“Expecting the Preacher to do Everything”

Monday, March 26, 2018

Years ago, many Christians were opposed to a church hiring a fulltime preacher. Their concern (in many cases) was not that the practice was unbiblical, but simply that it might be unwise. They were afraid that, if the church had a fulltime, paid minister, too many Christians would just stop doing much of anything and expect the paid preacher to do it all.

Some referred to this as the “paid pastor” system or the “one man pastor” system. This was especially a concern for churches that did not have elders.

We have all heard the description of many churches that says, the preacher does the work of the elders, the elders do the work of deacons and the deacons and other members do little or nothing. Have you ever known of congregations that could be described in that way?

There will always be people who expect others to do their work for them. That is true in the workplace, often in the home and in almost every circumstance in life. It can also be true of a local church.

There are many jobs that often fall to the preacher.

• Visit all the members in the hospital or who are sick at home
• Teach all of the adult Bible classes
• Take people to the doctor
• Run someone to the grocery store
• Be the social director who plans all the get-togethers
• Organize the teaching program
• Order all of the class material
• Recruit all the children’s teachers
• Mediate family disputes
• Change the church sign
• Pacify the critics
• Teach all of the prospects
• Encourage the weak
• Shoulder the blame if the church isn’t growing
• Send gospel meeting announcement to area churches
• Mow the lawn
• Clean the building
• Write the bulletin articles – type, print, fold, etc.
• Be responsible for newspaper or other advertising
• Follow up with all the guests

I am not suggesting that it is wrong for the preacher to do anything on this list, but I am saying that it is wrong for a church to expect the preacher to do everything on the list while others do nothing. And if he does some of these things, it should be understood that he does most of them because he is a Christian and not because it is part of his work as the preacher or because he doesn’t have anything else to do.

People have often said, “That’s what we pay him for.” And some of the things on this list should rightly be considered to be the work of an evangelist. But the idea that many have expressed that it must be nice to have a job where you only work two days a week, Sunday and Wednesday, displays little real understanding of the Bible description of a preacher’s work. Most preachers I know do not do too little work, but many of them are expected to do too much.

This may explain to some why there are preachers who burn out trying to do too much and quit preaching. Have you ever known a gospel preacher who quit preaching fulltime? Have you wondered why?

A preacher needs some time to recharge and refresh himself personally and spiritually. He needs adequate time off for personal or family vacation time and for additional learning opportunities, such as attending lectureships or a special series of Bible studies at another congregation.

Does the preacher ever get to sit in a Bible class and learn from others? Do other men of the church take a turn filling the pulpit every once in a while so he can listen to the gospel rather than always being the one to deliver it?

There are times when serving God fulltime is just overwhelming and can make a person feel like he is doing it alone. Elijah felt that way (1 Kings 19) and although God reminded him that he was not the only faithful servant in Israel, He gave Elijah 40 days off to go into the wilderness and refresh himself for the days ahead (verse 8).

A friend of mine commented recently in a Bible class that her father, who is an elder in the Lord’s church, has often said that a preacher gets too much credit when things go well and too much blame when things go wrong.

The Bible teaches that every member of the body of Christ is important and has a vital function to perform in the work of a local church (see 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 and Ephesians 4:11-16). The truth is that many Christians expect the preacher to do far more than God expects of him and, as a result, those Christians often do far less than the Lord expects them to do.

(There is also the situation where some preachers want to be the center of attention and have their hand in everything that anyone else does so they can get part of the glory. But that’s another problem for another day.)

A church where everyone else sits back and does little or nothing and expects the preacher to do all of the work (because that’s what we pay him to do) is going to fail. We are a team, working together to serve God, to defeat the devil and to win souls for the Lord.

The apostle Paul wrote, in Philippians 1:27, “Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.” The phrase translated as “striving together” is an athletic term that speaks of brothers and sisters in the Lord working as a team to accomplish the work that He has given all of us to do – together.

The song says, “There is much to do; there’s work on every hand.” Let’s all put our hands to the plow (as Jesus describes in Luke 9:62) and do the work God has assigned all of His children to do. The church will grow, souls will be saved, God will be glorified and the preacher can be happy and fulfilled as he devotes his life to “the work of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58).

--Roger Hillis                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            RogerLeeHillis@gmail.com

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