Hi question about becoming a Preacher

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kahr -> Hi question about becoming a Preacher (6/30/2009 10:51:41 PM)
HI - I hope this is in the right forum? I have a question and came here for a little guidance. First a little background - This is not the same as talking face to face but I will try I remember asking Jesus to be my savor around the age of 6. I went to church regularly up to about 14. I remember talking to people at school/work about salvation and such but thats about it. I started dating my wife and on are 4th date I remember oping the Bible with her and her accepting Christ ( she made it to easy ) I married my wife at 18 and while we prayed and read the Bile often. But did not go to church regularly until are Daughter was born 3 years later. I became very active in that church for about 3 years, but as silly as it sounds somethings bothered me from day one and it just did not work out. We have when to a couple other churches , but I am sorry but they were just social clubs / business. I even went to one of the Pastors with almost the same stuff I am righting here and he gave me a book and really did not want to be bothered. So thats some of my back ground - let me get to my point. I am 31 and since I was about 26 I have had a very very strong feeling and concern and compassion for people to see the great gift God gave them.Its so simple yet missed so easily. And I really really enjoy helping others. Anyway I wish I did not, but I go through phases, some times the concern is so great I think I am crazy ! Other times I will go a week with out feeling a thing . Once I went to a movie/ mall and passed out tracks and asked people if they wanted to see what the Bible says about heaven and hell - WHICH IS REALLY NOT LIKE ME AT ALL !!!! Long story short I have pretty much walked away from it all about a year ago, and over the last month the feelings are back A LOT ! I just want to help people see the truth, help them understand the bible, and help them see the need there love ones may have for Christ. As funny as it sounds I start thinking about being a Preacher and I get all tingly inside and my eyes all most water - Its hard to explain I just get really excited . BUT nothing about me points in this direction, I have prayed about it, I have prayed for a church but I just DON'T FIT. It is such a honor for God to put his people in your care, how could I ever believe that , when I cant even find a church. What directions can I take with out a church to attend? I don't know if posting this on a Internet forum will help, but here it goes

DoveMinistries -> RE: Hi question about becoming a Preacher (6/30/2009 11:23:20 PM)
You really need to find a church you can attend and get counsel on, a one on one basis. It is very important, that you fall under the authorty of a Pastor to advise you on this. It is a great thing to be called into any Ministry. Prayer is also helpful in which direction you my want to go. Very important that you find a church to attend though. God Bless R Dove

bolt. -> RE: Hi question about becoming a Preacher (7/1/2009 12:02:16 AM)
You could also choose a ministry school, which would train you for your calling -- and they would probably be connected with a variety of Churches in that area. It sounds like you are an evangelist-preacher not so much an edification-preacher, so you are probably looking towards compassionate outreach or missions -- which is what evangelists tend to do in our times. Sometimes that's a leadership ministry and sometimes its a one-to-one setting. Anyhow, you do need real live Christians who will invest in your life and help your gift/call to grow strong with wisdom. If you continue to refrain from receiving fellowship, leadership and teaching from your fellow Christians, you will remain alone and powerless in your lack of other body-members. You may not 'fit' and they might not be the best at what you would hope they would be doing, but you need them and they need you. Be the bigger person and jump in... and 'bear with one another' when you find out that they are not managing themselves as well as you wish they were.

hjemerson -> RE: Hi question about becoming a Preacher (7/1/2009 3:40:57 PM)
It is not to late , Never to late to answer the Lord call. As some stated you need to find a church you know and belive is the right Place for you to go become strong and learn from, Think Church and Not relgion, Do not just go to church because of the name etc as Baptist/AG, etc You know what I mean, Find a Bible beliving goup of peole and get involed, you will then know what the calling is and how to go about the answer . Start with your self and then with you wife and family go and get in the total LORD will, We sarted our Minstry at 48 returned to a christian college / now in the service as a youth pastor/Worship leader. Took My hushband 30 years to answer the Lords will! Please sray strong and foolow thur with your desires and seek the Lord as you and your family go!!

