Classic Summer 2020: Want Ads for Pastors

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the apostle

Paul said, "'But we did not yield in subjection to them "'for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel "'would remain with you.'"

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her king.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, coming from beautiful downtown

Burbank today, Buena Vista Avenue. In my dreams, it's snowing 16 inches today.

It's snowmageddon. It's February 14th, no, 13th as I record this show, and it is just snowing, snowing, snowing, but it makes for a very calm day here at the studio.

We never sleep nor slumber here at No Compromise Radio studio, so we have to get those shows out.

It's a good day for snow ice cream. A little bit of vanilla, a little bit of few chocolate chips, some half and half.

What else do you put in there? Oh, sugar, of course. And you take about two bites and you go, I've had enough.

Today is a good day for me because I actually get to eat. I had a certain GI procedure done for just to check.

Everything's fine. But the preparation for those of you who are old enough to know is difficult.

The procedure isn't that difficult because if you have some Versed and that other morphine derivative, you don't remember much.

I tried to stay awake. They said, good night. And I said, I'm trying to stay awake. It started to get kind of cloudy.

I was trying my best to keep my eyes open. I was trying to beat the system, but couldn't quite do it.

Anyway, all the stuff you have to drink the day before, please, if you'd like to go to Israel with us, it's 2015,

February, write me at info at No Compromise Radio. We should have up soon on the website, either at bbchurch .org

or No Compromise Radio or both, the information about Israel. That should be up soon.

I'm trying to get the exact time and the exact price and our guy's out of time.

So there you have it. What else is happening? You can, what you could, let's see, what other scoop do

I have for you? John MacArthur has been kind enough to write the intro for the

S. Louis Johnson Romans commentary that I'm adapting. So this fall, Zondervan, Discovering Romans, Spiritual Revival for the

Soul. This is hard to figure out all this stuff. Discovering Romans, subtitle,

Spiritual Revival for the Soul by S. Louis Johnson, adapted by Mike Abendroth with an introduction by John MacArthur.

Do you think my name's gonna be bigger than John's on the book? Oh, there's a really cool drawing, or if you're a

New Englander, drawing by Ron Adar of S.

Louis Johnson. Maybe we'll use that on the back. I don't need my picture on the back, but frankly, what

Harper Collins says you do. I don't know how it all works.

I'm just glad that it'll be out. I'm just glad that it'll be a good resource to have in your hands. There is some rumor about, maybe

I'll try to do another one. Who knows? First, I have to do penance at home.

Mike who? Last time I was in the studio, I talked to some about preaching because I've been teaching a preaching class at Southern Seminary and very thankful to do it.

It's fun to have Al Mohler as your boss and he's 1500 miles away.

So I don't have to get called in the office and get scolded. Or I just try to do my job and as long as you're lay low and stay under the radar, then you're okay.

Preaching is really something that God loves,

God commands and that preachers should preach with excellence and listeners should then listen to their preacher with excellence.

And so today again, I'd like to talk more about the topic of preaching. After all, it's on my mind and after all,

I don't have time to make up something else today. You should see the stack of stuff here.

Remember I have those cleaning days where you just clean stuff up and get rid of it? I mean, I have so much stuff on this no compromise table.

It's kind of embarrassing because people use this study here for all kinds of things.

The ladies use it, people that have meetings they use it, the elders use it, crazy.

If you had to put a want ad together and to try to find a pastor, let's say

I'm on a pastoral search committee. Actually, I know people who are because they write me and say, I'm on a pastoral search committee, we're on the search team.

I mean, there's all kinds of names for this. And we would like to know, how do we put together a packet financially?

What do we give the guy? Or depending on your denomination, the gal. What do we give the guy?

How do we advertise this? Do we put it on a monster? Is there a theological equivalent of monster and advertising resumes?

A little place where people that are pastors who wanna go to a different job or who are pastors who don't have a job in churches that need pastors.

I mean, this happens all the time. How do you put a want ad for a pastor on?

