A Warning To Pastors?
I have had some disturbing news about a former pastor of mine how for the past few years he had entirely been plagerizing his sermons. I was heart broken to hear this, but also I was pleased to hear that instead of just letting him go or glossing over it they made him appologize to the entire congregation. These days it seems that we are living in a world of the pastor as celbirty (which is nothing new), which is leaving them open to attack by the media. Sometimes justified and sometimes not. There are a few things I take away from this:
(1)Our pastors and congregations need to be careful about what is taught within our churches and not be afraid to ask questions. I saw this aparent in my sisters church. There was a disagreement as to pre or post milleniasm that was very openly and civilly discussed. Plus we need to spend more time in God's word, not just reading and moving on, but seriously sitting down, reading, and meditating on it in order to have more wisdom about this.
(2)There are people in the pastorate who should not be their. If you are considering being in ministry of any sort you have to ask yourself why are you doing it? For the glory of God or the glory of self. Having been involved in ministry for a long time it is easy to get full of yourself. Aparently ministry isn't all about me. Who knew?
(3)With each passing week there seems to be a new movement coming around the bend. This sort of ties into item #1. Whether it's mega-church seeker service, emergent, neo-orthodoxy, or return to fundamentalism, be very wary of movements. Any movement no matter how attractive it's ideas may seem we have to test it to the cannon of scripture. There are things that are minor and do not matter much, while others are a huge deal leading us down a path of legalism, softness on sin, or an illegitimate relationship with Christ.
Let's face it, when it comes to the faith we are going to struggle with it at times. Even the apostles struggled with their faith and got in wrong once in a while. Didn't Peter deny Christ? Or how about the apostles asking who'd be the greatest in the kingdom? When these moments of foolishness come up we need to seek God and his righteousness. And when our pastors and leaders are attacked we need to handle it with the same love and grace Christ showed the apostles. Punishing when necessar and leading them back to the truth.
(1)Our pastors and congregations need to be careful about what is taught within our churches and not be afraid to ask questions. I saw this aparent in my sisters church. There was a disagreement as to pre or post milleniasm that was very openly and civilly discussed. Plus we need to spend more time in God's word, not just reading and moving on, but seriously sitting down, reading, and meditating on it in order to have more wisdom about this.
(2)There are people in the pastorate who should not be their. If you are considering being in ministry of any sort you have to ask yourself why are you doing it? For the glory of God or the glory of self. Having been involved in ministry for a long time it is easy to get full of yourself. Aparently ministry isn't all about me. Who knew?
(3)With each passing week there seems to be a new movement coming around the bend. This sort of ties into item #1. Whether it's mega-church seeker service, emergent, neo-orthodoxy, or return to fundamentalism, be very wary of movements. Any movement no matter how attractive it's ideas may seem we have to test it to the cannon of scripture. There are things that are minor and do not matter much, while others are a huge deal leading us down a path of legalism, softness on sin, or an illegitimate relationship with Christ.
Let's face it, when it comes to the faith we are going to struggle with it at times. Even the apostles struggled with their faith and got in wrong once in a while. Didn't Peter deny Christ? Or how about the apostles asking who'd be the greatest in the kingdom? When these moments of foolishness come up we need to seek God and his righteousness. And when our pastors and leaders are attacked we need to handle it with the same love and grace Christ showed the apostles. Punishing when necessar and leading them back to the truth.
posted by Out Of Jersey | 10:40 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home