Chrio -> RE: Hi question about becoming a Preacher (7/1/2009 4:59:39 PM)
Greetings in Jesus! Well I agree with 'bolt.' I believe you are more likely called to evangelism. But there is no need to guess ... God has provided tools to help us discover what He has planted deep within us. There are two areas we at least we are talking about: (1) passion, (2) Spiritual giftedness; if there were a third it would be (3)office, as pastor or evangelist etc. Not all with the passion and gifts mix are called to the office. James in chap. 3 warns that not many should seek to be teachers. PASSION: you obviously have the passion for proclaiming the gospel and when you allow it to flow you are fearless in doing so. Praise the Lord! SPIRITUAL GIFTEDNESS: evangelism no doubt, but there are tools that can assist to discover your full gift mix. Go to your local Christian book store or Christian college and ask for the "Spiritual Gifts Surveys". There are several different types. Read through and be certain that the one you choose is going to list the gifts of pastor, evangelist & teacher. There will probably be many more listed but for you these 3 seem significant. One I can recommend is called "Finding Your Spiritual Gifts" by C. Peter Wagner. http://www.christianbook.com/finding-spiritual-gifts-questionnaire-updated-expanded/c-wagner/9780830736942/pd/736948?item_code=WW&netp_id=356372&event=ESRCN&view=details Pray as you go through this discovery process and once completed ask God to reveal what you are to do next. Trust Him to direct your path. Lastly Brother, please allow me to encourage you to continue your search for a Bible believing, Bible teaching, Jesus honoring/worshipping church. Being connected to the body is essential to a successful ministry (Heb. 10:24-25). Accountability is paramount to God's power in your ministry and we all need a place where we can go and be feed from God's table. regret looks back, worry looks around but faith looks up to where our help comes from ...

judahwarrior -> RE: Hi question about becoming a Preacher (7/1/2009 5:08:12 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: DoveMinistries You really need to find a church you can attend and get counsel on, a one on one basis. It is very important, that you fall under the authorty of a Pastor to advise you on this. It is a great thing to be called into any Ministry. Prayer is also helpful in which direction you my want to go. Very important that you find a church to attend though. God Bless R Dove I agree, especially because you might be new the preaching ministry. You may know all about it but it doesn't mean much if you haven't experienced it yourself. So being under the authority of a experienced pastor will help guide you. Many fall without any accountability and you need someone to be accountable to. Live for the glory but don't touch the gold!

jn1010lf -> RE: Hi question about becoming a Preacher (7/1/2009 5:41:52 PM)
Hello kahr If the Lord is lighting the fire in you, let it burn. Preach wherever you can. I'm surprised that the Pastor you went to hasn't helped or guided you in this. A beginning point might be to start a fellowship in your home. That might give you an indication as to what your wife thinks about the flame that resides within you. If the same fruit comes through your words that came through the lips of Jesus, you will receive an definite answer to your questions. But I would start. The Lord might lead you to a Bible college or Seminary.

kahr -> RE: Hi question about becoming a Preacher (7/1/2009 6:01:27 PM)
Thank you very much for the replies, Late last night I thought about a really small Baptist (not that that matters ) church that is not too far away. I remember seeing it a few years ago, and wondering if it was open. I never heard about it . I looked on the Internet and could not find anything, so I called the number I found, and had a very good talk with the Preacher. I get the feeling they are very small, but he really seemed to love the Lord and it was really nice to talk with him. He said they have a hard time growing but they have had a couple people saved over the years, I felt alittle bad, here I am feeling fustrated abit, and this guy more than likley has put every thing into the ministery. I bet at times he has felt a lot more beat up than I know about. We talked about a lot of stuff and I am going there Sunday with a open mind. Thanks a lot - Hearing several people say the same thing , help me to reach a little harder

