Pastors

Pastors A Different Viewpoint
A young pastor of a little church complained to the "Prince of Preachers," Charles H. Spurgeon, about the smallness of his church and its few members. Spurgeon asked him, "How many members do you have?" "Fifty," replied the young pastor. "Ah," exclaimed Spurgeon, "that is more than you will want to account for on the day of judgment."

Minister's Ulcers
Nearly every businessman complains of at least one ulcer. Think how many ulcers the poor businessman would have if he worked under the same circumstances as the average minister!
"Just suppose, Mr. Businessman, that you were the overseer of 100 workers. Suppose only about 50 percent of them ever showed up for work at a given time, and only 25 percent could be relied upon. Suppose that every time a simple flash of lightning appeared in the sky, large numbers of young workers pulled the covers over their heads and failed to report for duty.
"Suppose your workers only worked when they felt like it and yet you must be very sweet and never fire one of them. To get them back to work you must beg them, plead with them, pat them on the back, and use every means under the sun to persuade them without offending them. And suppose you were in competition with a notorious rascal, the devil, who had no scruples and is far more clever than you are and uses such attractive things as fishing rods, guns, soft pillows, televisions and a thousand other things to attract your customers.
"How many ulcers would you have?" The Pastor as the Tool Man
You see them driving around most urban areas and even venturing out in small town USA. Their destinations are automotive garages and any other place of business that uses tools. Most of the vehicles are large vans or panel trucks and carry such logos as "Snap-On Tools," or "Matco."
What if it were the job of these drivers to rush from place to place tightening, untightening and doing all the actual mechanical repairing of the vehicles? Imagine the mechanics in these shops calling on the tool man every time they needed a bolt tightened or a screw adjusted, sitting around waiting for them to arrive and do the work. It is a comical scene based on the ridiculous; hundreds of mechanics waiting for the help of few exhausted and distraught tool men.
The truth of the matter is, these tool men in their vans only provide the tools. It is the mechanics who do the work.
Sometimes we in the local church can actually get caught up in a similar comedy of errors. A church can look to their pastor as the one whom they hire to do their ministry for them. A pastor can also be at fault for allowing himself to be like the misguided tool man trying to do it all himself.
The truth of the matter is, in God's economy of work in the local church it is the individual people in the congregation who are called by God to do the bulk of the ministry. The pastor's job is to equip them for their ministry.

What Does a Preacher Do With His Time?
The preacher is a teacher, though he has to solicit his own class. He heals without pills or knife. He is a lawyer, a social worker, an editor, a philosopher, a salesman, a handy decorative piece for public functions, an entertainer, a chairman of the building fund and a first-class janitor.
People come to him and he goes to the people. He rejoices when they rejoice and weeps when they weep. He visits the sick, marries the young, buries the dead, prepares and delivers speeches to every organization under the sun, and tries to stay sweet when he is abused for not calling on certain people. He helps plan the program of the church and meets with every group he can, which may mean that some nights he must attend two and three meetings.
When he lies down at night, he is burdened and prays for certain "sheep," their weaknesses, their problems, and their absence from the service. And, oh yes, in his spare time, he prepares and delivers several sermons, Bible lessons, radio programs, class messages, etc. And when Monday comes and some chap roars, "What an easy job you preachers have!" he tries to smile and keep sweet.
Have you ever heard the above question asked? Or the remark made thoughtlessly, "What an easy task the pastor has! He speaks about 20 minutes twice on Sunday and once on Wednesday with the rest of the week all his own!"
However, with all these aggravations, many would rather be divinely called ministers of the gospel than be anything else. Where His Sermons Went
Coming to the close of many years of faithful ministry, an aged pastor tied his sermon notes in a bundle and wrote on it: "Where has the influence of all the sermons I have preached gone?" One who had been under his ministry for years and who had grown in Christlikeness and in the knowledge of God's Word, gave the following heartfelt appraisal of his sermons: "Where are last year's sunrays? They have gone into fruits and grains and vegetables to feed mankind. Where are last year's raindrops? Forgotten, of course, but they did their gracious and refreshing work. Your sermons, preached over the years, have gone into my life and into the lives of others, to make me and them better, nobler, and more Christlike. They have deepened our love for God's Word, given us a vision of and love for unsaved ones, and have challenged us to go on in the Christian life!"

