What Makes for Solid Content and Strong Pastors?

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How Does God Make Good Pastors out of Sinful Men?

God decided to take sinful men and make them into good pastors. How does that work? What does it look like? We’ll get there, but first, people have been reaching out and asking who we watch, where we get our content, and which YouTube channels we follow. So let’s answer that.

Where We Go for Good Content

The hat on the desk reads “Exegesis over eisegesis,” which is the number one thing you want in a good pastor: that he exegetes the text and actually does so. It comes from a YouTube channel called The Honest Youth Pastor. We bought it off his website a couple of years ago. We saw the hat and had to own the hat.

The Non-Obvious Four

The Honest Youth Pastor. A fella named Michael runs it with a bearded dude named Jason, who we think is from North Dakota. We don’t follow closely enough to know, but we’ve watched their content. It’s both a podcast and a YouTube channel, and they call themselves the Babbling Pastors or something like that. They watch sermons and critique them, good ones and bad ones. They also have conversations about how Scripture is impacting culture. A lot of it is critiquing pastors, and we find it really helpful, because he gives you good insight into what the pastor is doing well and right, and what the pastor is missing. If you want good content, search “The Honest Youth Pastor.” That dude is pretty solid.

John Barnett. If there is a good pastor out there to follow who has been really, really solid, it’s John Barnett. He wrote the foreword in some of John MacArthur’s books, and he has a whole online teaching platform that we would encourage any Christian to follow. If you only have so much time to consume content and you want somebody who will just teach you what the Bible says and what it means, John Barnett is an excellent, excellent choice.

John Henry and The Gospel of Christ. These last two aren’t pastors that we know of, but they are good content guys. John Henry was off the air for about six months. He makes little video documentaries and samples, and you’ll see Paul Washer show up, and Voddie Baucham, as he takes the culture through a biblical lens. We have never been steered wrong by John Henry. What we like most is that he is very consistent in bringing everything back to the plain gospel, the simple truth of the Bible, the simple truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Brian Riggs. He’s more of a news guy and has been a YouTuber for a while. He takes the current news in Christianity of the day, and each video runs roughly fifteen to twenty minutes. He does a solid, honest job, and he always brings things back to the Word of God.

The Obvious Ones

Todd Friel with Wretched Radio. Chris Rosebrough with Fighting for the Faith. Justin Peters with Justin Peters Ministry. Add those to the four above, and that is basically our YouTube subscription list, where we go to find good content.

Waiting for Good Pastors to Die

Part of it is this, and we hate even to say it, so stay with us. We are waiting for good pastors to die so we can back them and they won’t fall from grace. We keep watching people get popular and then just lose it. We have seen several very good pastors suddenly caught up in scandals that completely disqualify them. Once that happens, you can’t keep following that person. It isn’t trustworthy. It’s sad, but it happens.

We know that was a bad analogy and could have been worded five times better. But the point stands: there is so much content out there that you can be selective. Let us rephrase it. There are sinful people, saved by grace, who know they need to trust Jesus every step of the way. Those are the people we like to watch and follow.

Five Marks of a Good Pastor

Unfortunately, or fortunately, when you walk into a church, the pastor isn’t dead yet. So what does a good pastor look like?

We have talked to so many people in recent days and years who find it hard to discern, and honestly, it has proven hard for us too. We start following someone, and then all of a sudden he is off the edge, and it turns out he wasn’t a good person to follow. So here are five marks of a good pastor. We are talking about the people you meet when you walk into a church, the ones you are going to get to know personally.

Start With Scripture

The Bible has very clear instruction as to what is required of a pastor. This goes for leadership in the church generally. It is simply a requirement. Read 1 Timothy 3. Chapter 6 touches on it as well. Titus covers it, and it runs throughout the Scriptures. Know those passages and understand them, so that when you walk into churches or go searching for one, they are top of mind.

On top of that, here is a personal list of our own, not cut and pasted from anybody:

1. A good pastor will be of good character.
2. A good pastor will be consistent in his teaching.
3. A good pastor will be Christ-focused.
4. A good pastor does not require money from you.
5. A good pastor will need a pastor for himself.

