Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Christ at the Campfire How many in this forum are preachers?

I mean full-time pulpit ministers.

Bubba,

I ain't much of a preacher, but I'll weigh in. (275 lbs) <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Been preaching for about 15 years, full time for 9 or so. I don't know if I qualify, though, cause I don't get paid money to preach. But I am bull headed, remember?

I preached a few times in full police uniform, cause I was on lunch break when church was on. I had a fellow come up to me after service and say he didn't think it was right for me to preach with a gun on. I asked him who he would like me to give it to to hold onto for me. In the same service, I had a couple people tell me it was good to see a police officer who was saved, called to preach, and not ashamed to stand up and holler. hee hee. Takes all kinds, I suppose. (I don't know if the complainer was afraid I would say, "Listen, or else!")

I respect you a lot Shootist. You have strong convictions and you stand by what you believe, and that counts for a lot in my book. No one is going to agree with any of us all the time, and I guess it would be boring if that were true, no matter what the subject is. And like Jim said in another thread, we need to work on spirituality within the church family, encourage and edify one another. For the most part, I feel that we accomplish some of those goals on this board. If it helps one soul, then we are ahead of the game.

Once considered being 'ordained' by a church denomination..

Time I got to the top church dawgs and the 'interview', I knew by the Holy Spirit that their denomination was far too narrow for the work Christ had in mind for my life..:)
Never did work well with big business folks..

They did some good bible preaching at times and they were a full gospel group too..
Just too fixated on the growth of 'their denominational things and not enough on the body of Christ..

The 'pulpits' I find myself in are daily and range from the street folks with rags, surplus clothes, shopping carts and much excess baggage and severe problems to those who read Rick Warren's books and one meets in the business places..
Scared my wife badly some of the folks I'd bring home for dinner..but she now knows I'm insane..:)

Best 'preaching' is done by example of word and deed perhaps.

Don't care if they recall my name..What I do hope is that they remember Christ, His Holy Spirit and the calling of the Creator in Christ on their lives.
That they feel His love and care for them and KNOW that He can CHANGE their lives, tho maybe not their 'economic status'..

No ministry is insignificant for the body of Christ and to the world.
Man, you don't have to go very far from your door or workplace to have the Holy Spirit bring folks by so in Him you have opportunity to give God's love, the words of faith and peace, ALL the TRUE PROMISE that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ..Yahsua Messiah....jim

Once but not now.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A famous Jewish writer (whose name I wish I could remember) is a former rabbi. A lady who met him at a dinner had already known of him but only as a writer. When she learned that he'd been a rabbi, she wondered why he no longer was.

"Defrocked?" she asked.

"No," he said, "unsuited."

.

Jim,

I had considered putting up the verse in Acts 8, where it says that the folks that were dispersed abroad went everywhere preaching the gospel. They were not "ordained" preachers. They were guys like you and me that witnessed and preached Christ to the people they met on the street every day.

Some of the best "messages" are not preached from behind a pulpit in a steeple house, but where the Lord directs a witness to testify of the saving blood of Jesus Christ. Amen. Sometimes street work can be a real hostile environment, where a church pulpit usually isn't. (I've been in some that got a little testy from time to time, though.)

A Pastor friend of mine had a bunch of folks leave his church over a stupid issue. (It's usually something stupid.) He was going on vacation and asked me fill his pulpit for him for four weeks. Seems his deacons felt like they were safer with me in the pulpit than some of the men in the church. Kind of felt like Palladin -- have gun will travel. (left the gun at home for those meetings.) That was before I was ordained. There were a few "disturbances" in the course of the four weeks, but the Lord got the glory.

I saw a neat sign over the back door of a friend's house that said, "You are now entering your mission field." Amen! Take the name of Jesus with you, and preach Christ to every creature, stump and fence post along the way.

I'm thankful for guys that take it to the streets. Amen! Pour it on.

As far as ordination goes, I was ordained by God a lot sooner than a man ever signed an ordination certificate. I never really cared about the "fishull" status, and it never changed my ministry.

Changed lives - - that's the ticket. "Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature: old things are passed away;behold all things are become new." 2 Cor 5:17 There are few greater witnesses in this world than the testimony of a life that has been changed by the Lord, through salvation unto sanctification.

Good verse, especially when you notice that verse 8:1 specifically excludes "the apostles" from "they were all scattered abroad." Many erroneously believe and teach that "they that were scattered abroad" were the apostles.


And there were lots and gobs of 'em. The Body of Christ in Jerusalem alone has been estimated to have been something like (IIRC) about 50,000 believers. This number doesn't seem excessive when you consider, for starters, the immediate fruit from Peter's inspired words on the Day of Pentecost: "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls." (Acts 2:41, with emphasis added) And that was just the first day! Many, many more believers were added soon thereafter, before Paul's invasions and persecutions scattered 'em.

.

Like Br.Ken howell "once but not now"
Still manage to preach once a week but do not pastor Any longer.

can you guys possibly imagine what those days of pentecost might have been like?
hallelujah! what a sight! talk about one's cup running over ...

Yup, Ken. Men and women if my read on it is right. Not pulpit preachers, but street witnesses, marketplace preachers, door to door - take the gospel to the common people kind of preachers. And that was very effective. Still is today, I believe. The preacher sure can't get it all done on his lonesome, and lots of folks never darken the doors of a church. It is the responsibility of whosoever will to get the gospel out to the lost world.

Like I said, "Thank the Lord for street witnesses."

Maybe I shouldn't reply. I am not full-time, but am bi-vocational (as in work as an enginner through the week and preach every Sunday the Lord blesses me with the ability). I have a full time church, but am not the full time pastor, if that makes sense.

Yes, be able to give a reason for the faith that is in you; all believers are to be "ministers" of the word.

More and more, I see some seminarys as a hazardous journey for a once pilgrim who comes out immersed in a dogma (belief in a body of knowlegde/system/tradtion) rather than Biblical truth as you read it.

I did not say all pastors or all seminarys.

George

I was more interested to know who was a preacher--in the pulpit--than who was a congregational head with a myriad of other duties. What you do fits this criteria perfectly.

"unsuited"

Ken, that's a good one!

I am an ordained pastor serving with a full-time call. I preach at four services each Sunday.

I'm impressed that you term yourself " pastor " first and preacher secondarily. I would be pleased to share a hunting camp with you,regardless of any different views we might discover we had!