Comments on: What Preachers Wrestle With Always Comes Out in their Sermons

By: Dan Esau

Dan Esau — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

After preaching for almost 20 years, I’d say you are dead on. I am convinced you can tell what a preacher is wrestling with by one of two things, either what they often/always talk about or about what they never talk about. We often purge our guilt through the pulpit. We publicly address sin we are wrestling with as some kind of catharsis or else we never speak of them. I am reluctant to talk about the areas of I have no victory in or haven’t come to peace with. There is a side to this though that is positive. We should always be wrestling with the truth and that conflict or struggle becomes the energy of a good sermon. Like an author using conflict as a centerpiece for a story so too the good preacher can use inner conflict as the centerpiece of a good sermon. David’s fears and failures became the center of some of the great Psalms. It can be healthy to admit you haven’t got everything worked out and that you also are growing and trying to see how this faith is lived out in your own life. The questions becomes how much can a preacher reveal before people lose respect for them. I have heard stories of preachers who have been very open in the pulpit about their struggles and as a result have lost a great deal of credibility from the congregation. Others have found that by revealing their own battles they have won the admiration and sympathy of their audience. In doing so they have paved the way for hope, "Follow me as I follow Christ." So how much do you reveal? I don’t really have an answer but I do know that transparency is better than hypocrisy.

By: Katie Scottfield

Katie Scottfield — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

You confirmed what I have telling my spouse for years. If a pastor has to repeatedly tell you how perfect their spouse is or great their kids are or how smart they are and even insist members of their administration speak the same mantra to everyone else then maybe…just maybe…things aren’t as perfect and great as they want you to believe. You also made a good point that if someone had been paying attention we might have been able to make a difference. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a better system to pastor the pastors. It can’t be easy living in the fishbowl of religion but it can be just as devastating to the congregation that the pastor takes out his internal conflict on, no one wins.

By: Jermayn

Jermayn — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

WOW Awesome insight and quite scary actually..

Katie raises a good point though, how do we get our pastors the same help, support etc that many give us?

By: Mark E

Mark E — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

There is an element of truth in this.

Sometimes a pastor is in touch with the needs, sins and issues the people are facing....and because he has empathy....and it burns within him, he preaches about it. It may also be that when he reads about awful things happening, he is concerned and wonders what it might be like if it happened to him, so his concerns turn into passion about it.

Hybels says we should have a holy discontent. I agree with him, there should be things that make us mad...and we want to do something about it. That does not mean the pastor himself is involved in it.

By: islandgirl

islandgirl — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dead on...

In working with pastors I have often gotten the impression that God tries to speak to their heart about something (sin) in their lives, and instead of it sticking...they roll it right out into a sermon. The word from God never impacts their lives at all.

Years ago, I knew a preacher who was having an affair. I picked up his tape (yes, it was that long ago) on the Ten Commandments. Listening to it--he only preached about nine of them.

How do any of us who work with preachers stay saved??

By: Mary Hutchinson

Mary Hutchinson — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Have you read the book "TrueFaced"? Every person who is a professional Christian–works daily in ministry in some way– needs to read it and "get it".

This is what these pastors (and me) need.

By: Marcus Hackler

Marcus Hackler — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

There is also something to be said for the responsibility of the church staff in supporting their pastor. More often than not the culture of the church is one that a pastor who has a problem will be cast aside or even ignored (evident in Ted Haggard's case). It is our responsibility to cover them, protect them, and offer true, authentic love and help when they need it.

An example of this would be Leo and Molly Godzich's marriage rescue program for pastors. It is a confidential program that any pastor can take advantage of when they are most vulnerable. Instead of ignoring our pastors in crisis, we need to come along side of them.

By: breaklight

breaklight — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The whole church leadership system is not right within its institutional framework and context from a Scriptural standpoint old or new testament but especially new testament. Church was not designed for just pastors alone to lead, teach and preach (check out what the true gifts of the Body of Christ are which is found in Ephesians 4:11 – it was never just for the pastors to lead the Church) and unfortunately that is why they are the ones that get the brunt of it when it goes wrong. Church is not a corporate business organisation where if the one CEO fails everything else fails and everyone can easily apportion blame to them. If everybody in the Body of Christ were to equally share and minister regularly I just wonder then whether we would be able to point the finger (or even have the time because then we would recognise just how hard it is as well) when one leader falls/fails as we can easily do now because it is so easy to identify who the leader is. Jesus Christ was so close and like His disciples that he was not easily identified by the religious and political leaders (Herod thought He was John the Baptist raised from the dead:-)) that He was betrayed by one of His disciples. The pastoral leadership system is set up to fail whether we like it or not because as long as a man is to be revered and surrounds him or herself as important you are on the road for a fall. No man is Jesus Christ (and even Jesus Christ was completely approachable by His disciples to the point that one of them lay his head on His bosom) and therefore must surround him or herself with other believers for growth, encouragement and personal accountability. All this one man/woman leadership patterns is not good for the Church. Case in point, everytime we point the finger how many is pointing back?

By: Antthony Peterson

Antthony Peterson — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

"Methinks he doth protest too much" - I think the quote is from Shakespeare's Hamlet, although I'm certain Freud would have a few words to say on the subject.

I always felt that those who talk about it the most, probably arent doing it (whatever "it" is). It certainly holds true for script writing, because the classic sign of a B grade script is when your characters say exactly what they feel and say it all the time.

Our gut instinct knows that the real world isn't like that. If someone really loves their wife they show it mostly with actions. Talk is cheap.

What we do with our time and money reveals so much more about character than words. Maybe the likes of Machiavelli, Freud and Shakespeare should be added to compliment our personal libraries.

By: shawn h.

shawn h. — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Interesting article. I would imagine there are a lot of pastors who feel isolated and that there is no one they can really confide in. I agree that it should make us think more about how we can offer support to our pastors.