A Preacher's Responsibility

Posted by Scott T. Brown on January 10, 2012, at NCFIC

A preacher has a number of responsibilities and hopes for the congregation. Here are a few of them:

1. Represent the words of God to them accurately, so that they can compare everything in their lives with the truth of Scripture
2. Give them a vision of the majesty of God
3. Help them find their greatest delight and happiness in God
4. Instruct them in the flow of history and their place in history
5. Show them the world as it really is
6. Equip them for the work of the ministry
7. Explain and dissect their problems in the light of Scripture so they can see who they really are
8. Bring the whole congregation to live no longer in the flesh but in the Spirit
9. Question the ungodly traditions of the congregation
10. Oppose the sins that have taken root
11. Confront their prejudices
12. Contradict their philosophy
13. Expose the nature of paganism and how it is affecting them
14. Stop them from drinking from the poison well
15. Terrify them with the law and the consequences of breaking it
16. Kill their self love
17. Destroy their comforts in their good works and moralistically high view of themselves
18. Expose their self-congratulatory spirit
19. Incite them to repent
20. Show them their inner pharisee
21. Confront their lack of love
22. Counsel them to grow in love through mercy and forgiveness
23. Stand in the way of their current desires
24. Lower their opinions of themselves
25. Raise their opinions of Christ
26. Cast them hopeless on the gospel of Christ
27. Convert the lost
28. Console them with the gospel
29. Comfort the broken hearted
30. Give hope to those who have lost it
31. Bind up the weak, through Him who is strong
Only God by the power of His Holy Spirit can fall on a congregation for these things.

Instead of the American Dream, the Church Should be Living God's Dream

"...many of us are realizing that Jesus has different priorities. Instead of congratulating us on our self-fulfillment, he confronts us with our inability to accomplish anything of value apart from God. Instead of wanting us to be recognized by others, he beckons us to die to ourselves and seek above all the glory of God.
In my own faith family, the Church at Brook Hills, we have tried to get out from under the American Dream mindset and start living and serving differently."

Read this article about a church who is truly getting the vision for what the church should REALLY be about.

Have You Fortified Your Walls

by Charles H. Spurgeon

"And they fortified Jerusalem unto the broad wall." Nehemiah 3:8

Cities well fortified have broad walls, and so had Jerusalem in her glory. The New Jerusalem must, in like manner, be surrounded and preserved by a broad wall of nonconformity to the world, and separation from its customs and spirit. The tendency of these days break down the holy barrier, and make the distinction between the church and the world merely nominal. Professors are no longer strict and Puritanical, questionable literature is read on all hands, frivolous pastimes are currently indulged, and a general laxity threatens to deprive the Lord's peculiar people of those sacred singularities which separate them from sinners. It will be an ill day for the church and the world when the proposed amalgamation shall be complete, and the sons of God and the daughters of men shall be as one: then shall another deluge of wrath be ushered in. Beloved reader, be it your aim in heart, in word, in dress, in action to maintain the broad wall, remembering that the friendship of this world is enmity against God.

The broad wall afforded a pleasant place of resort for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, from which they could command prospects of the surrounding bycountry. This reminds us of the Lord's exceeding broad commandments, in which we walk at liberty in communion with Jesus, overlooking the scenes of earth, and looking out towards the glories of heaven. Separated from the world, and denying ourselves all ungodliness and fleshly lusts, we are nevertheless not in prison, nor restricted within narrow bounds; nay, we walk at liberty, because we keep His precepts. Come, reader, this evening walk with God in His statutes. As friend met friend upon the city wall, so meet thou thy God in the way of holy prayer and meditation. The bulwarks of salvation thou hast a right to traverse, for thou art a freeman of the royal burgh, a citizen of the metropolis of the universe.
—Morning and Evening, originally published in 1896

What is wrong with our Nation...our boys are not being raised with a vision to be a Man of God

Please listen to this radio broadcast from Generations with Vision. We need to have our eyes opened to what we can do to make a difference for our future and the future of our children and grandchildren.

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