Preacher's Notes
Preachers fall into four categories:
Those who do not use any notes, so the audience has no idea how long they will speak.
Those who lay each page of their sermon down in front of them as they read it. These honest ones enable the audience to keep track of how much more is to come.
Those who cheat by putting each sheet of notes under the others in their hand.
And, worst of all, those who put down each sheet of notes as they read them and then horrify the audience by picking up the whole batch and reading off the other side.

Harvest Time
The youth minister was passing through the prison garment factory. "Sewing?" he said to a prisoner who was at work. "No, preacher," replied the prisoner gloomily, "reaping!"

You Asked for It
A preacher had been talking to a children's Bible class about kindness. He paused and asked, "If I should see a man beating a donkey and stopped him, what virtue would I be showing?"
A little voice responded with the unexpected answer, "Brotherly love."

Ezra: A Model For Preachers
"For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments" (Ezra 7:10).
Ezra sought the law of the Lord. Newer versions translate "study" instead of "seek," and study is, of course, the way we seek it. We do not go to the priest, or seer, or to the witch of Endor; nor do we inquire of the Urim and Thummin. God's will is not found by contemplating our navels or getting in touch with our inner impulses. "When they say to you, 'Seek them that have familiar spirits, and seek wizards that peep and mutter'; should not a people seek their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is not light in them! (Isaiah 8:19-20). The preacher must study. Study takes time. Euclid told Ptolemy, King of Egypt, "There is no royal road to geometry"; so there is no mystic shortcut to a knowledge of the will of God.
When we really know what God has revealed to man, we know something helpful and worthwhile to teach. When we teach what is helpful and valuable, people will come to hear and learn. They will not come again and again for empty platitudes or recycled outlines. Not even hogs will keep coming back to an empty trough. Study. Seek the Word of the Lord.
Ezra did the law of the Lord. Unlike the scribes of Jesus' day, who said but did not (Matthew 23:2), Ezra practiced what he studied. Studying the Bible is not just an academic exercise. We must not be forgetful hearers, but doers, in order to be blessed (James 1:23-25). We may pride ourselves on knowing the truth, but Jesus did not say "This know and thou shalt live." He said, "This do and thou shalt live" (Luke 10:28).
Ezra taught the Lord's statutes and judgment in Israel. So must we. "It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught of God.'Every man therefore that has heard, and has learned of the Father, comes to me" (John 6:45). What we have learned we are to teach to others, so that they can teach others also (2 Timothy 2:2). We are to teach to convert and then we are to teach the converted (Matthew 28:19-20). A preacher is a teacher who pleads with his students to do what they have been taught.
Ezra set his heart to seek, to do, and to teach the law of the Lord. No one accidentally becomes a faithful servant of God. We will only be good students, faithful workers, and effective teachers to the extent we decide to be, and deliberately lay aside things that hinder us.
Let Ezra be our model. Let us be models like Ezra.