Gloryandgrace -> RE: Hi question about becoming a Preacher (7/1/2009 9:58:06 PM)
Kahr: Let get a few things prioritized. 1. If you wont follow a leader you cannot be a leader. Preaching is not simply pulpit oration, its a lifestyle that has a message interwoven into how you live and how you treat your family. 2. Make sure you are taking care of the Church "at home". Feed the wife, feed the kids, be responsible to your obligations, conduct yourself carefully, be responsible to manage your finances well. Take the Spiritual lead on making sure what you are learning your wife is learning. She must be on-board with you if you are going to aspire to lead in some degree. 3. Find a good Church, a pastor that takes interest in you, dont be a loon, dont get stupid and decide that youve got it all figured out when youve not even gotten a place to attend figured out. Do the first things first. Establish a relationship with a pastor willing to mentor you, or will have an elder or Deacon mentor you. Be accountable, be open, be friendly, be submissive...put an end to the lone-warrior thing. 4. Find an outlet, you dont need permission from anyone to preach the gospel, but you do need permission to 'pastor' a flock, you need approval before someone will commit to you valuable people and responsibliities. you must be proven first, so set your mind to the fact you must be proven. Like it or not, unless your proven to be faithful and true to the gospel and to God's people you will only show yourself a loner that cannot submit to authority. No decent pastor will give you anything, he knows your potential to do more damage than good is real high. 5. If you preach you need something to say. You must go to God, not as a means to an end (to preach) but to know God, to learn of him, to be empowered and strengthened by Him. You need to study your bible, you will need to find a good preacher you can emulate and a sound theology that you learn and will help you in proclaiming the gospel. I suggest the reformed faith.. You decide. 6. If you will not pray you will not be empowered. Put an end to coming and going on God. Repent and stay repenting, love God and do violence to the sins that drag you off into worldliness and sinfulness. Stay out of the world and stay out of sin. If you cant stay out of the world and sin then stay out of the pulpit, we have plenty of ungodly men there now, we dont need another one. 7. Pay the price, turn off the tv, get rid of ungodly magazines, radio, movies or entertainments that contradict and conflict with what you know God is against. Do not allow yourself to be a hypocrite in secret. Clean out the idols in your home, if you have them burn them, destroy them and make sure your wife is lighting the matches with you. If she cant let go of the idols, then youll need to patiently wait until God brings repentance to her. She is your agent to help you see what a useless and idiotic no-body you are. Its humbling its embarrasing its painful and its no fun. But..its necessary for you to love your wife as Christ loves the church, if you cannot love her, then dont pretend to love the Church. You wont, you will find reasons to jettison them if you quit on your wife. Be faithful to her in all respects not just sexually. Bring your mind undercontrol and be watchful against sexual temptations and thoughts. Get started on these things...do them, remember them, print them and dont delay. Now, if youre just a flash in the pan, you will have already concluded...the John guy is only beating me down. No, what I did was let you know that Jesus Christ deserves the service of Godly men who will love his people enough to lay down their lives for them and for Him despite hardship and personal suffering. Being a preacher means getting your material from the tears of your own personal pain. Be a man. Do what is necessary. If youre called God will validate you over time. If youre not called, then God will have you do something else, whatever you do, your reward in heaven is not measured by your specific calling, its measured by your faithfulness to God and doing what he has called you to do, and doing that well. John

Gloryandgrace -> RE: Hi question about becoming a Preacher (7/1/2009 10:28:33 PM)
Kahr: I want to restate something from my last post. I gave you the ethical and motivational run down on the very beginnings of being a preacher, but I didnt emphasize the most important point well enough. You must get to know God well, You must spend time with God when everyone else is chatting away, you will need to understand something clearly. You will be alone. God seperates unto himself those that are godly, yet, yould be surprised to know that the godly dont have alot of friends. Not, preachers, a preacher that doesnt have the priority of prayer and travail with God, for himself, his family and God's people will only be another lifeless parrot. Yet, travailing over the lost, the folks that you will spend the entirety of your life upon, the same ones will probably give you little to nothing in return. So, unless you have a heaven-born calling to bear the burden of God's people and bearing the burden of the lost and hopeless you will begin to be disappointed in God's people, and ashamed of the Lost and burdened that you are so little esteemed by either of them. You will realize that a humanitarian self-calling is only a form of humanistic pulpiteering and the message you give will degenerate into moralisms and ethics. If God is not empowering you, then you are only going to be weak, not only weak but weakness signing up to lift the burdens of men on their way to hell. What can you do for them? If faith in the God that saves cannot propel you forward then just what will you put faith in? If youve commited your life to something other than the empowering of the Holy Spirit to enable you to pray for what God wants to do, or to believe God to assign you to what He wants done, then just where else would you commit yourself? Preaching is really all about one person and that is Jesus Christ. If you make it about souls, the church, a message, an agenda, or whatever other good thing that arises you will find soon enough that Jesus Christ the Lord will be robbed of his glory. I say, your priority is knowing and loving God supremely, there is no other close second....but there is a second...your neighbor as your self. This is not for the squeemish, its not for the immature or the cowardly, its not for the little boys who want to play preacher its for men who know who they are called by and whom they will give account to. Just what part of "being judged at a higher standard than others" makes you want to sign up for that? "Only God", should be the answer. John

