Thesis: Good preacher-church relations begin with the preacher.
Intro.:
1. Opening remarks.
2. Illust. A preacher's wife in a large church once asked a new member how he liked his new church home. "Great! The church is friendly, I love the building, the singing is excellent, and the teaching program is practical." "What about the preaching?" the preacher's wife asked. "Well, quite frankly, that's one area I've been disappointed in. The sermons are dry, too long, and don't relate well to my life." Preacher's wife: "Do you know who I am?" Man: "No." "Preacher's wife." Man: "Do you know who I am?" "No." "Good!" He then disappeared into the crowd.
I. PREACHER-CHURCH RELATIONSHIPS.
A. The importance of a good preacher-church relationship cannot be overemphasized.
1. When there is conflict in the church, often it can be traced to the preacher and his relationship to the congregation.
a. People in the church sometimes complain:
1) He's too bossy ................................ too passive.
2) He's not spiritual enough ........... goody-two-shoes.
3) He wants to change things ......... shows no initiative.
4) He studies too much ................. lessons aren't good.
b. Preachers complain too:
1) They don't respect my divinely-appointed leadership!
2) They give me tons of responsibility but no authority!
3) I'm overworked and underpaid--I do it all around here!
c. When this kind of tension exists, Satan gets a foothold and the church will not grow.
2. Numerous studies have indicated that one of the keys to church growth is a lengthy stay/ministry by preachers.
a. Illust. Lyle Schaller in Assimilating New Members, gives 12 ways to keep people from joining your church. One of them is to change preachers every 2-3-4 years. Scary. Someone has observed that the avg. stay of ministers in CsOC is less than 2 years.
b. Illust. Lynn Anderson preached for the Highland CoC (Abilene, TX) for nearly 20 years. He once said regarding the success of a preacher in a church: "The first 2 years you can do nothing wrong. The second 2 years you can do nothing right. The 5th and 6th years of a ministry, either you leave, or the people who think you can do nothing right leave. Or you change, or they change, or you both change. Productive ministry emerges somewhere in the 7th year or beyond."
B. How does a long, successful relationship between a church and its preacher happen? Not by accident!
1. Happens the same way a long, successful marriage--faithfulness.
2. While the relationship between a church and its preacher is somewhat less than a marriage covenant--it's still a covenant--and covenants are not to be set aside lightly.
II. THE CHALLENGE OF PREACHING (2 Tim. 4:1-5).
A. Low view of preachers and preaching.
1. Illust. Words are cheap in this age of information. General mistrust of people who use words for a living--preachers, used car salesmen, and politicians fall in that category. "Don't preach to me!" has bad connotations.
2. Illust. Observe how preachers are depicted by the media. One of two extremes. One is "Father Mulcahey" (MASH)--weak, wimpy, irrelevant, good guy on the fringe of real life. Other is "Elmer Gantry" variety (Jim Bakker or Jimmy Swaggert)--corrupt, conniving, hypocrite.
3. Illust. Even in the Church there is a low view of preaching. Someone has compared preaching to trying to fill a pop bottle by throwing a pail of water over it. A little gets inside, but most will be spilled on the ground and wasted. Nearly 50 years ago someone described the typical Sunday AM sermon: "The faithful still gather at the appointed hour before the pulpit to submit themselves to their Sunday martyrdom, but none expect less from the sermon than these, except the man who is preaching it."
B. High expectation of preachers and preaching.
1. In spite of everything we've just said, preachers and preaching have been a fixture in the Judeo-Christian religious tradition for over 2,000 years!
2. Worship styles have come and gone--preachers & preaching have stayed. That fact betrays the high expectation we have of p/prchng.
3. Illust. "THE PERFECT PREACHER" After 100s of years the perfect preacher has finally been found. He preaches exactly 20 minutes and then sits down. He condemns sin but never hurts anyone's feelings. He works from 7 AM to 10 PM in every type of work from preaching to taxi service. He makes $500 a week, owns a home, a nice car, is sending his kids to college, and gives $100 a week to the church. He is 26 years old and has been preaching for 30 years. He has a burning desire to work with youth, but spends all his time with the older folks. He is well-educated but never says anything we didn't know already. He smiles all the time with a straight face because he has a sense of humor that keeps him seriously dedicated to his work. He makes 15 calls a day on church members, spends all his time evangelizing the lost, and is never out of his office.
