Preachers are often in the news these days, and it’s almost always for bad reasons. Bad news sells: Rabid Preacher Bites Dog! 

A wise professor at an elite academy for pastor training noted in class one day how the ministry attracts a certain segment of the psychotic population. One of the class members was offended by this statement. 

Another class involved the study of one of the original languages in which Bible books are written. Allow me to apologize to you if you had a pastor or teacher along the way who indicated that Jesus and Paul spoke proper King James English. They, in fact, did not. 

The professor in this class wrote the textbook on translating that language into English. He had participated in the translation of one of the Bible versions released in the 1980s. A student in the back corner of the class disputed the professor’s work, insights, and lectures with regularity. One of the foremost Bible-teaching pastors in America regularly called this professor when he needed to clarify an insight or ask a question. 

The Megachurch Movement has proven itself an unhealthy model by and large. For every pastor who finishes well in one of these churches, there is at least one who doesn’t. Preachers like colorful sayings like, “He done out-kicked his coverage.” It’s a flexible saying fitting several contexts. Applied to megachurch pastors, and megapastor wannabes, most of these leaders do not have the character, wisdom, or gravitas for leadership at such a level.

Another issue Rabid Pastor Dude deals with is leadership. Pastors love leadership conferences, leadership books, leadership, leadership, leadership. An author I read recently stated that you cannot talk about biblical leadership without the word Servant attached. All biblical leadership is servant leadership. 

Too many of today’s Christian leaders are satisfied with bigger crowds, better buildings, and bursting bank accounts. They also enjoy alliteration. Notice how Jesus led. When the crowds gathered and prepared to promote him to the highest place of leadership, he quickly and decisively reduced the crowds back to a group to which he could devote himself fully. 

The Jesus Strategy for Church Growth does not exist. Jesus’ strategy was about making disciples. How do you know a disciple is made? He or she makes other disciples. This was the plan. This is the plan. Does it work? Jesus had billions of disciples long before McDonald’s had customers. 

Great leaders serve. A leader who does not serve is not a great leader. The Jesus model involves washing the feet of dirty disciples who don’t like each other very much at the moment. 

Twelve men became 120 people on the Day of Pentecost, and before sunset, that 120 became five thousand. That multitude dispersed back to their homelands with the good news of Jesus. Others were driven from Jerusalem by persecution. Still others heard God’s clear directions to leave where they were and follow him wherever he led. 

Anytime you hear about another preacher who has fallen from grace, please remember a couple of things. First, we have all fallen from grace and desperately need Jesus, who alone is our Savior. Second, there are a thousand faithful pastors who have not slept with another man’s wife, enriched himself beyond measure, and bullied his way to the top. Why don’t we hear about these guys? 

Pastor Prays in Hospital Room before Major Surgery is a boring headline. Pastor Comforts Family Whose Matriarch Has Died does not go viral on social media. Pastor Deeply Loves and Invests in His Family sounds too crazy to believe. 

Mr. Rogers, the seminary-trained apostle to children, famously told those toddlers something adults tell children today again and again in crisis moments. He said to “look for the helpers.” That’s good advice. Today’s a good day to look for the pastors who serve in obscurity, who seek God morning by morning, who love their families deeply, who live with integrity, and who serve first, last, and always. These are the pastors who live and love like Jesus. 

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I will help pastors learn how to live and love like Jesus.

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Our Father, your calling on our lives is about helping others see how good you are, not how good we are. Your calling leads us to carry good news along with cups of cold water on sultry days to a weary world. Your calling leads us to clean up a lot of messes, to hold a lot of hands joined in prayer, to listen to heartbreaking stories so that we can lead the wounded and broken to wholeness and healing. Make us servant leaders more comfortable on our knees cleaning up messes than on high-profile media gathering acclaim. Amen.