One disclaimer before we go on: you are never going to find a perfect one. After dealing with search committees recently, we reached the point of wondering whether we even wanted to do this anymore.

1. A Good Pastor Is of Good Character

Pastors aren’t superhuman, so let’s keep that straight as we go through this list. This is what your pastor will model. It will be his default setting, so to speak. That doesn’t mean he will never fail, but this is what you will be able to count on.

Faithfulness Comes First

Good character is laid out throughout the Scriptures, and we all need to be striving for these things. We have seen many pastors fall from it over the years, and the biggest place we see it is in their marriages and in sexual scandals. Years ago it was Jimmy Swaggart. Then it was Jim Bakker. In recent years it was Robert Morris. These men all lacked faithfulness, and faithfulness is right at the top of the list. When they have these falls, it disqualifies them, because they have not demonstrated faithfulness to their wives, to their families, and so on.

Integrity Beyond the Marriage

Good character extends into the rest of life. It is integrity and honesty in your dealings, and it goes beyond faithfulness to your spouse, though that is the big thing. It reaches your business dealings and your financial matters. Are you cheating on your taxes? Are you filing false insurance claims to get money? If you are doing those things, that is not the material of a pastor. That is disqualifying.

It carries into church matters too. If you can’t trust this leader to be faithful to his spouse, honest with his money, and not ripping off other people, how are you trusting him within the church to lead you spiritually? It doesn’t line up. A good pastor will not have these big, plaguing integrity problems. Find someone whose integrity is intact and who has good character.

The Death of Jim Bakker

We are recording this a handful of days after the death of Jim Bakker, and the reaction has been revealing.

Bakker’s story is a long and painful one. He had a fall from grace, was exceedingly unfaithful and exceedingly untrustworthy, and literally went to jail. We believe that when he came out of prison, he was really trying to be right with the Lord and live out his faith. Then he got sucked into the money vortex. He put on a dog and pony show to get his TV show going again, remarried, and began platforming some of the most awful, blatant heretics on the planet. He started giving prophecies, and they turned out to be wrong. He even prophesied that he was going to usher in the rapture, and when that didn’t happen, he said he needed money to continue the work required to make it happen.

In the end, he went right back to the exact same things he was doing before. It didn’t change how he behaved at all. He is a false teacher to the core, and that has been his whole career.

Biblical perspective. A man like this is not someone we in Christ should be holding up. Scripture calls leaders to faithfulness and honesty, and by that standard his life should not be celebrated.

Practical response. Grieve with the family, pray for those who loved him, and still refuse to canonize him.

Gramster Rant: Is It Bad Character to Tell the Truth About a False Teacher?

Can we talk about what happened right after Jim Bakker died?

Chris Rosebrough posted on his Facebook page that Bakker was a false teacher. Somebody immediately questioned Rosebrough’s character, because the family was still in mourning. How dare he? The body isn’t even cold yet.

Think about that for a second. Jim Bakker was a false teacher, and pointing that out is not sinful. Yet the moment he dies, somebody states the truth and they are the ones with bad character? That is their problem. Not the man who drugged and supposedly raped a woman. For that, we are all supposed to be sympathetic. We saw people talking about how they were on PTL years ago, and honestly, we would be embarrassed to list that. We have done things we are not proud of ourselves. We both were on TBN, for crying out loud. And we know there are people who may have had a positive experience with Bakker.

But here is the question. Is it bad character to point out that he was a false teacher, when he was known as a teacher, and when people are now going to try to celebrate the life of this heretic, for lack of a better term? When exactly are we allowed to bring it up? After all the pomp and circumstance? After they have turned him into St. Jim? Because very quickly they forget. We get so overly sensitive that the only “good character” left is silence.

There is a level of honesty that is humble and matter-of-fact. The bottom line is that people can’t handle it when you point out realities. Chris is a pastor, and other pastors have pointed this out too, and the same criticism comes from the same wing every time: “You’re terrible. You don’t have good character. You’re awful.” What does that have to do with anything?