4. The Ideal Preacher/Wife (overheads).
C. In light of all this, what should a preacher who wants to really communicate do?
1. He should do what the inspired Apostle Paul tells him to do.
2. 2 Tim. 4:2--"Preach the word!"; 1 Tim. 4:13--"Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching, and to teaching."
III. THE KEY TO PREACHER-CHURCH COMMUNICATION (Titus 2:15).
< What does this involve? Two things. Both relate to preacher, not congregation! >
A. For a church to grow, its preacher must be worthy of respect.
1. Responsibility for good preacher-church relations rests primarily with the preacher!
a. Respect does not come with the office.
b. Illust. Once heard someone say, "If you can't respect the man, then respect the office the man holds and honor him." Sounds good. Hard to do. Much easier if person is worthy of respect. Can you imagine the Apostle John writing to the church: "I know you can't respect Diotrophes, but you need to honor him because of his office."
2. Respect is not automatic! Must be gained the old-fashioned way-- it has to be earned (1 Tim. 4:12).
a. Speech (not just what you say, but when, where, & how).
b. Life (how you live, polite/friendly/considerate? do bonehead stuff?)
c. Love (how you relate to people; pulpit not a whipping post!)
d. Faith (Courage; don't know what's ahead, but I'll keep working!)
e. Purity (maintain repentant attitude toward God & Man; "I'm sorry").
B. For a church to grow, its preacher must fulfill his God-given role. (Titus 2:15).
1. He is to TEACH ("These are the things you should teach").
a. What things?
b. Illust. There is an on-going need for grace-oriented preaching and teaching. Hearing the truth is not like a one-time vaccination--it's more like a prescription that needs to be dispensed over a long period of time! On the back of my door is this quote by Frederick Danker: "The Gospel is a fuel required constantly to produce and promote the life of the Spirit within the Christian. The fruits of the Spirit grow only where the Gospel is sown tirelessly and unremittingly."
2. He is to ENCOURAGE ("Encourage ...").
a. World is a discouraging enough place as it is without coming to church and getting even more discouraged!
b. The preacher who uses the pulpit as a whipping post should be taken out behind the synagogue and stoned!
3. He is to REBUKE ("... and rebuke").
a. Illust. Ever had someone tell you every time they see you that you look great? (not me, maybe you) Pretty soon what they say doesn't mean anything. In the same way church leaders must sometimes say, "We're not doing so well" for their praise to mean anything!
b. Illust. Ideally, truth is dispensed in small doses over a long period of time--like a prescription. But sometimes the doctor must give a large dose immediately--like a shot! A rebuke is like getting a shot--painful for the moment, but greatly needed.
Conclusion:
1. Close with a piece entitled, "A Minister of the Word." The best way to get good preaching is to expect good preaching!
2. "Make your preacher a minister of the word. Fling him into his office, tear the office sign from the door and nail on it the sign: STUDY. Take him off the mailing list, lock him up with his books. Get him all kind of books, and his Bible. Slam him down on his knees before texts, broken hearts, flippant lives of a superficial flock, and the Holy God. Force him to be the one in the community who knows God. Throw him into the ring to box with God till he learns how short his arms are; engage him to wrestle with God all the night through. Let him come out only when he is bruised and beaten into being a blessing. Set a time clock on him that will imprison him with thought and writing about God for 60 hrs. a week. Shut his big mouth forever spouting `remarks' and stop his tongue always tripping lightly over everything non-essential. Require him to have something to say before he dare break silence. Bend his knees in the lonesome valley, fire him from the PTA and cancel his country club membership; burn his eyes with weary study, wreck his emotional poise with worry for God, and make him exchange his pious stance for a humble walk with God and man. Make him spend and be spent for the glory of God. Rip out his telephone, burn up his ecclesiastical success sheets, refuse his glad hand, and put water in the gas tank of his community buggy. Give him a Bible and tie him in his pulpit and make him preach the word of the living God. Test him, quiz him, and examine him; humiliate him for his ignorance of things divine, and shame him for his glib comprehension of finances, batting averages, and political in-fighting. Laugh at his frustrated attempts to play psychiatrist, scorn his insipid morality, ignore his broadmindedness, and compel him to be a minister of the Word!
