Help for new Preacher!!

God opens doors, not man (well, not man for the most part ) If they are coming to hear you preach, and you just surrendered, I am not certain you are ready quite yet to pastor. You may be able to preach, but this is not indicative of being capable or qualified to pastor. Perhaps you should consider some Bible college.

God bless your pastor, but to me, and only from what you say, he sounds controlling and paranoid.

The only One who can show you which way to go...well, you know the answer to this. Walk with Him and avoid an occassion to the flesh and watch temptations and pride. And pray.

- Bleesings

 

When I was a child we sang a song titled "I am a sermon in shoes". It meant that my life was a living sermon. You are preaching a sermon by your life every day.

It is not easy to give counsel on a forum like this because we hardly know your background, how God has been and is currently working in you, your strengths, gifts, growth areas, potential rough edges that God is refining, etc. Any advice we would give would likely miss the point.

You should seek God's will and determine if your current church:

1. is Bible based
2. has competent leaders who are true to the Bible, have wisdom to help you grow, are able and willing to help you grow
3. is where God wants you to serve, learn, and grow in Him

If the above is true then you should be thankful for the church God has provided for you and for their leadership and seek how to learn from them and wait for their counsel.

If the above is not true then you should begin a diligent research project to find a church where the above is true. Then you could post a different post on what kind of church should I look for. You may end up defining a church that is just like your current church and decide to stay and find God's will inside that church, ... or maybe not.

People in a local church are better able to help you evaluate these questions than we can on a forum.

 

First, it's not "his" pulpit. It is the church's pulpit and God's pulpit.

I would suggest that you return to your home church, if that is how you feel led.

 

Try going to some of your local nursing homes & asking the activities director if you can come & have a weekly worship service with the residents. That will give you oppotunity to preach as you wait on the Lord to open doors. But, don't use it as just a time filller or preaching practice. Minister to these people as you would anyone in a church you will eventually pastor (or at least as much as you are able to & allowed by the nursing home).

 

AMEN!!! All the pastors I know who had this mentality, had a major problem with pride and were not good mentors for young pastors.

Sometimes it takes time between the calling and actually getting to be a true pastor. It will happen in God's time. Until then, prove yourself, study, learn, find a mentor and find someone else TO mentor, volunteer to serve where needed in the church, whether cutting the grass or folding bulletins.

 

Perhaps you should inquire of other pastors in your area who know you. It would not be uncommon for one of them to extend a ministerial courtesy to you by allowing you to use their pulpit on the Sunday or Wednesday you need to preach.

Without knowing why your current pastor is not willing to give up his pulpit for just one service to help you, I hesitate to say "shame on him,"......, but, shame on him.

 

I am not a pastor or a preacher, but I am a deacon, so my advice to you is from that perspective.

1. You are not ready to pastor, but you need to preach.

2. If you are Southern Baptist, your church is probably affiliated. Call the Director of Missions, ask him to put you on his list of available supply preachers. The association is a good clearinghouse to hook up available preachers to churches needing somebody to preach for them.

3. If your pastor won't mentor you, why not ask him to suggest a pastor who will. If he won't let you preach, ask him to recommend you to his pastor friends who need a supply sometimes. Don't get crossways with your pastor; you need him. Emphasize your desire to preach and your desire to learn from him.

2. Is the associate pastor experienced or mature enough? He might mentor you.

3. Is there a nearby Bible College? Call the personal secretary to the president and tell her of your desire to supply preach. She'll know where to point you. Enroll for classes, particularly homiletics. In addition to preaching, you need to learn how to prepare a sermons, how to preach.

4. If you can't find a pulpit, go out in the woods and preach to the animals. I'm not joking. Practice on them.

5. Be patient. God didn't call you to preach to leave you with nowhere to preach and nobody to preach to.

 

The best advice i can give you is to Pray for God to lead you. God calls his ministers and God will make a way for you to preach.

 

Preacher 1611, from what you describe it sounds like your pastor is insecure of his position and threatened by you. A mature, confident pastor would welcome the opportunity to mentor a young preacher.

If you have only been called for a year I would question your ability to pastor already. What you need is practice, training and education. If you cannot get that from your pastor, you need to get it somewhere else. What ministries will your pastor let you participate in? You need to be teaching Sunday School or leading bible studies. As others pointed out, nursing home or hospital ministries can be great. You also need formal education. I don’t live to far from you, but I do not know of any schools in Conover. If your church is SBC affiliated then I would start with your director of missions and ask about local seminary extension classes. These can be a great start.

I admire your zeal to jump into ministry Preacher, but learn to walk before you try to run.

 

You have gotten much good advice from other experienced men. My thoughts will echo their own. You need opportunities; if your Pastor does not seem interested in your development as a Minister (assuming that he recognizes your calling), then he is not operating as he should. A Pastor is supposed to be equipping the saints whom the Lord has placed under him. If he recognizes your calling, yet is disinterested in mentoring you, it might be time to move on.

One also needs to realize that some opportunities do not begin in the pulpit. Some of the ideas that others have offered here mirrored my own experience. I began as a Sunday School teacher to Youth. When they needed an Interim Youth Minister, they offered me the position. This eventually led to me becoming the church's Youth Pastor. During this time, I volunteered to preach quarterly at a local nursing home and was offered opportunities to preach at my home church. Eventually word got out and other churches contacted me to come as a supply preacher (I had the blessing of my home church to do all of this as they wanted to see me develop as a preacher/pastor). Later, opportunities came to pastor- first as interim and then as Senior Pastor. My point is that this represented years and years of work, with God opening doors at each point; during all of this I was pursuing my education.

My advice is simple: seek out a place where God wants you to serve. If it is a Sunday School class, this is a great opportunity. Treat that Sunday School class like it is a small church. Get to know the members of that class, minister to them, inform your pastor as to their needs, be his help with this group, his contact with them. I know that most pastors would be very thankful to have such a person working with them. If you take this seriously, you will learn a great deal and God will continue to open doors. If at all possible, continue your education (Bible College, Seminary, whatever you can do).

I pray that you will get off to a great start!

 

Maybe not the answer or advice you are looking for .... but could it be that your pastor doesn't share your conviction that you are called to preach? Have others shared with you concerning your call and in effect endorsed it? or is it simply what you believe to be the case?

Regards
Bob

 

Preacher1611,

I know how you feel as I have been in a similar situation, more or less, where the pastor says he will "mentor" you but nothing ever materializes, nor does he allow you any opportunity to preach. I had received my calling years before and had grown in it before I came to the church. I know in my case the few times I did get to preach (when the pastor was too hoarse or sick) the congregation afformed my calling and gifts... but each time the pastor seemed to be more like King Saul than Jesus. I eventually left that church but have not persued the calling.

As was said above, God opens doors. Maybe you could ask the pulpit committee if you could fill in for their church one Sunday as I assume they are without a pastor if they are actively looking.

 

Does premillennial mean that you believe rapture, tribulation then millennial kingdom?

Also how can a pastor be "ok" with you leaving the church? I really don't see how your convictions need to be oked by him.