Comments on: Preach or Pastor?

By: DON'T NEGLECT PASTORAL VISITS | BLOG OF DAN

DON'T NEGLECT PASTORAL VISITS | BLOG OF DAN — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 09:31:08 +0000

[…] David Murray: […]

By: David Murray

David Murray — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 01:36:59 +0000

Jason, yes, we look for pastoral experience when appointing faculty members. It is very important to us.

By: jason

jason — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 04:02:08 +0000

Thanks for posting this Pastor David. This is a very important topic that needs to be looked upon more often. I’ve noticed this theme running around often at a lot of Reformed churches and I’m sure non-Reformed. The minister will usually quip…I can’t do it all myself, I need to be studying, I can’t be friends with everyone and so on. Now I do agree that they can’t do it all but as you have stated you can’t have one without the other. Follow the great Puritans and see how they modeled ministry. Starting with the Lord’s day; preaching Christ to the people then they would follow up on their feeding of the sheep during the week and if it was to much they would have men who were qualified to assist them in their shepherding duties. Which we see as the Biblical model of elders and so on. So anyways I think you are right on with this article. By the way, I recently heard an interview with you discussing your leaving of your church in Scotland and the struggle within to make sure you were doing what God wanted. I really admired the response you gave to Joel Beeke about the only way you would join the academic field at PRTS, was on condition that you could be preaching/pastoring on a regular basis. Is it true that one of the qualifications of the professors there is to also be a pastor? If so I think that is wonderful! We need more teaching institutes to have this demand. An important book out there if anyone is interested in looking into this a little more is The Shepherd Leader by Tim Witmer, Professor at Westminster (Philadelphia). Continued blessings

By: Stephen

Stephen — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 20:04:54 +0000

Thought-provoking post! My pastor is very much the “he can’t preach, but he’s a wonderful pastor” type. I’ve seen how that’s been both good and bad for the life of our church. In any case, I believe Richard Baxter (one of my favorite models of pastoral ministry) would agree that Monday thru Friday visitation and shepherding is as important (if not more so) than the Sunday sermon.

By: Chris Roberts

Chris Roberts — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 17:55:11 +0000

As a new pastor, I struggle with that question. I lean heavily on the preach side and the strong introvert in me finds visitation rewarding but taxing. What is the balance you have found between the two?Also, what does your visitation look like? Most of my visits are to older folks, shut-ins and nursing home people. They are not in church most Sunday’s, and conversations are often filled with discussions of the latest kidney problem. This is one reason I find visits taxing, but these are the sort of visits expected of a Baptist pastor.I made it a goal to visit with every family in my church and I’ve just about accomplished that goal, only a handful remain. The one-time visits with people were good, but my regular, weekly visits remain to the shut-ins. Families active in the church are generally working or doing other things during my normal times to visit. I could visit more at night or on the weekends, but then I’m taking more time away from my wife and three small children.So what is the balance? And how do you arrange your visits so that you see people who work during the day? And how do you keep your visits pastoral rather than social?Help wanted!