Welcome back to my blog posts. In this numbered series, I’m trying to offer some help in answering the questions: “How does a pastor go about finding a role that works?” To build a foundation for future positive suggestions, I’m sharing some of the experiences I had as I began my ministry in the local church.
Here are some more details concerning the second church where I served.
After a period of time, I began to content myself with working in the high school department. I was not surprised to discover how little these students paid attention to what was going on each Sunday.
I gave them a primary-level test with questions like, “Who had the coat of many colors?” “What man built the ark?” “Name five of Christ’s disciples?” These, and several other questions of the same ilk, made up a test with a perfect score of 100. However, the average score for these high school students was 17! That’s right, 17! And, the vast majority of these teens had been in the church their entire lives.
When I gave these figures to the board of elders, I was asked how this could possible be since these young people were sitting under the finest preaching to be found. I, in turn, asked the men if any of them could tell me anything that had been said in a message over the last two months, including the one preached the previous Sunday.
There was a long pause. I went from one man to the next, calling them by name, but none could remember anything that had been preached during that period. They just could not remember, even though some truly “big name” guest preachers had been expounding each week.
The following Sunday, one of the elders rushed up to me saying, “Brother Mains, I want to talk to you. I’ve been thinking about what you said, and I remember something from one of the sermons!” As you can imagine, such confrontations did not make me the most popular person on the church staff. Once I began to honestly express my feelings, however, I had to come forth with all of the questions which were torturing me.
I’ll share those questions with you in the next post in this series. In case you’re wondering where this narrative intends to go, let me assure you that I am simply building a foundation on which I will place some very concrete suggestions to help answer the question: “How does a pastor go about finding a role that works?” If getting some answers to that question interests you, I sincerely invite you to come back to this blog and read more.
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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about? Or, what will you preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon? David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help you learn how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons. Just click here to visit David Mains’ website.
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Looking forward to Christmas? Looking for key Sermon Ideas? Wondering what to preach throughout the Christmas Season? Searching for help in preparing for your Sermons on Christmas Day? In addition to the above special offer, Mainstay Ministries has many valuable resources filled with Christmas Sermon Ideas to help you plan for your Christmas preaching and for such Sunday Sermons, including resources for the following: Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermon, Advent Sermon Series, Advent Sunday Sermons, Christmas Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermon, and Christmas Sermon Series. Connect with us on-line by clicking here.
