"Your Pastor: God's Servant or Messenger from Hell?"

Post-Modern Culture has shown over and over that it has virtually no respect for the office of "Pastor". During a conflict last year between a local Christian school and the church that started it, at one point the District Superintendent (who oversaw not just that church but dozens of churches on his district) stated to a crowd of parents and supporters that due to the school not paying their rent, "the church couldn't even afford to pay the Pastor."

I don't know what reaction he was aiming for but the reaction he got was murmuring, apathy, and annoyance. Those post-modern listeners couldn't care less if the church couldn't afford to pay their Pastor, as a "Pastor" meant about as much to many of them as a Shaman, Witch Doctor, Guru or Snake Oil Salesman. And these were listeners who were sending their kids to a Christian school! Granted, at that point alot of bad blood had already been figuratively spilt in that conflict by both sides, but it struck me as a sign of something more: another brick in the wall of demeaning and devaluing the office of Pastor.

But to be fair, the office of "Pastor" has done very little in the eyes of contemporary viewers to merit much respect. Mark Driscoll, Pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Seattle points out that when the church started, the roughest, bravest, manliest of men were called into the ministry, to teach the word of God and preach the salvation that is found only in Christ.

Now, along with the ubiquitous sex and financial scandals, many Protestant Pastors are now afraid to offend the lost and instead preach "fill-in-the blank" acrostic "sermonettes" that are pulled topically from the Bible to give what ever they are talking about a "Biblical Basis": wanna talk about social justice? Here's a verse from Amos...think we need to do a better job taking care of the earth? Well, here's some verses in Genesis to back your point of view. Have a problem with tatoos, smoking, or piercings amongst the youth of your flock? Lay a little 1Corinthians on them. Pastors sticking their finger in the air to see which way the winds of the culture are blowing, trying to meet the felt needs of their people, or what they feel are the needs of their people, instead of simply preaching the Gospel and teaching the Word of God.

Or Pastors trying desperately to be so cool and relevant in an attempt to draw young people into their church that they compromise on the foundational truths of the Word and let in destructive heresies (yes, heresies still exist) such as teaching that Jesus might be only one of many ways to Heaven, or that Jesus was not born of a virgin, or that when Jesus was talking about the fires of Hell, he didn't mean literal fire. These are the "seeker sensitive, all-inclusive" lies of the "reconciling churches" or "Emergent churches" out there.

I can understand the pressure to put up big numbers. We Pastors try so hard to get people to come into church and then to KEEP those who do come in that we can start focusing on numbers and programs and events and stray from the basic principles. But, it was these principles that "turned the world upside down" and caused the Christian faith to spread from 11 shook up guys in Jerusalem circa 33 A.D. to a region spreading from Europe to India in less than 100 years. What were those principles? Preaching Christ and teaching the Scriptures.

And despite the best efforts of the truly committed, biblical Pastors out there, who are preaching Jesus and teaching God's Word, the Bible tells us that there will come a day when people will no longer accept sound doctrine and will instead raise up for themselves false teachers who will appease their "itching ears" and win people over to them with fables (2Tim 4:3-4). That day has come, like the first drops of rain in what will be a flood of apostasy, we are experiencing it at this very moment.

Please, pray that revival will come to our nation and that it will start with the Pastors, for we need the mercy of God far more than our brothers and sisters in Christ. We bear responsibility for the souls of our people, a duty to shepherd and protect them spiritually. What dire judgement awaits the "pastor" who not only does not protect his flock from false teaching, but embraces it and infects his people with it.

I urge you:

Study the Bible on your own so that you may know false teaching when you hear it.

Pray for your Pastors and their famliles fervently. Spurgeon used to tell the elders of his church "Please tell me if you ever plan to stop praying for me, for on that day I will stop preaching". We cannot serve, minister, preach and teach the people of God effectively or with power unless you, our people, pray for us.

To conclude, consider Spurgeon's words:
“Did you ever notice this one thing about Christian ministers, that they need even more mercy than other people? Although everybody needs mercy, ministers need it more than anybody else; and so we do, for if we are not faithful, we shall be greater sinners even than our hearers, and it needs much grace for us always to be faithful, and much mercy will be required to cover our shortcomings.

So I shall take those three things to myself: ‘Grace, mercy, and peace.’ You may have the two, ‘Grace and peace,’ but I need mercy more than any of you; so I take it from my Lord’s loving hand, and I will trust, and not be afraid, despite all my shortcomings, and feebleness, and blunders, and mistakes, in the course of my whole ministry.”--Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Pastor Mike