Rosebrough is a Lutheran pastor and one of our favorite teachers. If you know his teaching and read what he wrote, you know he is not saying he is glad Bakker is dead. That is not what he is saying. He is saying this guy should not be celebrated in Christendom because of this, this, and this. And he gets attacked for it by people who claim his character is lacking because the family is mourning. How dare you?

Application. Faithfulness is the standard, and the standard doesn’t change when a man dies. Honesty that is humble and matter-of-fact is not a character flaw. A church that can’t tell the truth about a teacher who fell, and fell again, can’t protect its people from the next one. Love the grieving, and still call a false teacher a false teacher.

Steve Lawson Publishes a Book From the “Wilderness”

For those who are in the know of the conservative, Bible-believing, blood-bought evangelical world, you might know the name Steve Lawson. He was in the movie Cessationist, which you need to see if you haven’t yet. For six or seven years he taught folks, especially men, about purity, about standing strong for the Lord, and about being faithful. All the while he was cheating with a woman 25 years younger than him for five years.

He is disqualified. We don’t hate Steve now, but we point out the fact that Steve did wrong. We name names. We don’t sugarcoat it. It’s her, it’s him, it’s this, it’s that. And we want Steve to be restored to Christ, never to be back behind the pulpit again. He is disqualified from ministry. That’s the way it is.

Now, over the last month, he has come out with a book. We may not quote it right, but it is basically What I Learned When I Fell in the Wilderness or something like that.

Biblical perspective. Dude, we don’t really want to hear from you right now. That is not for you to do. Once you have fallen, how do you get up? Humbleness should be there for sure.

Practical response. What a fallen pastor should do is have somebody else write a book about the wilderness and use him as an example chapter. Then he shows a good testimony by not publishing a book to make money on the backs of Christians anymore. That is part of being of good character. And in that humbleness, it is still okay for the rest of us to say true things in a matter-of-fact way.

Right On or Way Off? Unrealistic Standards for Pastors

There is one more point about good character, and it is to be very careful that you are not holding your pastor to an unrealistic standard either. Pastors are not superhuman. They need the same forgiveness and grace that everybody else needs. We have to be careful not to make a law where there is no law. We love that phrase. Let’s run a few through the test.

“A pastor who has a glass of wine is unfit for ministry.”

WAY OFF. You can hold that as a personal conviction, and we would be the first to encourage you in it. But you cannot make a law where there is no law. The Bible does not say you should never drink wine.

“A pastor who gets drunk has a real problem.”

RIGHT ON. The Bible does say you should never be drunk. That is forbidden. If your pastor is getting drunk, you have a real, legitimate problem.

“A pastor who mows his lawn on Sunday has a character flaw.”

WAY OFF. Sunday is a workday for a pastor. It isn’t his Sabbath. Still, Chris won’t mow his lawn on Sunday unless it is the only clear day after two weeks of rain. Why? Because even when people give you backlash who have zero credibility, you still have to deal with it. You want to love them the way Christ loved the church, but sometimes you just don’t want to fight your way through people, or defend yourself, or listen to somebody come to you and talk about how they have been gossiping behind your back in Jesus’ name. If people would just think through biblically what they are doing, it would make a lot more sense.

“A pastor who raises his voice is disqualified.”

WAY OFF. Chris is known as the abrasive pastor. He comes out of a very abrasive life, a world where we are loud, in your face, very forgiving, and very verbal. If you need the soft, quiet, never-raise-his-voice guy, he is not your guy, and there are a lot of other churches for you. Nowhere in the Scriptures does it say never raise your voice. He doesn’t light people up just for the fun of it, but sometimes he gets annoyed and worn down. Somebody once told him, “That’s your world, but we don’t have to live in your world. You have to be better than that.” His answer was, “You’re right.” And he keeps trying. That is all he can do.

“A hot-tempered pastor should be avoided.”

