As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
(From Voice magazine, Nov/Dec 2015. Used by permission.)
Shortly after I became a Christian at the age of 18, I sensed God’s leading into full-time ministry and I enrolled in a Bible institute to begin my preparation. During two of those summers I served as an intern in a small church plant in Utah, the second summer serving as “the pastor” when Ron (my mentor) left for a month of missionary deputation.
“Stop spreading statistics that, if they were right in the first place, are over 20 years old—even the man who did the study agrees!”
Having reached, by the grace of God, the milestone of 25 years of pastoral ministry and 2000+ sermons, I am writing here a few things I have learned along the way. The first post was things I have learned about preaching.
My pastoral ministry has included serving in three different churches over a 25 year period. In the first I served as a youth pastor for 4 years. I served in the second as the senior pastor for 9 1/2 years and have been senior pastor at my current church for 11 1/2 years. Here are some things I have learned about ministry and churches. There are many observations that I could make. These are some that stand out to me, with minimal explanation. Each paragraph is a separate observation, in no particular order.
My filing system shows that I recently preached my 2000th sermon. This year I will complete 25 years of pastoral ministry. Praise God for His grace. I want to write down some of the things I have learned along the way. I think I’ll do it in 3-4 separate posts, including what I have learned about preaching, about ministry and churches, about people, and about God.
Preparing and preaching a sermon is like having a baby. You labor over it for many hours, sometimes right up until the minute you start speaking, and then it is born. If you’ve prepared diligently, something good will come out. It isn’t always pretty, but it has potential.
“I can only imagine the kind of business meeting we would have when I suggested that we consider allowing me to review all of our giving records.” SBCVoices
“About 66% of pastors say that they mention mental illness in a message, sermon, or homily once a year, rarely, or never.” CT/LifeWay Research
“Three entities of the Southern Baptist Convention have joined other religious organizations in urging the Seventh Circuit Court to reverse the ruling of [a Wisconsin judge], who said the allowance violates the First Amendment’s prohibition of government establishment of religion.” BPress
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