An exciting life
DECEMBER 4, 2007 (TUESDAY) – The Baptist Standard, Texas Baptist’s newspaper, has an excellent edition this week (December 3) about preaching. It’s worth your time to read it. If you don’t receive it in the mail, you can find it online at http://www.baptiststandard.com. Among other articles, the editorial by Marv Knox is a very helpful look at the pulpit from both the preacher’s point of view and the congregation’s.
Today’s media world has created the celebrity preacher. There are few of these men and women, television stars who live in a very different world from the average pastor. For every great television preacher, there are thousands of local pastors in this country, going about their work on a daily basis, serving God and the people without fanfare or fame.
Let it not be thought, however, that the average pastor leads a dull life. On the contrary, it can be quite interesting. The minister hears things he must never repeat and sees things he must never describe to others. He encounters people at their best and, sometimes, at their worst. In his own family, he does a fancy juggling act, seeing after the needs of a congregation and attempting to be the right kind of husband and father to his wife and children.
He is called upon to offer words of consolation and hope, inspiration and cheer, in the midst of suffering and pain. He is asked to share the joys and sorrows of his flock.
The average minister’s life is crowded with activity of many kinds, and there are few days with enough time to do it all. As his church grows, so do his responsibilities, and he finds himself torn between giving time to persons on the one hand and the organization on the other.
His basic calling is to preach the Word of God, and he tries hard to give time to preparation and delivery of interesting and meaningful messages from the heart of God to the hearts of the people. One of his main frustrations is the lack of time available for what he knows is his main job.
All in all, the unheralded work of a pastor makes for an exciting life.
The church in Rockport has called a new pastor. Pray for him. I don’t know him any better than you do, but I can guarantee you that he needs your prayers.