If you became a pastor...
 

...what would you do to fulfill your obligation to teach the church? How would you go about it? Would you begin a series? Start teaching scripture at some book and continue through chapter by chapter? Buy one of the sermon books sold by PPH?

Re: If you became a pastor...
 

Canned sermons. (ugh)

Re: If you became a pastor...
 

I like this approach. Yet I would probably also break that up with teaching on specific topics.

Re: If you became a pastor...
 

Follow the leading of the Holy Spirit? Do what my congregation seemed to prefer?

Honestly I don't think it matters which way you do it as long as you do it.

Personally my preference on the new testament would be to teach epistle by epistle or as much of an epistle as can be taught in a single sermon (some may need broken up). My old testament preference would be to to do the major stories in sequential order with context and timelines. The same would be nice to do for epistles.

I always dislike the topic focused preaching where they constantly jump from passage to passage. Always seems to easy to make the bible say whatever you want it to when you are doing that.

Re: If you became a pastor...
 

Teaching the church? I would start with the Epistles that were written to the church. Those books would cover doctrine and Christian living.

Re: If you became a pastor...
 

It would depend upon if I were building a new congregation or inheriting one. In the second case I would clean house first-a sermon on 'count the cost,' prolly followed by one on 'every inch of skin will be flayed from you;' then (if anyone was left :lol ) I'd hit them with the Good News-you are freed from the Law of sin and death! Live a forgiven life!

In either case I would dump the Original Sin Koolaid.

Re: If you became a pastor...
 

Dittos!!!

Re: If you became a pastor...
 

For starters: Pray for guidance and anointing. Teach through the NT, chapter by chapter, alternating a gospel with a couple of epistles, Luke followed by the book of Acts, and pull from the OT where indicated by the NT's use of the OT.

Re: If you became a pastor...
 

Pray for God to direct you, then study the bible and see what comes alive in your study. It will make itself self-evident when you study in faith like that. You will know that you know what to do. There is no method.

Re: If you became a pastor...
 

I don't believe women are called to govern in leadership, so a woman pastor in the traditional understanding that we see the role of a pastor today is unbiblical, in my opinion.

However I do believe women are called to preach and share the gospel, and to teach, and to minister in gifts of the spirit. As a woman disciple of Christ, if I were to engage in preaching the gospel to a crowd of people, it would be under the authority of my husband, and my ministry would be focused to lead and encourage other women.

The reason I believe this is because of the relationship of Christ and the church. Christ being the head, and the church being the body. I believe Paul in 1 Cor. 11 is teaching that as Christ is the head of the church, so the man is the head of the woman. The church never dictates to Christ what to do, so the woman should never dictate to the man - her husband - what to do... however, there is a teamship, and a loving relationship that takes place when each fulfills their duties to each other that allows much to be accomplished. It is in this way I understand as a woman I can minister to the church, and I can teach and/or preach the gospel, but when it comes to leading, and government, that is the role of the man.

I suppose I could also say... let the fireworks begin... but after much prayer and study, I believe that a woman's role in the church is not in government/leadership positions, but to be a helpmate, and support to her husband, keeping in mind the Christ/church relationship.

Re: If you became a pastor...
 

Hear! Hear! Post of the day. Excellent! :woohoo:clap:hanky

Re: If you became a pastor...
 

Im not a big fan of the verse by verse stuff. I prefer topical teaching but I do believe that topical teaching should cover a number of scriptures and exegetically examine the context

Re: If you became a pastor...
 

:)

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I agree - there is a balance between too many scriptures, not enough, or the jumping around pulling scriptures out of context to prove a point. All of these make me lose attention really quickly.

My daughter is taking a Psychology class, and it has been proven that when given a list of things to remember, you generally remember the first thing on the list, and the last thing on the list, and lose a lot of the info in between.

Those teaching or preaching need to keep this in mind. Your first point and your last, may be all people remember... lol

Re: If you became a pastor...
 

I'd blend approaches. Being into house churching, it can be very exciting and people can comment and ask questions. Midweek, we'd begin covering a Gospel (like Luke or John) and progress throughout the year chapter by chapter (maybe two or three chapters in a gathering if there are no questions or need for deeper elaboration). Weekend gathering... I'd do topical studies. I'd allow the Spirit to move and speak as He desires within the gatherings. So, we might not be as "structured", but this would be the general goal.

Re: If you became a pastor...
 

The network I was a part of last year got through the entire Gospel of John on Sundays. The house church groups got through the entire book of Hebrews. We had some very interesting studies.

Re: If you became a pastor...
 

I find that when I feel after the direction of the Lord by faith when I pray that He will direct me in what to preach, something always comes alive. So I preach that. And every time I do, something happens that is an obvious confirmation of my message. Someone either shares a thought that is DIRECTLY associated with my message, or even a song is sung that is precisely the message I would preach. I NEVER stop and think what I SHOULD PREACH. But I follow after the Lord and He miraculously confirms it every time.

Re: If you became a pastor...
 

My favorite (note the sarcasm) is when a preacher does something like read "Jesus wept."

Then goes on for 45 minutes at what your'e doing to cause Jesus to weep.

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:(

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Yes, I know. I've always admired you, sir. You're a meat kinda guy. Milk is for babies.

Re: If you became a pastor...
 

:tissue

Re: If you became a pastor...
 

And Mizpeh wept.

Re: If you became a pastor...
 

I would assess the needs of the congregation (of course, with much prayer) and then design a curriculum for them. Not everyone is on the same journey or has the same level of maturity so it's going to be a bit of a challenge if you have a large congregation and you only meet twice a week to study the Word.

I think it's important to teach the church how to study the scriptures for themselves and I believe we need to use a variety of methods to make sure that we preach and teach the whole counsel of God.

If I became a pastor, on my first year I would work on:
1. Training someone to teach a New Converts Class to cover essential doctrines and topics.
2. Teaching a series on How to Read and Study the Bible and then dividing the church in smaller groups. This will encourage more active participation and may probably help address specific questions and needs that may not be addressed through preaching or teaching in a classroom format.
3. Creating an online forum where members can freely ask questions :-)
4. Designing Bible reading plans for members and providing study helps; then touch base with them once a week or get them to post their progress on the online forum. :-)

Re: If you became a pastor...
 

Good insight.:highfive