Appropriate Topics for Guest Speakers

I have preached revivals where the pastor asked me to address a specific problem in his church (the last one I remember were members buying lottery tickets). He felt that he could not address it without offending someone and since I would be gone next week. . . well it would be ok if they were mad at me.

If asked by a pastor to address the versions question I don't see that it would be inappropriate, but to inject it into a service, especially if his views ran contrary to the pastors, would be.

 

I have had the priviledge to fill the pulpit on a number of occasions in the past few years. I have always taken the path that does two things:

1. I preach a sermon that is doctrinally based on what the scripture says and is an encouragement to leave the church and live a more Christ focused life after the service than before. I always (in these particular cases) understood my job to be that of preaching the truth to be an encouragement. This usually leads to the second path, and if it does not I build a highway.

2. I present the gospel of Christ is a clear manner for those who do not know Christ as their personal saviour. This is the purpose of all preaching, to present the gospel to those who are in attendance. When I filled at a church I was actually ministering at, if it was all home folk then this was not as big a presentation as if someone new was in the crowd. But it was still there. When I filled the pulpit for other pastors, I always assume that someone in the pews or chairs needed Christ and His gospel. Anything less makes me an accessory to their eternal damnation.

I have never had a pastor ask me to preach on a certain subject, and if I did then I would feel obligated to let him know what my position was on the matter. If it did not meet with his, then he has a decision to make, if it does then I have a sermon to prepare.

 

jshurley04 said

I got to give that a big

AMEN

 

(We recently had a revival where the preacher attacked the other versions and basically said the KJV was the only right version. He specifically attacked the NASB. What are your thoughts?)
brobobby....if you are not the Pastor of this church it isn't your business nor any one else on this board to discuss what the guest evangelist preached! It seems to me it's the dog yelping that got hit by the stone.

 

(That is the saddest bit of advice. You are a church member and this evil was perpetrated on your church. I would PRAY that you don't just stick your head in the sand and say it isn't your business. It IS)......and you call yourself a pastor, hmmmm. I'd bet there's not much pastoral authority in your church is there. You didn't learn that in the school you graduated from! You never had a special speaker in to preach and spoke to him about an area you wanted him to help you with?

 

I am interested Shiloh, you say to Dr. Bob

Just how would you define pastoral authority?

If you were a regular church member and not a pastor (I assume you were one once) and had a speaker come into your church and preach something contrary to the Word of God and contrary to the doctrines and beliefs of your church would you consider it "none of your business?" What if your pastor did the same thing? Would you challenge him on it? Would you leave the church and look for another, or would you try to save the church you are a member of?

As a pastor, if someone came in and preached something contrary to what you believe how would you handle that? I assume from your comments you are King James Only. If you had a guest speaker come in and preach from a NIV bible what would you do? Now I know you should have checked the guy out before, but what if he slipped by somehow? What would you do?

What if you as a pastor preached something that one of your church members disagreed with? Would you want them to come talk to you about it or just leave the church because they could not follow you?

 

Good post Tentmaker. As a member, if a speaker preached something contrary to what our church believed, I would go straight to my pastor, not to some BB! If my pastor preached something contrary to what the church believed, I would go to him and asked some questions! Than make a decision.
As a pastor if someone preached something contrary to what I was preaching, I would ask him to be seated!!
As far as someone using the NIV from my pulpit, it wouldn't happen. If it as you said slipped by me, I would ask him to be seated!
If I preach something someone in the church doesn't agree with my wish is that they would come to me....not to some bb junkie. If I would preach something contrary to the doctrine of our church, than I am wrong!

 

Always struggled with the "The evangelist can say things the pastor can't" approach. No biblical basis for that. If the pastor is afraid to preach anything that is an accurate biblical message, he needs to go get a job. If he's not allowed to preach biblical truth, he needs to love his people so they can deal with his addressing the hard truths, or find another church.

As for special speakers and inappropriate topics, etc. A couple of years ago we were learning and discussing the doctrinal truths of Spurgeon's catechism as families in our Sunday School. Had a "missionary" in one week when we were discussing sovereignty in the context of salvation. He, being very Arminian, challenged me in front of the whole church. I, being the model of graciousness and kindness, simply explained to him what Scripture taught as I understood it. That night, when he preached, he preached on Cain's sin and some convoluted interpretation that taught Arminianism. It was so ridiculous that I never even addressed it with our people. They knew that he was "subtily" trying to straighten out the pastor's doctrine and saw right through him. I'm sure you'll all be surprised to hear we didn't support him. Down south, they have a term for people like him - the female is a jenny.

 

Wow, those are strong words! Words that ought to be etched on the surface of the pulpit so as to be in the preacher's face every time he gets up to speak.

AMEN!

 

Pastor Greg,

I don't know that I would have been that much of a gambler with my pulpit (if I had one). I see the pastoral responsibiliy is to gaurd against those who would preach against the doctrines of scripture. I am not sure that I would have allowed him back in to present his field or to speak especially after challenging me publicly as you described. I don't know that I have a kingdom mentality towards my pulpit, but I ceratainly do have a pit bull mentality towards the gaurding of my flock in the areas of doctrine.

 

I have heard pastors freely say, with deep personal satisfaction, that they have allowed people to speak in their pulpits:</font>

• "just to see what they would say"</font>
• "to let them hang themselves"</font>

Amazing.
I would leave that church immediately.
The pulpit is not for fun and games or for a pastor's personal satisfaction.