RIGHT ON. Scripture does say to have nothing to do with a hot-tempered person. If you are a hot-tempered pastor, you should be avoided. That is a different thing from a pastor who raised his voice once.

If you put all these unrealistic expectations on a pastor, you are never going to have a pastor. You have one pastor and one to two hundred congregants who each have in their mind how that pastor is supposed to act. So know what God’s Word says, don’t hold the pastor up on a pedestal, and don’t expect him to be superhuman, because he isn’t and he doesn’t deserve that pedestal.

The Apostle Paul’s Resume

In the early 2000s, before we went to Arizona, a group of people got together and wrote a resume for a pastor opening as the Apostle Paul. They sent it to a hundred different church openings over about fourteen months, and they got a hundred rejection letters. It did say, you know, three-time felon, caused riots, been in countless street fights.

So the bottom line is that you prayerfully consider where you want to go to church, and you prayerfully consider what they are teaching. The biggest takeaway of this whole article is that you lay everything next to the Word of God that you have written on your heart, no matter who they are and what they say. That includes us, and it includes every other person we have brought up.

2. A Good Pastor Is Consistent in His Teaching

We have seen this over and over. They start out saying something very good and very biblical, something that sounds right. Then over time, all of a sudden, they start saying things that contradict what they said before. They suck you in with the good teaching, and you think, “They’re a good teacher, I trust that person.” Then your discernment, your spidey senses, go down, and their teaching starts veering off, and you are not even aware of it.

Many times we hear somebody veer off whom we used to respect and like, and we think, “Am I wrong? They can’t be wrong. They’re such a good teacher.” Some of them we have been personal friends with, and they have gone really off the deep end. We don’t want this to turn into naming names, but a few are worth naming.

Mark Driscoll

In the early days, Mark Driscoll was very sound, very straightforward, and cut through all the mumbo jumbo. Then he got full of himself. According to exposés from people who were around him in Washington state, as he got very popular he used to literally look at people and say, “You don’t understand. I’m a big deal.” That is not going to end well, and it didn’t. He became known as the cursing pastor. Then he took his knowledge of how to manipulate social media and draw crowds to Arizona and started what is called Trinity Church in the Valley. This guy should not be listened to and should be avoided, especially after what he did with the spirit of Jezebel, trying to sell his new book. He has gone off the deep end and should not be trusted.

When he first started to go, we thought, “Well, Mark is saying that, so who am I? He knows more than I do.” Then you start looking, and you think, “Oh no, here he goes.” And you hear people like John MacArthur and Voddie Baucham say, “Lay my teachings down next to the Scripture you’ve written on your heart, and then you’ll know better.”

Josh Howerton

Here is another one to watch, a gentleman named Josh Howerton. He is a megachurch pastor with several campuses, and he is becoming very visible on social media. Warning, warning, warning with this guy. He sounds very conservative, and many of the things he talks about line up with traditional biblical teaching. But he has a history, and if you take the time to really look, you will find he has aligned himself, and continues to align himself, with false teachers like Paula White. People have run across some really bad teachings from him. He is teaching one thing here and another thing there.

Two or three years ago, his little videos would show up on Facebook, and some of them were really sharp, really good. We thought, “I like this kid.” Then we watched the fall happen, over about the last year, year and a half. Why? Because he became super popular. The last time we saw him, a couple of weeks ago, he was standing on two ladders on stage. Just stop it. Preach the Word.

Rob Bell

Rob Bell did the same thing. When he was first becoming visible, his little videos were, “Wow, that’s good.” Then he came out with Love Wins, and it was, “Whoa.” We have the trophy for this one. We were the number one morning show in his hometown when he had Mars Hill, a 10,000-person church. When Love Wins came out, we called him a heretic on the air. We made some waves and got some ink out of that one. We took so much abuse for it, and we knew we were right the whole time. Just read what he wrote. It proved itself out over time. He went off with Oprah, he went off to California, and Rob has gone so far off the deep end that if you love Jesus, your heart will break for the kid, because he knows what it is. He has trashed the Bible as not being legitimate, along with all kinds of other things.

