There Was A Young Pastor Fresh Out Of Seminary. ...

There was a young pastor fresh out of seminary. Had finally gotten called to his first church and was extremely excited. He had 3 years of fresh new ideas and he couldn’t wait to take over so he could show and tell the church what to do.

The first Sunday he stood before the church and gave them what for. He told them all of the things they needed to improve, he told them how to do it and if was to be pastor they better get about doing it. At the end of the service he went by the door and shook everyone’s hand. They all were very nice and seemed to be accepting what he had said graciously.

The week was fairly uneventful and he had spent many hours preparing the next message. It was a little less forceful but not by much. He had driven around the community and saw some things the church needed to do. The courses he had taken in seminary addressed those very problems. He had even called the Associational Director to tell him what a success it had been.

Sunday came along and things seemed rather quite. Again everyone was rather cordial as he went to his office. The Director of Missions walked into his office before the service and even walked over to the sanctuary with him. He was greatly excited at that point. As he walked through the door he noticed it was quieter that usual. To his astonishment no one was there. The sanctuary was empty.

The Director of Missions explained he was there for a reason. He told him that before he had called that week he had already received a call from the elders of the church explaining the unanimous vote to fire him. The church thought he was a very nice pastor but too inexperience to deal with a church on his own.

The young pastor had discovered a valuable lesson. It is hard to pastor if no one is following. Cooperation is essential to any task in the church