional with experience in both industry and ministry. He began in business, working in the auto industry and then in marketing and advertising. Then in 2010, after seminary, he served as an Executive Pastor, retiring from that role in 2023.