The Pastor's Counselors and Friends by Anders Lee

There is no doubt that as ministers and men of God we have prayer, we have the Holy Spirit, we have the bible...etc... Spiritual we are loaded with options and oh how sweet to walk with Jesus... no arguements on that level. Yet we are human and we need friends. Jesus had an inner circle if you please. Three of His disciples He obviously spent more time with, then you see Him eating and hanging out with others like on the occasion of John 12. My point...my question to you... who do we as pastor's and youth pastors hang with...who do we grow close to...who do we seek counsel from in our personal lives and in ministry...who are we staying accountable to? Gentlemen... your thoughts...

Why...

Expositional sermons? Check out this great article here to find out the answer.

Hiring Biblical Preachers

A question posed to all pastors who read this blog: what do you look for when hiring a student minister, college minister, or kid's minister. What are your non-negotiables as far as the ministry aspect is concerned? Degree? License? Direct calling? Correct handler of the Word? Experience? Able to teach (and how do you gauge that anyway)?

I think this is an important question for us to discuss because so many times pastors have not considered what would be best for their culture and church. Instead, they just call the local Christian college to see if there is anyone willing to serve. I do believe that route can be helpful in a "getting the ball rolling" phase, but we must have some other criteria to go by. It is so easy to hire someone because they are willing. But this is not best. It is easy because it immediately takes a workload off of many pastors, but in the long run it can be damaging because you may not get the disciple production you would hope. Maybe that would be a good question to ask a candidate: What is your strategy for reproducing disciples? Here is another one: What do you want a student to know about Christ and the Bible after they have spent 6 years under your teaching?

Let's raise the standards of what we expect out of our ministers (pastors included). I think a good example of how lowering the standards does not help matters is in the questioning process of ordaining ministers or deacons. Can you find scripture to back up this practice? Probably not chapter and verse. Is it a good idea to know what they believe? Absolutely! How many of us experienced an arduous questioning before we were ordained? I know I wasn't. But that process could be very beneficial to a candidate. For one thing it drives him to scripture. It makes him think deeply about eternal matters and how to apply those to whoever his audience may be.

So anyway, let's raise the standards for ourselves and then call on others to follow us.

Church Requisites

Simple question: What constitutes a church?

What are the biblical requisites for being considered a church? (ie. believers in covenant with one another, ordinances, etc).

At what point can a church lose its status as a church? (beyond disbanding).

Further, what is necessary to begin a church? Can anyone begin one? Does it have to be a mission of an established church? etc.

Membership Process

Recently we began a "membership class" at our church. We ask each prospective member to attend the 5 week orientation before joining. So far, I have been very pleased with the class. Every person who has joined after attending has been very committed and seems to have a good understanding of our church's mission. At the same time, I think the class has also helped prevent some people from joining who would never have been committed in the long run.

All of this makes me curious to hear about everyone else's membership process. How many of you utilize some sort of class? Is it for prospective members or new members? What topics do you cover? What kind of commitment is asked for?

Does someone have a way to orient new people without using a class? What are the pro's and cons?

I am anxious to hear everyone's thoughts and hopefully get some good ideas and insight.

Biblical Preaching and Student Ministry--Do the two Mix?

Have you ever noticed that the majority of people describe the weekly youth pastor’s presentation as being a “lesson” or “talk” to the students? Often even the Youth Pastor is reluctant to call his presentation a “sermon” or “preaching”. People tend to see a big difference between what the lead pastor does on Sunday morning and the youth pastor does on Wednesday night. The question is, “Are they different?” The problem is that you can’t go chapter and verse to find a description of what a Youth Director is to do. However, you can go chapter and verse to see what a Pastor is to be. There is no description of a “director” in the early church age that organized pizza parties for the youth. But, there are plenty of descriptions of pastors who shepherd their flocks of people, and that is what we are! We are spiritual shepherds of teenagers. The most important flock that teenagers can belong to is a believing family. The second most important flock is the church as a whole. Then, I would say that the flock of the church youth ministry comes third. We must see our shepherding responsibility in light of the bigger picture. We are in a sense under-shepherds to parents and senior pastors.

If we are shepherds of teenagers, then all the verses pertaining to pastors pertain to us. We, as youth pastors, love to preach 1 Timothy 4:12 -16 to our youth because of the “Let no one despise your youth” phrase. However, Paul is not writing to teenagers, he is writing to a young pastor.

1 Timothy 4: "11 Command and teach these things. 12 Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. 13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. 14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. 15 Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

Paul’s words here relate much more to youth pastors than teenagers. What is the theme in those verses? First, we are to set an example in “speech, conduct, in love, in faith, in purity”. Second, we are to devote ourselves to the public reading of scripture. We are to use the scripture to “exhort” and to “teach”. It also says we are to “guard the teaching”. As youth pastors, we are called to place the word at the center of who we are, and what we say to the youth. Though a youth sermon may look different than a Sunday morning all age inclusive sermon, it must not be any less dependant on the word of God. Apart from the word of God, we have absolutely nothing to say that carries any power. If we are just giving “talks” or “lessons”, we need to sit down and be quite. However, if we stand and proclaim the words of God, then we will save both ourselves and our hearers.