My pastor gave me a book today that he wanted me to read. I am only 15 pages into the book and it is blowing me away! It begins with a discussion in the first chapter of the relationship between the pastor and the church body. Focusing more on the role and attitude of pastoring, chapter one nails in 15 pages what I have experienced within thirteen years of leadership and pastoring. Whether it be my own attitude as pastoring, or friends of my own that hold a pastor position within the body of Christ, I have never heard someone hit the nail on the head like the first chapter of this book has, AND....it was written in 1910 by an author named C.E. Jefferson. So without me adding anymore to what Jefferson is saying, I will let you see what he has spoken and is still resounding in truth today.
Notes of chapter 1 from the book "The Building Of The Church".....
It is sad to see a man turning away from the ministry because he does not understand the church, but it is tragic to see one entering the ministry with a wrong attitude to the church. Young ministers sometimes look upon the church as a necessary evil, an inherited encumbrance, a sort of device by which preachers are handicapped in their movements and held back from largest usefulness. Men of this type are eager to get at what they call the world. Their desire is to reconstruct the social order. They want to do things on a broad scale. To deal with so small and insignificant a body as a church seems parochial and belittling. All they want is a pulpit, a place in which to stand and thunder forth their message. They eye church officials with suspicion. They would rather work alone. They are sorry they must stay in a church building. A theatre would suit them better. As for pastoral visitation, they abhor it. It eats up time which ought to be given to the proclamation of ideas and the correction of evils. To be sure, a church has its uses. It can furnish the minister's salary and pay the sexton, but, outside of this, its usefulness is problematic. When a minister of this stripe goes into a parish the first man he visits is the printer. He believes in the printer's ink. Printer's ink will let the people know he is there. He does not know that a living church is better for advertising purposes than all the printing presses in the town. He scatters cards to reach the masses. He has yet to learn that the preacher best reaches the masses who knows best how to reach his church. If it is a blunder to ignore the church in an effort to reach the masses, it is a more serious blunder to slight the church in one's direct dealings with it. Some ministers take hold of a church as though it were a lump of putty or a piece of wood to be shaped at their will. They do not give it credit for having a soul of its own. Blessed is the preacher who realizes that he is only a sojourner as all his fathers were. He stands in the line of a long succession. Other men have labored and he is entering into their labors. It is not for him to start out as though the world were just beginning. The church was there before he was born. It will be there after he is dead.
I am going to let these last words finish the thoughts of the day. My prayer is to let these words continue to mold me into what the Lord desires...The preacher is not a clerical Robinson Crusoe on a desert island. The shore is covered with human tracks. If he is a man of sense he will take note of them, and observe the direction in which men have been moving. The first thing in the town for a preacher to take notice of is his church. Let him begin at once to study it, to strive to understand it, to come into sympathy with it, to plan for it, to render himself a part of it, and in this way he will come to love it. When he once loves it, he will possess the first requisite of a successful preacher.
Pastor Robbie, I know that God has ordained such a time as this for these words to penetrate my heart and soul. Thank you for your obedience and your willingness to listen to the voice of God's Holy Spirit.
Cool stuff there. There are few writings that can stand the test of time, but that one seems to have made it.
I hope this comment finds you and your family doing well. God bless.
Posted by: Jeff A | April 21, 2009 at 09:20 AM