If you can\u2019t stand the smell of sheep, you shouldn\u2019t be a shepherd.879<\/p>\n
A pastor-teacher who does not love people is like a shepherd who is allergic to sheep, or a woman who wants to have a family but can\u2019t stand children.880<\/p>\n
A survey of many churches was taken by the American Association of Theological Schools. Each church sampled was to list the qualities desired in a minister they would consider employing. The results;<\/p>\n
First: Humility<\/p>\n
Second: Honesty<\/p>\n
Third: Good example in daily living<\/p>\n
Fourth: Excellence in ministerial skills (i.e., preaching, counseling, teaching, etc.)881<\/p>\n
If you hired a gardener to take care of your lawn and then went past his house and saw that his own yard was sloppy and unkempt, would you trust him with the care of your lawn? Or, if you went to the dentist to get your teeth checked and sat down in the chair only to look up to see that the dentist had a mouthful of rotten teeth, would you trust him to work on your teeth?<\/p>\n
How can a minister expect any positive response to his ministry if his life is not holy?882<\/p>\n
\u201cThe preacher needs to be pastor, that he may preach to real men. The pastor must be preacher, that he may keep the dignity of his work alive. The preacher, who is not a pastor, grows remote. The pastor, who is not a preacher, grows petty\u201d (Bishop Phillips Brooks, Lectures on Preaching<\/i> [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1969], p. 77).883<\/p>\n
\u201cPower for service is second. Power for holiness and character is first. The first, second, and third requisite for our work is personal godliness. Without that, though I have the tongues of men and angels, I am harsh and discordant as sounding brass, monstrous and unmusical as a tinkling cymbal\u201d (Alexander Maclaren).884<\/p>\n
Spurgeon said that this prayer would be the very last one he would pray, if able: \u201cLord, send to thy Church men filled with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Give to any denomination such men and its progress must be mighty; keep back such men, send them college gentlemen, of great refinement and profound learning, but of little fire and grace, dumb dogs which cannot bark, and straightway that denomination must decline.\u201d (Cited by Iain Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon<\/i> [Carlisle, Penn.: Banner of Truth, 1978], p. 36.)885<\/p>\n
After years of research, the profile of the \u201cperfect pastor\u201d has been developed. The perfect pastor preaches exactly fifteen minutes. He condemns sin, but never embarrasses anyone. He works from 8:00 a.m. until midnight and is also the church janitor. He makes $60 a week, wears good clothes, drives a new car, and gives $50 a week to the poor. He is twenty-eight years old and has been preaching for twenty-five years, is wonderfully gentle and handsome, loves to work with teenagers, and spends countless hours with senior citizens. He makes fifteen calls daily on parish families, shut-ins, and hospital patients, and he is always in his office when needed.<\/p>\n
If your pastor does not measure up to this profile of the perfect pastor, simply send this description to six other churches that are tired of their pastor. Then bundle up your pastor and send him to the church at the top of the list. In one week you will receive 1,643 pastors. One of them should be perfect.886<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you can\u2019t stand the smell of sheep, you shouldn\u2019t be a shepherd.879 A pastor-teacher who does not love people is like a shepherd who is allergic to sheep, or a woman who wants to have a family but can\u2019t stand children.880 A survey of many churches was taken by the American Association of Theological … Continue reading “MINISTER, QUALITIES OF”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13673\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}