Pastoral Leadership

I use a template document for typing my sermon notes. But I guard against a template philosophy in preparing my sermons. My church deserves fresh sermons that are prayed over and thoroughly studied for—not cycled through.

One of my pet peeves is email. More specifically, it is email that is used as a substitute for a personal touch. Ministry is people work. It involves building real relationships and nurturing spiritual growth.

Esau “despised” his birthright! The word means to disdain or hold in contempt. He held in contempt what his fathers held dear. He saw his birthright as just a worthless piece of parchment that could be used for bartering. He was willing to trade it away for mere morsels to feed his own desires.

The church at Antioch in Acts 13 sent out men who were called, qualified, and capable. They were not looking for somewhere to send someone to be “an encouragement” to them. They were not looking for a place of service elsewhere for those who could not or would not serve effectively in their own local church.

Every pastor wants his church to grow. Many pastors do not realize that they often hold the key to significant growth. We know that God ultimately blesses a church with numerical growth as He sees fit, but the pastor can unlock the door to usher in this growth if he is willing to pay the price.

I heard someone quote an old preacher who said regarding this text, “I believe in chasing buzzards off. I don’t believe in chasing buzzards.” It seems to me that this text and the thought given by that man of God now in Heaven are especially significant to us today.

When God sends guests to your church, you must see them as a gift from God and treat them as such. Your reaction to them and response to their visit largely determine whether or not they will be your guest again.

Some of the final words written by the Apostle Paul under divine inspiration dealt with the subject of loyalty and particularly the loyalty or disloyalty of certain preachers to himself. Second Timothy chapter four speaks of Demas as having forsaken Paul, of Luke as remaining with him in his last days, and of the fact that at his trial, “No man stood with me, but all men forsook me.” Standing with Paul or forsaking him certainly appears as a theme in his final epistle.

There is an old saying that is absolutely true; you never have a second chance to make a first impression. All of us have visited churches where our first impression was less than positive.

Recently a young preacher from our church posted on Facebook that he was going to have the opportunity to preach on a Sunday morning while the senior pastor was on vacation. He was excited about being given the privilege of standing in the pastor’s place to feed the people of God in the most important service of the week.

Very few independent Baptist churches have a written missionary policy. Most of our churches have a burden for missions. However, only a few have taken the time and effort to put their mission purpose and policy in writing.

Handling the financial pressures of a church are without a doubt the toughest task we face as pastors in our churches, especially when the expenses of our ministry have increased, and the income has leveled off or even decreased.

Constructive criticism is an incredible asset. Proverbs 27:6 says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend….” Some of the most helpful advice and counsel I have ever received has come in the form of such “wounds.”

In 2 Timothy chapter 2, Paul told Timothy to, “Purge himself from these” in order to become “a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use.” The “these” from which Timothy must purge himself in order to be used of God are false teachers, such as Hymenaeus and Philetus.

Luis Montaño was not unlike many of the teenagers involved in our city gangs in the 1990s. He came to church with a shaved head and baggy pants, but underneath his tough exterior was a young man with a troubled past.

If you are a Christian worker of any kind, you have faced discouraging times. I remember when we were starting the Good News Baptist Church in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Several times when it was time for our evening service, I had the church cleaned, the chairs set up, hymnbooks laid out, music playing, my sermon tucked away neatly in my Bible, and threw open the door ready to quickly step out of the way lest I be trampled by the surging throngs of people hungry to hear God’s Word!

June 2011 marks my thirtieth anniversary in full-time ministry. I was saved in an independent Baptist church. Over the last three decades, I have seen the spiritual wagons circling into many different camps. We have to ask the question, “Should I separate from fellow independent Baptists?”

Jesus often ate with unsaved people. He ate with unsaved religious rulers, and He ate with tax collectors and sinners—the unsaved social outcasts. He related to people over breaking bread and displayed the trait later in the New Testament called “given to hospitality.”

God has a plan for each one of His children. If His only goal was to simply take us to Heaven, He would do so the moment we trust Christ. The Bible makes it clear that God has saved us to serve.