Pastors Are Teachers Not Builders!

1 Timothy 5:17 "Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine."

I spoke you a young man today who told me they had a new young Pastor and “he was happy because; while the older one preached well he could not add to the church and he had hope the new one could; he has more energy he told me”. I responded to this young man “I guess we disagree on what a Pastors job is” because a Pastor is a teacher not a social organizer. He was not happy with the older Pastor because he taught too much, hum, but apparently this young man did not listen? Folks a Pastors job is not to build churches, nor is it to be a social organizer, his job is not to pat you on the head and make you happy, his job is not to be a fundraiser, folks, his job is to be an overseer of the Lords church and to teach the membership Gods word. I believe the reason people have the wrong idea what a Pastor is, is because most of the graduates for these seminaries are not pastors but social organizers and therefore people have concluded that all pastors should be likewise. This is what God defines as a good pastor; "Let the elders that rule well…” That is a pastor that oversees the church well, ruling well is not being a good fundraiser, nor is it being good at socializing, ruling well is working to under-sheppard the Lords church, which is keeping it running according to the scriptures and according to Gods command and will. It is possible that a pastor that does his job well may not be the most popular man in the church or even the community but he will be to the Sheppard of the church which is Jesus Christ. Folks don’t get angry at the pastor if the church is not growing, or if the money is not growing, for this anger maybe you should look at yourself and the person sitting next to you at church. If a church is functioning properly then God will grow the church, God himself will deliver the funds not the pastor. Your pastor’s job is to preach the word of God and to care and oversee the church not to be a social planner or a fundraiser. Did not God tell the church at Jerusalem to appoint seven good men to help the pastors with this work, this work is the social part of the church, however some deacons believe they are appointed to control the church and even the pastor, but it would do them well to re-read Acts chapter 6. The text scripture goes on to say “…be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine." Why “labour in the word and doctrine” because that is their real job not all this other stuff. If the church is responding to the scriptures properly and the membership it tithing then the church has no need for fundraising. If the membership is doing their job then the church will grow because they will be energetic in inviting people to church. The Lord reminds us "Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; (38.) Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest." Matthew 9:37 – 38. Maybe a pastor should ask God to send some laborers that is to light a fire under the membership to work the field. A pastor’s time is well spent in study of Gods word so he can teach it to the church. Preaching is not an easy task in fact it is very difficult and one that does it well is one that studies much.

I looked at the newspaper today and it had the social events of the church here in Texarkana and almost every church listed had some sort of fundraiser for their churches, or some sort of singles connection group, and I must ask is this part of the churches work? The Lord will supply the needed funds if a church is functioning well and take away from a church that is not, and sometimes the Lord will leave a church lacking to test their faith, it is Gods work to supply the needs of the church not the pastors, it is Gods job to grow the church not the pastors, for both these works He has assembled a congregation, that is to tithe and to invite and if both of these are accomplished by the church membership then the pastor has time to do his work and teach and lead the congregation. This is the question; are you doing your part?