What Consistency Does and Doesn’t Mean

Watch for consistency in the teachings. That doesn’t mean a pastor can never come out and say, “I’ve read this passage before, and now I’m understanding it more deeply and more clearly, and it is deeper than what I originally thought.” There is nothing wrong with that. But to be flat-out heretical, teaching one thing at one point and another thing at another point, is a red flag, red flag. Find someone who is consistent in his teaching.

3. A Good Pastor Is Christ-Focused

That sounds like a great big duh, doesn’t it? But there are budgets. There are conflict resolutions. There are things where you want people to grow spiritually: how you handle your job, how you handle your marriage, marriage ministry, youth groups. A lot of things have your attention, and you can try to be Christ-focused in all of it, but at the end of the day there are many times you veer off into these other things. Some of those things are not bad in and of themselves. But that is not the job of the church.

The job of the church is to make Jesus’s name great. We gather together because we are all beggars telling the other beggar where to find bread. That is what Christianity is. It is the immense divine nature of our Lord and Savior. Read Revelation 19. He is a warrior king, and that is who we serve. He saved us while we were yet sinners, and that should come through in everything. Unfortunately, how far you skew off from being Christ-focused can depend on the day and on the season.

Talking About God but Never Getting to Jesus

It can also be really, really subtle. This is something we have become very aware of in recent years: you will have a lot of teachers who talk a lot about God but in their message never get to Jesus. Even when you are teaching out of the Old Testament, all of the Old Testament is pointing to Jesus Christ himself. A teacher who talks a lot about God but never brings it around to the person of Jesus Christ is a warning sign.

The Hyperfixation on the Holy Spirit

It isn’t a focus on God the Father, and it isn’t even a focus on the Holy Spirit. Now, this sounds like “where are you going with this?” but it is true. We see churches now, with the NAR and the Pentecostal charismatic movement, with a hyperfixation on the Holy Spirit and the work of the Holy Spirit. That is totally misguided, because according to Scripture, the job of the Holy Spirit is to point people to Jesus Christ. When we give glory to Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is glorified, and when we give glory to Jesus Christ, the Father is glorified.

Salvaged by God Deep Dive: Philippians 2:10-11

“So that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:10-11)

When you get your mind around all of that, and your heart and your soul around all of that, your soul just sings with joy because of Jesus. Every knee is going to bend. Three truths stand out.

1. Every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth. It is not just people on earth. It is everyone in heaven as well. You are looking at the angelic beings, and all of it is pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ.

2. Glorifying the Son is how we glorify the Father. Think about it in earthly terms. Think about sports. You are talking to the father of Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods or Rory McIlroy, who is a favorite golfer: he misses short putts and wins major tournaments. We watched a documentary on him, and it was so interesting to watch his father. If you want to talk to the father of a great athlete like that and really touch his heart, do you say, “Hey, you’re a great dad, you’re just so great”? Or do you point to the son and say, “Hey, your son is amazing”? When you point to the son and how amazing he is, if he has done these great things, the father’s heart swells, and you are actually esteeming and glorifying that dad for who he is in raising that son.

Or transport yourself to a funeral. Someone has just passed away. When you go up to their friends and family, do they want to hear how great you are? Or do they want you to talk and talk and talk about how great that person was who passed away? You are esteeming the people at that funeral, and giving them much of what they need and desire, by focusing on that person and praising them.

Now look at God the Father. He sacrificed his Son on our behalf. When we bring glory to Jesus Christ the Son, that is how we bring glory to God the Father and to the Holy Spirit.

3. It all comes down to one thing. Is your name in the book, or is your name not in the book? What are you going to do to get your name in the book? Well, there is nothing you can do. There is no merit you can offer to get in the book. It is all by recognizing your brokenness. Think of Psalm 51 and Isaiah chapter 1. You are broken because you are a sinner, so you look to Jesus as the one who has taken away the sins of the world. His sacrifice will cover you. His blood will cover you. Now your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and you become part of what is called the bride of Christ.

