Answers to Pastors' FAQ's

181 Pages·2005·0.79 MB·English

by  Wiersbe

ANSWERS TO PASTORS’ FAQs
Published by David C Cook
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David C Cook Distribution Canada
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David C Cook U.K., Kingsway Communications
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All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes, no part of this book may be reproduced
or used in any form without written permission from the publisher.
®
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version .
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing
House. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the
Holy Bible. The author has added italics to Scripture quotations for emphasis.]
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wiersbe, Warren W.
Pastors' FAQ / Warren Wiersbe.-- [Rev. ed.].
p. cm.
Rev. ed. of: Confident pastoral leadership / Howard F. Sugden. 2nd ed.
c1993.
ISBN 0-7814-4156-0 (pbk.)
eISBN 978-1-4347-0522-8
1. Pastoral theology. I. Sugden, Howard F. Confident pastoral leadership.
II. Title.
BV4011.3.W54 2005
253--dc22
2004026810
© 2005 by SCRIPTEX, INC., WARREN W. WIERSBE, President Revised and updated: original edition
copyrighted © 1973 by Moody Publishers, under the title When Pastors Wonder How; revised edition
copyrighted © 1993 by Baker Book House Company, under the title Confident Pastoral Leadership.
First Edition 2005
Contents
Preface to This Revision
Preface to the First Edition
Chapter 1. The Call to the Ministry
Chapter 2. The Call to a Church
Chapter 3. The Pastor in a New Church
Chapter 4. Church Organization
Chapter 5. Preaching
Chapter 6. The Pastor and His Books
Chapter 7. Church Services
Chapter 8. Activities and Programs
Chapter 9. Visitation
Chapter 10. Marriage and Divorce
Chapter 11. Death and Funerals
Chapter 12. Fellow Laborers
Chapter 13. Dealing with Problem People
Chapter 14. Membership
Chapter 15. Church Discipline
Chapter 16. The Pastor and Home
Chapter 17. Personal Matters
Chapter 18. The Pastor and His Priorities
Chapter 19. The Ministry of the Pastor’s Wife
Chapter 20. Miscellaneous Ministerial Matters
Preface to This Revision
I
t is difficult to believe that thirty years have passed since the first edition of this
book was published. I rejoice that it has been in print all this time and that the
response has been encouraging. For whatever help this book has been to those in
pastoral ministry, I give thanks to the Lord. All the glory belongs to him.
I am not pastoring now, and my friend Howard Sugden has gone to be with
our Lord. But our hearts have always been, and my heart remains, in the local
church and with those who serve there. Many changes have taken place in the
religious landscape during these thirty years, some encouraging and some
frightening; but I have seen also that the inspired Word of God still meets the
needs of God’s people. “Preach the Word!” is still our mandate.
When my friends at Cook Communications/Victor Books suggested a new
printing of this book, I suggested that we revise and expand it so that I might
deal with some of the contemporary issues that the church faces. Cook
Communications agreed, and the result is the volume you now hold in your
hands. I want to thank my son David W. Wiersbe for his helpful suggestions. My
editor Craig Bubeck was encouraging and patient as he waited for the
manuscript.
If you are a young preacher, you may find this book quoting preachers from
the past who are strangers to you. I urge you to get acquainted with them and to
read their sermons and their biographies. They will enrich you. My book Living
with the Giants (Baker) will introduce you to some of them and give you helpful
bibliographies.
These are great days for ministry. May the Lord help us all to be faithful
until he comes!
—Warren W. Wiersbe
Preface to the First Edition (1973)
G
od has called us to be pastors and to preach his Word, and, quite frankly, we
enjoy it. Phillips Brooks put it beautifully in his Lectures on Preaching: “Let us
rejoice with one another that in a world where there are a great many good and
happy things for men to do, God has given us the best and happiest, and made us
preachers of His Truth.”
It has been our privilege to pastor small churches and large churches. At
present, both of us are ministering in city churches. It has also been our privilege
to minister in various conferences across the country. The most rewarding have
often been the pastors’ conferences where we have met with our brethren in the
ministry and shared one another’s burdens. Often we have conducted a question
time when we have tried to encourage and to enlighten the brethren from the
Word and from our own experience.
The questions and answers in this book have grown out of these seminars. It
has often been suggested to us that we publish answers to the questions that have
been asked most frequently, and this explains the publication of the book you are
now reading. These questions deal primarily with the pastor and his work in the
church. This is not a book about theological problems or Bible questions.
We do not expect every pastor to agree with every answer we have given.
But we do expect our brethren to consider each answer honestly and ask for
God’s direction. We have not sprinkled these pages with “I remember a case
when” and “Now, this is what happened to me.” Pastors are busy people who
appreciate answers that are to the point. No doubt every pastor can write his own
illustrations from his own experience.
Please keep in mind that we wrote out of our own experience and therefore
cannot speak with authority about every local church. Our own ministry has
been spent in churches with independent ministries, though in fellowship with
others of like faith. We realize that different denominations have different ways
of handling matters, particularly in the areas of church discipline and calling
pastors. The brethren pastoring in these churches can still, we think, benefit from
what we have to say.
We must confess that we had young pastors in mind as we wrote these
pages. For some reason, many of them are not taught these basic principles in
school; and if we can save them some trouble and trials, we will feel amply
repaid for our efforts. But the experienced pastor might be able to pick up a few
new ideas or to be reminded of some forgotten principle. The man who boasts
that he has fifteen years’ experience in the ministry may not be telling the truth:
perhaps he has had one year’s experience—fifteen times.
We send this book forth with the prayer that it will assist and encourage our
brethren in the ministry, so that we might all be effective in winning the lost and
in building Christ’s church.
—Howard F. Sugden and Warren W. Wiersbe
Chapter ONE
The Call to the Ministry
How can I know I’m called to the ministry and how important is the
assurance of a special call?
T
he work of the ministry is too demanding and difficult for anyone to enter
without a sense of divine calling. Too often people enter and then leave the
ministry because they lack the sense of divine urgency that comes with a call.
Nothing less than a definite call from God can ever give you success when the
going gets tough in the ministry.
How do we know we are called? For some, there is a crisis experience—
like those experienced by Moses at the burning bush or Isaiah in the temple or
Paul on the Damascus Road. But for most of us there is simply that inescapable
growing conviction that God has his hand upon us. Paul expressed it this way: “I
am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (see 1 Cor.
9:16). When you are called, you have an inner conviction that will not permit
you to invest your life in any other vocation.
Along with this inner confidence there is the possession of the gifts and
qualifications that God requires for his workers. The candidate for the ministry
had better pray over and ponder the words of Paul in 1 Timothy 3:1–7 and Titus
1:5–9. No minister feels adequately equipped; even Paul exclaimed, “And who
is equal to such a task?” (2 Cor. 2:16). But those who are truly called sense that
God has given the spiritual gifts and natural abilities they need; these gifts and
abilities must be dedicated, cultivated, and used for God’s glory.
Certainly pastors must have character and conduct above reproach. They
must sincerely desire to serve Christ and have a love for the Word and a desire to
study it and share it with others. They must love people and be able to work well
with them. They must have spiritual and emotional maturity. If married, the one
called must be sure that the spouse agrees with the decision.
Along with this inner conviction, and an honest personal evaluation, must