Differences in Pastors

[Margies3]

I was just thinking a little while ago about the different pastors I've sat under over the years. It's pretty amazing how I learned different things from different pastors. Not doctrinally. They were all pretty much the same. And not standard-wise. They all pretty much were the same there, too. Maybe some were a tiny bit more liberal than others, but they were close enough that the differences were negligible.

I'm not sure how to do this without naming names, so here goes:

My first pastor was Bro Fred Kinzie. But only for less than year and so new that I honestly can't say anything about this experience.

My next pastor was Bro Paul Dennis. In this case, I was very young (about 14 years old) and my parents were not in church at all, nor was anyone else in my family. So Bro Dennis really treated me like "one of his own". I was expected to follow the rules in the same ways that his daughter was, while other kids in the church were allowed to follow their parents rules. That used to bother me until I finally got it through my head that the reason he required these things of me was because he cared. He wasn't doing it to be mean. He seriously cared about my soul. So from him I learned that when you love your children, you expect things of them.

After that was Bro Roy Well. Bro Well taught me to pray, pray, pray. I learned the joy of spending time in the presence of my God. His requirement of anyone active in the church (SS teachers, those playing musical instruments, etc) was that they spend a minimum of 1/2 hr per day in prayer.

Then there was Bro Harold Roberts. He pastored a larger church than any of the others I had been in (except the Kinzie's). From my time under his leadership, I learned to stand on my own two feet. I learned that my experience needed to be MY experience.

And finally there was Bro Wm. Schaffner. From him I learned two things: the value of friendship and that it is still ok to question things.

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So tell me about your pastors and what you learned from them? Did they each have their own distinct styles and personalities? Can you tell us about it?

PLEASE DO NOT MAKE THIS INTO A PASTOR BASHING THREAD!!! If you have something nasty to say, don't even post. Ok? Thanks!