It Is Your Move
I gave you life; but cannot live it for you.
I can teach you things;
but I cannot make you learn.
I can give you directions;
but I cannot always be there to lead you.
I can take you to church;
but I cannot make you believe.
I can teach you right from wrong;
but I cannot always decide for you.
I can teach you to be a friend;
but I cannot make you one.
I can advise you about friends;
but I cannot choose them for you.
I can teach you about sex;
but I cannot keep you pure.
I can tell you the facts of life;
but I cannot build your reputation.
I can tell you about "strong drink"
but I cannot say no for you.
I can warn you about drugs;
but I cannot prevent you from using them.
I can tell you about lofty goals;
but I cannot achieve them for you.
I can warn you about sin;
but I cannot make your morals.
I can love you as a child;
but I cannot place you in God's family.
I can pray for you;
but I cannot make you walk with God.
I can teach you about Jesus;
but I cannot make Him your Savior.
I can teach you to obey;
but I cannot make Jesus your Lord.
I can tell you how to live;
but I cannot give you eternal life. So Is the Devil
The early Methodist evangelist, George Whitefield, was one of America's most effective preachers, who won thousands to Christ. He was vigorously opposed by Charles Chauncy, pastor of Boston's famous First Church.
Rev. Chauncy objected to the idea of instantaneous conversions and to the emotional excitement caused by Whitefield's ministry.
In 1744, on Whitefield's second visit to Boston, the two met. Rev. Chauncy said, "So you have returned, have you?" "Yes," replied the evangelist, "in the service of the Lord." "I am sorry to hear it," Rev. Chauncy said bluntly. "So is the devil," retorted Whitefield.
The devil hates any preacher who fearlessly and effectively sounds the gospel trumpet.

Preacher's Predicament
A man had a heart attack and was rushed to the hospital. He could receive little company and was not to be excited. While in the hospital, a rich uncle died and left him a million dollars. His family wondered how to break the news to him with the least amount of excitement. It was decided to ask the preacher if he would go and break the news quietly to the man.
The preacher went, and gradually led up to the question. The preacher asked the patient what he would do if he inherited a million dollars. He said, "I think I would give half of it to the church."
The preacher dropped dead. The Doc Prescribed, but the Patient Died
It was only a cold in her head when Mrs. Mosby came to Doc Bradley. The doctor poured out some medicine from his store and told her how often to take it. A few days later he was called to her home, for in those days doctors made housecalls. The cold had settled in her chest. More medicine was prescribed, but the woman died. She could have survived, and it hurt the doctor to know he had prescribed, but the patient did not survive.
A short time after the funeral, the doctor happened to meet Mrs. Mosby's sister and by accident learned that the sick woman had not taken a drop of his medicine, but instead poured it down the sink. The doctor then realized he was not responsible, for the patient had not followed orders.
Obviously the preacher is responsible to prescribe the right medicine. Too many in the church pews listen but do not take the gospel medicine. Only those who listen and follow what is prescribed can expect to find spiritual health.

Five Ways to Get Rid of Your Pastor
Sit up front, smile and say "amen" every time he says something good. He will preach himself to death.
Pat him on the back and tell him what good work he is doing in the church and community. He will work himself to death.
Increase your offering in the church. Then he will suffer from shock.
Tell him you have decided to join the visitation group and win souls for the Lord. He will probably suffer a heart attack.
Get the whole church to band together and pray for him. He will get so efficient that some other church will hear about him and give him a call. That will take him off your hands. A Question for the Preacher
When the Rev. George Pentecost had finished a discourse in the city of Edinburgh, Horatius Bonar put his hand upon his shoulder and said, "You love to preach to men, don't you?" and Dr. Pentecost answered, "Yes." Then Mr. Bonar said, "Do you love the men you preach to?" The Lord's Servant
One day as G. Campbell Morgan prayed, the Lord seemed to say to him, "Which do you want to be-a servant of mine or a great preacher?" Morgan replied, "May I not be both, Lord?" A spiritual struggle ensued as he thought, God may want me to be an unknown minister in an obscure place. Then Morgan submissively prayed, "O Lord, my greatest wish is to be a servant of Thine!" The Lord responded by making him one of the greatest preachers of his time.

Near the Gates of Heaven
A certain person listening to Bramwell speak asked another in the audience how it was that Bramwell had something that was new to tell every time he preached. "Why," said he, "you see, Brother Bramwell lives so near the gates of heaven that he hears a great many things that we don't get near enough to hear anything about." Is this true of you and me or are we near enough to hear God when He speaks?

