Q and A with John MacArthur – Ministry Threats

In the book Rediscovering Pastoral Ministry John MacArthur is asked the following question:

What do you see as the greatest threats that may undermine a man’s ministry today?

One threat is laziness.  We live in a really busy and fast-paced culture.  many men run fast, but I’m not sure they go very deep.  By that I mean it is easy to be busy with the short and easier tasks but leave the long, hard jobs undone.  We are raising a culture, for example, that does not do the manual labor, at least in the major cities.  You hire people to do that.  It’s a service-oriented culture in America, it’s moving away from farming and manufacturing, and it’s all automated.  Many men do not know how to work hard, especially those who have been in school for a long time.  They know how to stay busy doing a number of little things, but they do not know how to focus with discipline on the main thing – diligence and discipline in the Scripture.  The result is often a failure to attend to the priorities and resultant superficiality in the ministry – the things that take time and prayer and intense study of the Word – are often not done well.

Second, there are constant threats in the area of personal purity.  We all have to guard our hearts and strengthen the inner man to remain pure, devoted to Christ, and dedicated to things that are holy.

Filed under: John MacArthur, Ministry, Pastors

Preaching is not Lecturing

I have heard some wonderful lectures in my time and I have also heard some wonderful sermons. But a sermon is not a lecture and a lecture is not a sermon. A biblical preacher, in every sense of the word, must preach sermons, not deliver lectures. A preacher of God’s Word does not lecture about Christian truths or give a running commentary on a passage or section of Scripture – this is not preaching.

First, a preacher begins with a text and strives in his preparation and delivery to always be Scriptural. You do not take a theme and speak on it, as is popular today; instead you expound some doctrine through the

Filed under: Jonathan Edwards, Ministry, Pastors, Preaching

Letters from a Pastor: Balancing Ministry and Family

Pastor and People,

I have been a pastor for about 6 years in a church in Virginia consisting of a membership of about 125. Besides a part-time secretary I am the only individual on the church staff. Needless to say, I am a very busy man as I strive to meet the needs of our members and reach out to our community. I have two Sunday messages to prepare, a Wednesday night Bible study, weekly counseling sessions, committee meetings to attend and much

Filed under: Family, Letters from a Pastor, Ministry, Pastors, The Church

Letters from a Pastor: Pastoral Depression

Dear Pastor and People,

I am at a place in ministry where I feel depressed and devoid of any desire to do ministry. How can I get help and still be effective in ministry? I feel like I am losing hope but have to act like everything is OK with my fellow brothers in ministry. They just have a get over it attitude.

Jeffrey

__________________________

Dear Jeffrey,

Your situation is the same as numerous pastors around the world. You feel as if you are ineffective in ministry because of your current state of mind and heart. You give and give and never get anything back. I know, I have been in the same exact place.

I would suggest first, to take a small break. Take a few weeks off from your pastoral and ministry duties. You are not quitting on God but simply refueling yourself. Set under good preaching and teaching during this break. Go to the outdoors and enjoy God’s creation as you read, pray, and refocus your thoughts upon His glory and call upon your life.

Your fellow brothers in ministry who feel as if you need to “get over it” do not understand the problem of pastoral depression and emptiness but will before their ministry is over. Seek the counsel of a wise older pastor who has been in the ministry for many years. Someone who understands what you are going through.

Unfortunately this is not a quick fix and one that will take much prayer, discipline, and devotion on your own part. I pray you rise forth from this valley soon!

Dustin

Filed under: Depression, Letters from a Pastor, Ministry, Pastors

A Word to Preachers

“I should think myself in the way of my duty, to raise the affections of my hearers as high as possibly I can, provided that they are affected with nothing but truth, and with affections that are not disagreeable to the nature of the subject. I know it has long been fashionable to despise a very earnest and pathetical way of preaching; and they only have been valued as preachers, who have shown the greatest extent of learning, strength of reason, and correctness of method and language. But I humbly conceive it has been for want of understanding or duly considering human nature, that such preaching has been thought to have the greatest tendency to answer the ends of preaching; and the experience of the present and past ages abundantly confirms the same. Though, as I said before, clearness of distinction, illustration, and strength of reason, and a good method in the doctrinal handling of the truths of religion, is in many ways needful and profitable, and not to be neglected; yet an increase in speculative knowledge in divinity is not what is so much needed by our people as something else. Men may abound in this sort of light and have no heat. How much has there been of this sort of know ledge, in the Christian world, in this age! Was there ever an age, wherein strength and penetration of reason, extent of learning, exactness of distinction, correctness of style, and clearness of expression, did so abound? And yet, was there ever an age, wherein there has been so little sense of the evil of sin, so little love to God, heavenly-mindedness, and holiness of life, among the professors of the true religion? Our people do not so much need to have their heads stored, as to have their hearts touched; and they stand in the greatest need of that sort of preaching which has the greatest tendency to do this”

- Jonathan Edwards(Vol.1.391)

Filed under: Jonathan Edwards, Ministry, Pastors