Application. What God has been looking for across all of human history is people who would give up this life for the next, who would love the Son so much for his sacrifice that they would say, “All right, as a sinful person, there is nothing I can accomplish, nothing I can do that is going to be better than this, so I’m going all in in faith in the Son.” Then it is counted to us as righteousness, and we walk this sanctification journey. On the great day, God takes all these people and gives them to the Lord Jesus Christ. What does Jesus do with all of us? He gives us back to the Father. Then we all live together in the New Jerusalem, and the party in the New Jerusalem is all we want to be about. It is going to be very, very exciting.

Closing summary. A good pastor has a focus on Jesus Christ. It is not on man. It can’t be on you as a better athlete, employee, mother, or father. They can talk about God all day, which is okay, but how does that point to Jesus Christ? If they are eliminating Jesus Christ from the preaching, that is not good. And if they are hyperfocused on the Holy Spirit rather than on Jesus Christ, there are problems.

4. A Good Pastor Does Not Require Money from You

This one has some nuances. It can be both true and taken out of context and made false. The words we use here are key and very important. The key word is require.

God doesn’t need your money. A pastor doesn’t need your money, because God is going to accomplish his will through that pastor regardless of you. Yes, there are biblical teachings on offerings and on how the church is to love one another and care for one another. But the pastor himself does not need your money.

The Overt Version

It can be very, very overt. We have heard Jim Bakker say he needed money to usher in the rapture. That is just a scam.

Do you remember Oral Roberts years ago? He said God was going to call him home unless he got $11 million. If he didn’t get it, God was going to call him home. Oh, my word. That one has been mocked in stand-up comedy halls for decades.

Then take it down a notch to everyday life and the pastor who might be down the street. We know a man who sold his house, and several days after he sold it, the pastor came to his house and said, “Now that you’ve sold your house, you owe the church.” That man never went back to church again. That is the “you’re supposed to give, and do you really love Jesus?” approach. It is true but false. That is not how it works.

The Subtle Version

We were once helping an elderly lady who was vulnerable and had run into deep financial problems. One of the reasons was that she was giving her money away to the point that she ought not to have been. When we sat down with her, we found she was giving to a church that she didn’t even attend. We asked, “Why are you giving to this church?” and she said, “I want to be on their prayer team.” We had to have a little conversation to help her see that you should be able to be on a prayer team at a church regardless of whether you give money. Somehow in her mind, she had gotten the idea that if she stopped giving, she could no longer associate with them, whether that was true or not. They do this in very, very subtle ways, but they do it.

Giving is always supposed to be done between you and God. You do it in a cheerful way, knowing this is what God has asked you to do, not what your pastor tells you you’re required to do.

The Other Side of the Coin

As a pastor, you need to be content with what you have been given. But there are a lot of times when pastors are considered the lesser-than. You know, “We have this broken computer, maybe the pastor would want it.” “Here’s our garbage, pastor.” We have seen stuff like that. We have also seen people really do well by their pastor. It is October, which is pastor appreciation month. At the previous church, they were wonderful to us during October, and God bless them all. You have to look at the context.

There are real costs. We came out with Bible Idiots in 2016, and two different people got hold of us and basically said we should release it on YouTube for free, because we were trying to make money off the gospel with this Bible Idiots apologetic. (Are we idiots for believing the Bible, or would we be idiots not to?) It is a great movie, and we still think it is a wonderful movie. It was nominated for best documentary of the year and didn’t win, but it was nominated anyway. The point is that we had investors who put in over $120,000 to make that movie, and we had to try to pay them back. That is why you put it out on DVD. Well, not anymore, because there are no DVDs anymore. There is real cost in that. It is the same with running a church. You want your pastor to exegete the text, and you want him to do all these things, so you need to give to the church.

The other thing is that people need to have a feeling in their hearts that they want to give. True, authentic Bible-believing Christians in an authentic bride of Christ church will want to give. It is a natural thing. And then there is being content with what you have.

Right On or Way Off? Money and the Ministry

“Any money is bad money. If you really love Jesus, you do it all for free.”

