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Pastor, Ask Something Great From Us
Joe McKeever

The reason many of us pastors keep returning to the same few quotes is that they are definitive for us. They so imbed themselves in our consciousness that they manage to define who we are.

Somewhere I read--wish I could remember where--of a friend who accompanied Abraham Lincoln to church. Afterwards, the friend asked how he had liked the sermon. The future president's answer was something like: "He may be a good man, but he's not a good preacher. A good preacher would have asked us to do something great, and he didn't."

Sometimes a preacher needs a comeuppance like that from a layperson--calling us back to reality, insisting we remember our calling, that we not get so caught up in the minutiae of our work that we forget to issue the clarion call to God and righteousness.

It might even be appropriate to call Lincoln not a layperson, since that implies he's an active member of a church other than the clergy, but an outsider. He never joined a church, claimed to have a deep reverence for God and Scripture, but always seemed to see no personal need for involvement in a local church. So when we analyze a critique of a preacher from him, it's coming more from the outside than within the body.

But this is not about Lincoln. It's about his comment, and his excellent statement that a good preacher calls on people to do great things.

I completely agree, and am betting most pastors would also...

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2 Timothy 4:3-4 NASB
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

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Titus 2:11-3:1-7 NASB
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, 14 who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. 15 These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you. 1 Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, 2 to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men. 3 For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. 4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, 5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

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Why do some pastors shy away from challenging their church?

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Why do some pastors shy away from challenging their church?

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I don't intend on being disrespectful at all, but this seems like a silly question to me. We can discuss how Pastors should be and the Will of God and all aspects of theology concerning this question. But in reality based on my expertiences with a couple of different churches over the course of the last 30 or so years Pastors would love to be able to do a lot of things but they don't because of the congregation. They voted him in and they can vote him out and in some instances it doesn't even have to be a majority of the congregation. I knew one Pastor who corrected the congregation too much...he was let go. I knew one Pastor who was very outgoing and encourged us to be out in the community witnessing and contacting social service agencies to see if church members could help out in some way. Some church members didn't want to do this and long story short this Pastor was replaced as well. Churches are riddled with politics. I wish it weren't so, but in my experience this is what I have seen and this is why I don't have any confidence in organized religion. I prefer a life of faith---absolutely. I prefer a nondenominational church and I prefer attending whatever place of worship the Lord guides me to.

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"When you go to a church you will soon see where it is... and where it needs to be. If you try to take it where it needs to be in one big leap you will be known as a martyr. If you take the time to see the five or ten steps it will take to get it where it needs to be... and implement the steps one at a time you will be known as a leader."

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"Work with those who will work with you and don't fuss with those who won't."

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Isaiah 58
1 “Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast. Shout aloud! Don’t be timid. Tell my people Israel of their sins!
2 Yet they act so pious! They come to the Temple every day and seem delighted to learn all about me. They act like a righteous nation that would never abandon the laws of its God. They ask me to take action on their behalf, pretending they want to be near me.
3 ‘We have fasted before you!’ they say. ‘Why aren’t you impressed? We have been very hard on ourselves, and you don’t even notice it!’


6 “No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people.
7 Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.