TMeeks -> RE: Hi question about becoming a Preacher (7/1/2009 10:51:55 PM)
Over the years I've heard many people mention they believed that God was calling them to be a preacher. As I heard them saying those words, I felt most seemed to think that they would rise above their problems and live a victorious Christian life if only they did it full time. And, they were woefully wrong. A call to ministry begins with a call to love God with all our heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. Once that describes your life, then you have come into the place of service that will not be dysfunctional. quote: Long story short I have pretty much walked away from it all about a year ago, and over the last month the feelings are back A LOT ! Feelings are fine... as far as they go. But, consistency is better. And, let's take a look at those feelings. quote: I just want to help people see the truth, help them understand the bible, and help them see the need there love ones may have for Christ. Notice that your feelings are turned outward? It would have made me more comfortable encouraging you to pursue ministry had you said, "I just want to see the truth, to understand the Bible, and see my need for Christ." It's OK to want to help others. I can appreciate that. But, what about first hungering for God Himself. quote: As funny as it sounds I start thinking about being a Preacher and I get all tingly inside and my eyes all most water - Its hard to explain I just get really excited. Do you get just as tingly when sitting silently pondering the magnitude of God's person? Do you get just as excited by spending time alone drinking in the nuances of a Scripture passage? quote: I even went to one of the Pastors with almost the same stuff I am righting here and he gave me a book and really did not want to be bothered. This was an interesting assessment of his actions. If he didn't want to be bothered, then why did he bother to give you a book? It seems to me that you might set the bar so high in your dealings with other people and churches that none of them can measure up to it. And, then you blame them. Now, the goal here isn't to beat up on you; but, to try to help you find the quidance that you need to allow God to work in you to bring you to that place where He can trust you with His Glory. You see, he doesn't need to be able to trust you to reach the lost. Or, even to preach His Gospel. God needs to be able to trust you with His Glory because as a pastor, people are trying to evaluate God through His ambassador. And, the ONLY way He can come to trust you is if you and He build a solid relationship of love and attentiveness over an extended period of time. Learn humbleness in His service. Perhaps the place to do that is the little church you are exploring. But, if not, know that you MUST be first learn to be a faithful servant before you can even THINK about leading. Let me suggest this short prayer for you. Lord, you are my God. You are the creator of the universe and the Saviour of my soul. I long to love you with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind and all my strength. Cause me to learn to stop and listen to ALL your Word for my life, that I might be all you want me to be. Give me a servant's heart and draw me ever closer to the very center of Your Will for me... and, cause me to be able to rest in whatever that may be... whether good or bad, healthy or unhealthy, pastor or parishoner. Cause my love for you to simply be based on who YOU are... not who I am and not what I am going through. Glorify yourself in my life and and fill me with overflowing love for you. Amen.

