I am an experienced preacher looking for a congregation where I may work full-time in a local setting. I wish to preach the gospel and I wish to help the local church to grow numerically. I also wish to help such a church grow spiritually. This is done by “sound” teaching from God’s word. There is an interesting and challenging facet of working locally as the preacher. One gets to know the brethren–the members and families of the local church. This is exciting. It also brings challenges when families or individuals have problems. For a number of years I have looked upon the work of preaching as a matter of solving problems, educating brethren, and winning souls to Christ. Sin is man’s biggest problem (Rom. 3:23), and sin brings a load of additional problems as the consequence of violating God’s word (Rom. 6:23).
Finding a congregation where one may labor for the Lord is not always easy. I am just as certain that it is not easy for a church that is seeking the services of preacher to find the one they feel is “right” for them.
In this blog and others that may follow, I wish to set forth some pitfalls or problems that are faced by the preacher in his quest to find a congregation where he may work. I also wish to help enlighten some who may not understand many of the difficulties faced in seeking such employment.
First, when a preacher is looking for a place to preach local churches that are looking for a preacher need to realize that they are on “trial” as a prospective congregation just as much as the preacher is “on trial”. Sometimes I think that some brethren in local churches assume that all the advantage is on the side of the local church and that every preacher who is “looking” wants to preach for them. However, that is not the case. The preacher is also inspecting the prospective church. The matter is not all one-sided. This is a two-way street. Some churches are not as much to be desired as other congregations. The same is true with preachers who are looking for employment. So, let it not be assumed that the congregation has all the advantage and that preachers are at their mercy. When a prospective preacher goes to visit a church that is looking for a preacher he is gathering information about that congregation. Just because he is there, as a guest, does not mean that he definitely wants to preach for that particular congregation. He and his family are getting a “feel” for that church as they meet the members, evaluate the attitudes of the leadership of the church, its doctrinal soundness, and inspect the membership and its works, plans, goals, vision, potential, conduct toward one another, friendliness, etc. So, all of this is not just a matter of whether the church wants the preacher who is “trying out,” it is also matter of whether the “trial” preacher is finding what he is seeking! I have been to a number of churches where I have thought (after spending some time with them), “Well, I do not want to work with those folks.”
A second matter is something that many brethren never think of, but if it is applied to secular business, it is often thought of and discussed. I realize that not all legal matters in business can be applied equally to the church, its business, and work. But, there are some things that brethren need to seriously think about. These are matters of discrimination. “Discrimination?!” one replies. Yes, discrimination! What about “age” discrimination, “race” discrimination, “physical” discrimination (looks, weight, etc)? I suppose that many of my brethren never thought about it before, but there is more of this kind of discrimination that is practiced in the church than some are willing to admit. In secular work, it can be a violation of some law or code to discriminate–and it can bring heavy penalties. But, brethren who speak long and loud about following the “law of the land” are often too easily willing to discriminate against preachers on the basis of age or looks in matters involving preacher selection.
In these matters, I wonder what happened to the Golden Rule, Mat. 7:12? To treat others as you would wish to be treated.
My experience has been that when some (some!) brethren cannot find a doctrinal problem with a preacher, but they really do not want him, the next thing they will do is to scour his life, personality, or family for some excuse not to hire him. They will then seek to exploit his flaws and emphasize them in an effort to turn others against him and prevent him from being hired.
Many churches today say that they are looking for “young preachers with children still at home.” They think this will attract the younger families in their community to come to their worship services. They believe this will be an incentive for families with small children to become prospects for baptism. In some cases, that might be true. But, it is definitely not true in all cases! There are many churches that have found some young families in their community who like to have an older, experienced preacher who can give their family a sense of security and who can speak wisely to their problems and needs. There is something positive about experience and wisdom in the pulpit. A young preacher may not be able to do this. I am not opposed to young preachers (I was once a young preacher with a young family), but I am opposed to the thinking that only a young married preacher with children at home is the solution to a church’s need for numerical growth. This thinking is often ill-advised and short-sighted. It may also overemphasize the numerical growth angle while overlooking matters of equal or greater importance.
Another matter about this kind of thinking is that it overlooks the reality of the demographics of the population of the United States. First, fewer men are becoming gospel preachers. Most of the preachers within churches of Christ are older men. Many parents do not want their sons to become gospel preachers because (looking at it from a purely worldly viewpoint) there is no financial future in it. Because fewer young men are becoming preachers there are fewer young preachers that are married with children at home! That is simply a fact of life. Therefore, there are fewer young preachers with families available to churches looking for preachers!
Along with this demographic reality is another–the average age of Americans is older rather than younger! Also, the average age of gospel preachers is older. Thus, we should be cautious about looking only for a young man to be our preacher. And, let us be careful about age discrimination when looking for a preacher. From personal experience, I know that many churches with older preachers have many young families with children in those congregations. If your congregation is looking for younger families, maybe your emphasis is not what it should be. The weight or burden of drawing young families should not be on the basis that “we have a young preacher with a family.” That sounds so shallow! Our experience has been that Christians are looking for sound doctrinal teaching, and the rest follows. What about drawing from the middle-aged or the older people in your community? Are their souls not as precious and valuable as the young?
Another matter when looking for a preacher in the discrimination area is that of how people “look” physically. All of us are not prime physical specimens with bodies that would grace the cover of a health magazine. We may wish we had such a body, but most of us are not perfect. Some of us are overweight, and many of us are working on that problem. However, we should not (as was implied by one young man awhile back) equate a person who is overweight with being a glutton or a winebibber! There are many reasons for a person being overweight, and there is no excuse for gluttony, but being overweight can be caused by many factors, and it is not always gluttony! To assume that all overweight people are gluttons is to pass an unrighteous judgment upon them (to judge without facts, John 7:24 “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” I do not know what Jesus looked like, but He was accused of winebibbing and gluttony! The Scriptures tell us that Jesus was not handsome to look at. Isaiah 53:2 says, “… he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.” Does that mean He was short, gawky, ugly, overweight; did He walk with a limp? I do not know, but I do know there were accusations leveled against Him that were not true! (Matt. 11:19; Luke 7:34).
When a king was being selected to reign over Israel, it was thought that a strong, handsome physical specimen of a man was to be chosen, but God made it clear that such was not His criteria for the King of Israel. 1 Samuel 16:7 says, But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” Let this be a lesson to us to be more humble and to try to see more as God sees others. It is believed that Paul, the apostle, had bad eyesight (Gal. 6:11; 2 Cor. 12:17). We do know that he had at least one physical ailment because he referred to it. Would we turn him away as our preacher because of some mere physical problem? Far too much emphasis today is made on physical matters than should be. What does it say about brethren today when they emphasize the “looks” of a man rather than his heart, his knowledge, and his ability? Perhaps many are too materialistic or worldly in their thinking! Do we allow such small-minded men to hold sway in local churches in matters of such great importance as hiring a preacher? If so, we allow spiritually weak men to control the church, and a church will grow no stronger than its weakest link!