Blot Him Out!
Dr. J.H. Jowett, speaking of the time when he was in Northfield, says, "I went out early one morning to conduct a camp meeting away off in the woods. The camp dwellers were two or three hundred men from the Water Street Mission in New York. At the beginning of the service, prayer was offered for me, and the supplication opened with these inspired words: 'O Lord, we thank Thee for our brother. Now blot him out.' Then the prayer continued: 'Reveal Thy glory to us in such blazing splendor that he shall be forgotten.'"

Skeptic Converted
A minister preached a sermon one evening and went home utterly discouraged. He felt that he was a failure in the ministry, though at the same time he was greatly burdened for the lost. Some time past midnight his doorbell rang, and the leader of the choir, who was known as a bit of a skeptic, came to him saying, "Doctor, I am in agony concerning my soul. Your sermon tonight has convicted me of my sin, and I must have help or I shall die." In a very short time he was rejoicing in Christ. When asked what it was in the sermon that had impressed him, he said, "It was not so much what you said as the way you said it. I could see by the look in your eye and by the very pathos in your voice that you were longing for men to be saved, and I could not resist your message."

Failing at His Job
A young preacher fresh from seminary went to the front as a chaplain. He announced to the soldiers that he would let them choose whether they wanted him to preach a sermon or tell them funny stories. A tall, blunt-speaking fellow arose and said, "If you have come three thousand miles to talk to a bunch of soldiers, some of whom are going into eternity within three days, and you don't know whether to preach to them or tell them funny stories, I suspect you had just better go ahead and tell something funny."

Sleepy Preachers
"How can I get crowds to attend my services?" asked a young preacher of John Wesley. Replied Wesley, "Get on fire and people will come out to see you burn." It is pathetic that we have so many sleepy preachers and noiseless sermons. Henry Ward Beecher used to say, "If a man sleeps under my preaching, I do not send a boy to wake him up, but I feel that a boy had better come and wake me up." We need resounding preaching and testifying so everybody can hear and some by the grace of God may heed. The Humble Preacher
Dr. Westfield, the Bishop of Bristol in the reign of Charles I, was so excellent a preacher that he was called "a born orator." Yet he was so conscious of his own insufficiency that he never ascended the pulpit without trembling, even when he had been fifty years a preacher. Preaching once before the King at Oxford, he fainted away. His Majesty awaited his recovery, and then heard a sermon that powerfully moved him. The more conscious a preacher is of his own weakness, the more powerful and effective may be the message that he preaches.

Serve and Please Only One
A young man had just become pastor of a large church. At a reception given him by his people, one of the gossips, a woman with a dangerous tongue, came up and said, "I do not understand how you dared attempt the task of pleasing seven hundred people." Quick as a flash the Lord gave him the answer. He replied, "I did not come to this city to please seven hundred people. I have to please only One; and if I please Him, all will be well."

Importance of Messenger
A tight-fisted Christian, annoyed by the appeals of his preacher for funds, burst out one day, "Pastor, doesn't the Bible declare that the water of life is free, that grace is without money?" "Yes," replied the preacher, "but it takes pipes to channel the water to the people, and pipes cost money."

Each His Own Way
Two ministers, given to arguing about their respective faiths, were in a very heated discussion. "That's all right," said one calmly. "We'll just agree to disagree. After all, we're both doing the Lord's work-you in your way and I in His." Too many of us are tempted to feel and act that way. This type of behavior often is a manifestation of the attitude that we know in full, that we prophesy in full-that we are superior even to the Apostle Paul, although we may not say that in so many words.

Increasing by Decreasing
A minister who had to move to an obscure country parish in England because of ill health never gained acceptance among the villagers whom he sought to serve. Being unable to do much work, he procured a preacher from Wales who attracted large congregations. His family was a little jealous of this unexpected preference, but he rebuked them. "Take me to hear him," he said. "God honors him, and I will honor him. Have you ever studied that text, 'He must increase, but I must decrease'? 'A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven.' " How many preachers would be able to accept a more popular man in their pulpit in that spirit?