kahr -> RE: Hi question about becoming a Preacher (7/1/2009 11:03:05 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Gloryandgrace Kahr: I want to restate something from my last post. I gave you the ethical and motivational run down on the very beginnings of being a preacher, but I didnt emphasize the most important point well enough. You must get to know God well, You must spend time with God when everyone else is chatting away, you will need to understand something clearly. You will be alone. God seperates unto himself those that are godly, yet, yould be surprised to know that the godly dont have alot of friends. Not, preachers, a preacher that doesnt have the priority of prayer and travail with God, for himself, his family and God's people will only be another lifeless parrot. Yet, travailing over the lost, the folks that you will spend the entirety of your life upon, the same ones will probably give you little to nothing in return. So, unless you have a heaven-born calling to bear the burden of God's people and bearing the burden of the lost and hopeless you will begin to be disappointed in God's people, and ashamed of the Lost and burdened that you are so little esteemed by either of them. You will realize that a humanitarian self-calling is only a form of humanistic pulpiteering and the message you give will degenerate into moralisms and ethics. If God is not empowering you, then you are only going to be weak, not only weak but weakness signing up to lift the burdens of men on their way to hell. What can you do for them? If faith in the God that saves cannot propel you forward then just what will you put faith in? If youve commited your life to something other than the empowering of the Holy Spirit to enable you to pray for what God wants to do, or to believe God to assign you to what He wants done, then just where else would you commit yourself? Preaching is really all about one person and that is Jesus Christ. If you make it about souls, the church, a message, an agenda, or whatever other good thing that arises you will find soon enough that Jesus Christ the Lord will be robbed of his glory. I say, your priority is knowing and loving God supremely, there is no other close second....but there is a second...your neighbor as your self. This is not for the squeemish, its not for the immature or the cowardly, its not for the little boys who want to play preacher its for men who know who they are called by and whom they will give account to. Just what part of "being judged at a higher standard than others" makes you want to sign up for that? "Only God", should be the answer. John John- Thanks for writing that - I am not just saying that. I appreciate your thoughts - There is a lot in there. I have read it more than once and I am going to have my wife read it too . (She is my best buddy and has been for 14 years) I do think sometimes I get more interested in peoples souls than just following Jesus. Which is stupid - He for sure cares about them more than I ever can. Thanks again. I get the feeling you put a LOT of real world experience in that post.

kahr -> RE: Hi question about becoming a Preacher (7/1/2009 11:11:43 PM)
TMeeks Points taken, I do see where you are coming from, I should work on my own walk with God and just follow him, instead of going where I want and wondering where he is . The one thing you stated here - " Notice that your feelings are turned outward? It would have made me more comfortable encouraging you to pursue ministry had you said, "I just want to see the truth, to understand the Bible, and see my need for Christ." It's OK to want to help others. I can appreciate that. But, what about first hungering for God Himself. " That made me feel sick !! I hope I don't come off like that - I Don't want to come off like that. I guess I have some praying to do huh ?

Gloryandgrace -> RE: Hi question about becoming a Preacher (7/1/2009 11:19:48 PM)
Kahr: Thanks for the kind reply. Have your wife read my first post too, be on the same page in everything. John

boomerted -> RE: Hi question about becoming a Preacher (7/11/2009 11:36:06 PM)
very interesting, I somewhat have seen some of the things your going through in my own life. and what is being told to you is very true. You can do nothing without making Jesus the center of everything you do. Too often as you try to determine God's will for your life. The calling seems to be the thing you place in the center, you will fail, if its not about Jesus first. You will be frustrated and wonder is God really calling me. You must decide, am I really called to ministry and then step out of the boat. and realize everything that you are called to do is about Him first. Nothing wrong in having a deep desire to see people come to know him. but that comes from Him, if its just emotion, and a knowledge that it is right to have those feelings then you will try to do ministry in your own power. Also be careful about people telling you that you may be called to be an evangelist, people told me that for years, let God tell you what you are to do. realize your gifts, but be open to whatever God wants to do with you. Above all you are called to follow him. To watch what He does and join up with Him in what He is already doing. Odd thing is I'm preaching on this very thing tomorrow. How peter was bold, a leader, outspoken, took charge. But he failed. he sank in the water, when he saw the waves, he also denied Jesus when he said he wouldnt. but in John 21 Jesus tells him to feed His sheep. His calling was not based on peters boldness, leadership qualities, or passion. It was all because Jesus called Him. and the prerequisite was to love Jesus. My advice just trust Him and His timing. He knows what He's doing.

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