Some Thoughts About What Preachers Face in Their Local Work
It's a rewarding and difficult work.
This article is inspired by “Twelve Things You Need to Know About Your Preacher” by Dewayne Bryant. If you haven’t read his article, you should!
There is no doubt that some preachers have endured mistreatment and unjust criticism from their brethren. I wish those instances were rare, but I’m afraid it happens far more often than we might like to think.
While we as preachers have certainly been mistreated at times, we need to be careful not always to blame the brethren for our problems.
Sometimes (emphasis on sometimes), preachers have problems in their local work because of their own behavior or shortcoming.
We may not have been patient enough.
We may have been lazy.
We may have been assuming too much authority in the church.
It’s easy to always blame our problems on other people - it’s easy to have a victim mentality as a preacher.
Sometimes preachers will be mistreated, and that is a shame.
However, sometimes we will bear some of the blame because of our own actions.
Speaking from personal experience, most of my struggles in ministry had more to do with myself and my own shortcomings than other people.
This isn’t said to take anything away from what Dewayne wrote. Sadly, what he wrote has happened to too many preachers - and probably will continue to happen.
But as preachers, let’s not use that as an excuse to stop looking in the mirror. Just because others may not be what they should be doesn’t mean we can stop looking into the mirror of God’s Word at ourselves (James 1:21-25).
Keep up the excellent work, brothers!