A couple of weeks ago our
senior pastor announced that he would retire at the end of April and we would
do a pastor search. However, it was announced on Sunday that the associate
pastor is a candidate for the position and will be interviewed. No empaneled
search committee, no vetting of candidates, no time for prayerful
consideration. By all appearances the church leadership is contemplating a
political appointment. When Jesus predicted his death Peter, thinking
politically, rebuked the Lord and said that would never happen. “Jesus turned
and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me;
you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men” (Matt 16:23
NIV).
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Certainly Paul was not brought forward into his ministry by a search committee. Nor was Moses. God developed them from a basic characteristic of who they were. Paul did appoint Timothy and Titus to their positions, but that was because he saw the spiritual substance of who they were.
-----I understand how “special” a preacher needs to be to a congregation. It is an important relationship. So it is only natural that a congregation would go shopping for a preacher who will fit its list of criteria. I had a list of criteria I expected my prospective wife to fit when I was looking to marry. I shopped for seventeen years. Maybe my criteria list was too long. Maybe not. Maybe my maturity wasn’t yet developed enough to appreciate any of the many good women I passed by in those years. But now having this one, I am thankful I passed the rest.
-----I look back at my life and am sure the Lord matched me with Char. But I also now realize that the importance of my relationship with a wife is far less in how pleasing she is to me and far more in how pleasing I make myself to her. The fundamental substance of relationships in the Lord is up-building one another.
-----I wonder if that “specialness” of a preacher might not be very similar? Does a prospect know the Lord sincerely from his heart and behave correspondingly? That was my first criteria for a wife -that her relationship with the Lord was the most sincere substance of her character.
-----I’m not deliberately the kind of guy who always gets the brush-off from the preacher. But I have always very effectively gotten that brush-off from almost every preacher I‘ve known. It’s been a useful thing to me. The harder they brush, the more I understand about their sincerity. I don’t know if Steve has ever been “the preacher”. But Steve’s never brushed me off. Never. I wonder, how long is your criteria list?
-----I don’t know Steve well. But the sense I get from being around him is that of sincerity. Maybe I’m all blown in the head, and Steve’s just good at faking it. You who know him better need to give sincerity about the Lord a big consideration, because after all, relationships are developmental things. And those relationships developed by the fundamental substance Christ made for relationships -up building one another- are the richest, the most cherished, and by the very nature of what made them, the most effective. Maybe the best preacher is the one who grows within the up-building of the congregation. Sincerity is critical for that, because sincerity is necessary for deep roots into God's Word.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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