Delivered from Fear of Man
Bishop Latimer once preached a sermon before King Henry VIII that greatly offended his royal auditor by its plainness. The King ordered him to preach again the next Sunday and to make public apology for his offense. The Bishop ascended the pulpit and read his text, and thus began his sermon: "Hugh Latimer, dost thou know before whom thou art this day to speak? To the high and mighty Monarch, the King's most excellent Majesty, who can take away thy life if thou offendest. Therefore take heed that thou speakest not a word that may displease. But then, consider well, Hugh! Dost thou not know from whom thou comest-upon whose message thou art sent? Even by the great and mighty God, who is all-present and beholdeth all thy ways, and who is able to cast thy soul into hell! Therefore take care that thou deliverest thy message faithfully." And so beginning, he preached over again, but with increased energy, the self-same sermon he had preached the week before. The fear of God delivered him from the fear of man.

One of the Rarities
One day a very learned preacher was met by an illiterate preacher who despised education. "Sir, you have been to college, I suppose?" "Yes, sir," was the reply. "I am thankful," replied the illiterate preacher, "that the Lord opened my mouth without any learning." "A similar event," answered the learned clergyman, "took place in Balaam's time, when his ass spoke; but such things are of rare occurrence in the present day. Maybe you are one of the rarities."

Preachers Consider!
What Woodrow Wilson said about preachers is worthy of the careful consideration of every one of us: "When I hear some of the things which young men say to men by way of putting the arguments to themselves for going into the ministry, I think they are talking of another profession. Their motive is to do something. I know you do not have to be anything in particular to be a lawyer. You do not have to be anything in particular, except a kind-hearted man, perhaps, to be a physician, nor undergo any strong spiritual change in order to be a merchant. The only profession which consists in being something is the ministry of our Lord and Savior-and it does not consist of anything else. That conception of the ministry which rubs all the marks off and mixes him in the crowd so that you cannot pick him out, is a process of eliminating the ministry itself." The Proper Attitude
A church was in need of a pastor. A candidate came who preached on hell. The next Sunday another candidate came whose sermon was also on hell, and his fundamental teaching was the same as that of the first one.When the members of the church were called upon to vote, they voted for the second candidate. When they were asked why, the answer was, "The first one spoke as if he were glad that people were going to hell, while the second seemed sorry for it." The Divine Commission
An examining committee of ministers once met to determine the qualifications of Billy Sunday for ordination as a gospel minister. Among other questions fired at the world-famous baseball player was a request that he identify a well-known church father and name some of his writings. Billy was stumped. After fumbling around for a moment, he looked up with a twinkle in his eye and said, "I never heard of him. He was never on my team." The learned theologians deliberated together, but found it hard to make a decision. Finally, one of them moved that Billy Sunday be recommended for ordination, adding, "He has already won more souls for Christ than the whole shebang of us put together." The secret-he was sent by God. A Spiritual Lesson
A preacher was watching an old man trout-fishing, briskly pulling them in one after the other. "You manage it cleverly, old friend," said the preacher. "I passed a good many fishermen below who don't seem to be catching anything." The old man lifted himself up and stuck his rod in the ground. "Well, you see, sir," he said, "there are three rules for trout fishing: first, keep yourself out of sight; the second is, keep yourself farther out of sight; and the third is, keep yourself still farther out of sight. Then you'll do it."

Feed, Don't Beat the Sheep
We preachers desperately need the advice which an aged minister gave a young man who was just entering upon his life work as a shepherd of God's flock. "My son," he said, "feed the sheep; do not beat them. If a sheep is well fed, he can endure and will submit to some harsh treatment, but to starve and beat him at the same time is likely to prove fatal."