WAY OFF. We do do it for free a lot. A lot. But we make up our minds about it. When we first started ministry thirty years ago, we had a thing in our head: “I’ll do whatever you want, God.” We even prayed it for four or five years. “Whatever you want, God, but don’t have me ask anybody for money. I know how foul that is in my neighborhood.” Then we ended up in Christian radio, doing “thons” every three months. You have two-hour shifts, four times a day, where you just come on between songs and encourage people to give. The cost is real, and the idea that nobody should be paid is simply wrong.

“If you really love Jesus, you’ll give to this ministry.”

WAY OFF. The reality is that it can be taken out of context so easily. Go back to what the heart of the true Christian feels like: this is not ours, it is all his. We try to be content with what we have, and we try to give as much as we possibly can. Both sides of that, “you have to do it for free” and “you have to give to this ministry if you really love Jesus,” are a covetous heart.

“You should take care of your pastor.”

RIGHT ON. The Bible does say this. Don’t make your pastor live in poverty. Whomever he is ministering to, in whatever environment, he should be able to live there. What he can live on in middle America is very different from what he could live on in New York City. There is no prescribed amount of money you have to give, but you should look at your pastor and make sure he is being taken care of and his family is being taken care of. That is biblical.

But when it comes to money, your pastor is not going to tell you that your money is required.

5. A Good Pastor Needs a Pastor for Himself

A good pastor needs a pastor for himself. A lot of times we come home on Sunday and say, “Let me put on an Adrian Rogers message,” because you have to feed yourself throughout the week as well, and you absolutely do. You need people to talk to, and you need people who are not in your designated flock that you can bounce things off of. It is just a lonely place a lot of times.

It can be helpful if you are in a denomination or a synod, because you have other people within it you can go to, but even that isn’t necessarily enough. The pastor should have his own teachers and preachers that he is sitting under and learning from every week. And like we said, he should have a group of mentors outside of that church setting that he can go to, be completely honest with, be encouraged by, and be counseled and directed by in a good, godly way.

A good pastor will acknowledge that and surround himself with other good teachers, preachers, and mentors. That is part of the reason we do this show: we surround ourselves with other teachers to help us learn and grow. We know a bunch of pastors watch this show, and that is always cool to us.

Salvaged by God Deep Dive: 2 Corinthians 5:17-20

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their wrongdoings against them. And he has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:17-20)

Notice that Christ guy again, sitting at the center of everything. God was in him reconciling the world to himself.

1. Mankind has been given a ministry. When you come to the Lord Jesus Christ, you are given a ministry of reconciliation. It is not a ministry of miracles or healing. That is not your ministry. It is a ministry of reconciliation.

2. That is how you know you have a good pastor. Is he encouraging you to continue to be right with God? Is he encouraging you to get out into the world, into your everyday life, and share that there is a way to be reconciled to God through Christ Jesus with the people around you?

3. That message brings us into God’s Word. As we read God’s Word, study God’s Word, and hear God’s Word preached, what happens? It changes us from the inside out. It sanctifies us.

Application. You need a pastor who is doing that for you.

Final Thoughts

God takes sinful men and makes them into good pastors, and you can know them by what they are made of: good character, consistency in their teaching, a focus on Christ, no demand for your money, and a pastor of their own. You will never find a perfect one, and you shouldn’t put the one you find on a pedestal. Know 1 Timothy 3, 1 Timothy 6, and Titus. And above all, lay everything next to the Word of God that you have written on your heart, no matter who they are and what they say.

If you like the hat, that is The Honest Youth Pastor, and that is where we catch him.

To support Fresh Road Media, go to freshroadmedia.com. For the rest of October, if you give a gift of any amount, we will send you a digital link to the documentary Colors of Character. It is the story of Steve Skipper, a former Crips gang member and former drug addict who became a Christian and became a painter in the high-end art world. His paintings hang in halls of fame all over the country, and it is truly a story of God’s redemption. We want to give that to you as a return gift for a gift of any amount.

Thank you so much for reading, and may you be blessed.