What if your pastor was absent alot?

If this were me, I'd be talking about my ex-church.

 

I would question any pastor who would rather be out of his pulpit than it it. This will not end well.

 

I think I would be thinking former pastors in that situation. Neither seems edifying to that church.

Cheers,

Jim

 

What happens when the shepheard leaves the flock unattended to check out other things that are just as important or possibly more important?

 

Four responses, all in essential agreement.:applause: And they say the age of miracles is past!:love2:

 

Every time I've seen this happen, the pastor ended up candidating elsewhere and then leaving his church for another one. A former pastor of ours went to "visit relatives" and came back to announce he had taken another church. Like SBC says, it probably won't end well.

 

Start a church in your home.

 

Most of the time people who put others down are preaching about what they are not.

The last time I talked with someone who was like that I asked him, "How many can you name by name who is living for Jesus Christ because of your life?" He was speechless. Here he was complaining to me about a number of things and he could not name one person who was living for Jesus Christ because of his life. In effect he had no ministry outside of complaining.

 

Hypothetical:::: If you worked for my company, but phoned in every other day to say my competition needed your presence, you would end up working for someone else....pronto!

Consider a pastor as a paid employee. The sack is due and a new employee is to be engaged.

Cheers,

Jim

 

I understand what you are saying, and I agree with your stance, The pastor belongs with his flock, but I wouldn't consider other pulpits as the competitor. There is way too much of this in the church. However, based on reading past post I don't think that is what you intended.

 

My reference was to the assistant pastor.

Acts 20:28, "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood." That verse is a command for people to abide by not the Holy Spirit.

 

I see that a lot among pastors who do not have enough time in service at the feet of Jesus in the closet. Too many times pastors are led by the gurus who produce "results" (nickels and noses). Then later the gurus they followed crash.

Many years ago I met with a man who was the president of a mission board. He had served about 30 years in the same country in the same location. He told me that he worked in the same area as "Praying Hyde". He told me that Hyde was criticized because he prayed so much and did not do so much evangelism. The man told me that the only ministry that existed at the time was the one by "Praying Hyde".

Over the years I have been reminded of Heb. 13:7, "Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith."

If I want to know how to live the Christian life and am not sure what to do then look at someone who has the right kind of fruit. That kind of fruit is a shown as a result of a person's life.

When I was a college student I heard a speaker say, "Humble yourself before God has to do it."

I pity men who follow the crowd and gurus rather than Christ and the example he set.

 

Sadly far too many of our churches are led by absentee pastors these days. It is one of the great crises facing the evangelical church.

 

Every church needs a personnel policy that stipulates how much time each of its staff, including the pastoral staff, may take for vacation, study, and/or external ministry. And then there needs to be a Personnel Committee to make sure that those standards are adhered to ... which likely will mean records-keeping on the part of the pastor(s). I did that for years, and it not only made me refuse some opportunities I might like to have undertaken, simply because I did not have available time for them, but also it forestalled any questions about whether I was taking too much time away.

In the end, of course, nothing substitutes for integrity and for the desire to be on the scene and doing the task. In my experience, there is more than enough to do on any given day in the pastorate; you do not need to go running around looking for extracurricular stuff. Might the word "honorarium" have something to do with this situation, as in $$?

 

Are you suggesting they are absent even when they are there?

Cheers,

Jim

 

The rolls are also filled with absentee members pastored by pastors climbing a ladder having their backs slapped by those who are on a higher rung of the ladder. Nepotism helps to pull them up faster than usual.