As an interim pastor I am delivering a series of messages to the church designed to help the congregation understand the Biblical requirements for their next pastor and how they should relate to him.  The Scriptures I used this past Sunday were…

2 Timothy 4:1 “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom; 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”

Acts 6:2 It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.

Hebrews 13:17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

1 Timothy 5:17 Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.

1 Thessalonians 5:12 We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you andare over you in the Lord and admonish you, 13 and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.

After the message was over, a dear sweet lady who had been in the church for decades came to me and made an interesting comment.  She said…

“I didn’t know all that!  I didn’t know what God requires of the pastor.  If I had known that… if we had known that… we would have been much wiser in our selection of who to call as pastor…”

This lady is in her late 80’s and I had no idea who she was talking about… and that isn’t germane to this post.  What I got from her comment is that it is important for pastors to be faithful and diligent in teaching God’s people “the whole counsel of God.”  Otherwise they don’t know clearly how to honor God’s will as found in His Word.

It is a pastor’s first call to preach The Word.  To teach God’s people what is in Scripture.  Not just from favorite passages, but from the entire Word of God.  Only when/if the pastor does this can he be considered faithful.  Then the church will better be able to honor and glorify God.