What's the key thing? Well, when you consider the most important thing that a pastor does according to scripture, preach the word, 2

Timothy 4, verse two. Don't you think that should come into embodiment as you write your want ad?

I hate to even call it a want ad, but you get the drift. On my desk, I have a variety of things.

I'm looking at my desk right now. Here's what I have on my desk. I have a computer, a

Mac that's acting like a Dell, a Mac that's acting like a PC, 386

SX. I have a couple of speakers that plug into that. This is in no particular order.

I have a picture of my wife, I have a lamp, I have a clock,

I have a Greek text, I have an English text of the Bible. I have a gavel to remind me that justification is by forensic imputation of an alien righteousness, not guilty, no condemnation, a declaration.

I have a human skull that's a reproduction. Real human skulls are $1 ,800.

I'd love one, by the way. I could put that on the want list. This is what No Compromise Radio Ministry needs. If you'd like to help us with our travel,

I am traveling. If you'd like to help us with our Pete's Coffee intake, you'd like to help us with getting a real skull, and I need a new computer.

The skull is a reproduction ceramic, and it's mandible, is that what you call it?

The jaw doesn't hook on because I don't have any tendons. So people pick it up and then they look at it.

But it looks real. Why would I have that on my desk? Well, if you're a Puritan and you have a skull on your desk, it reminds you that you are mortal.

Only a couple of hazelnuts might remind you of that in the Czech Republic. And your people are mortal.

And so you ought to preach. I don't know if Baxter ever said it, although everybody says that he did.

Lawson actually asked me, hey, can you find that real quote? Because everybody says it, but I don't think it's a real quote.

Preach, but it's true. I don't know if Baxter said it or not. I maybe wish somebody that had a better view of justification said it, who wasn't a neonomian.

You preach as a dying man to dying men. So you preach as a dying person, let's make it more neutral, to dying people.

So that's on my desk, that skull. And the kids like it.

My kids don't like it, but the other kids like it. And then there's a backup data disk there for the computer.

And then there is 2 Timothy 4, the first couple of verses in a diagram, sentence diagram instead of with you as the implied person for Timothy.

The word Michael is inserted and it comes, there is Michael in the New Testament if you go to Jude. And my friend

Ted Bigelow, who I've had on No Compromise Radio three or maybe four times, all in a row. For his book.

He did that for me and sent it to me. And it's a reminder. That's my main duty is to preach the word.

That's the main thing, preach the word. That's what I do. That's why I live.

That's why I'm alive. That's what I've been called to do. And so if you're a pastor, that's what you've been called to do, to preach the word.

If you're a congregation and you're looking for a pastor, what's the number one thing you look for?

He's a dynamic leader. Now, I'm sure people at Bethlehem Bible Church would tell you this if you ask.

They probably would say Mike's a better preacher than he is dynamic leader. That's okay.

I mean, I can't do everything. I wanna do one thing really well, it's preach. And after some

Sundays, you even wonder about that, right? But if you say, what

I want for a pastor is I want him to have excellent relational skills. Now, it's not that we don't want to have relational skills as a pastor.

And on some days I think my relational skills are probably okay. But my goal in life isn't to be approachable.

I think I am approachable. You've got these kids, they run up to me on Sunday. I get done preaching, I'm standing by the door with their parents and then the kid grabs my leg.

I can't get rid of the kids. You remember the old days when you were a junior high student, you wanna be able to jump so high you could dunk it, you would wear ankle weights everywhere you'd go.

Ankle weight, ankle weights, ankle weights. I got a couple of ankle weights and they're just called Jim and Jill.

I've changed the name to protect the guilty. Michael Horton years ago talked about this very thing.

One adds for pastors and how they've changed over the years. Instead of preacher and Bible teacher and expositor and sequential verse by verse, expository proclaimer, now you've got things like this, according to Horton.

One church seeks a dynamic leader with a passion to facilitate growth. It just sounds so bad.

It sounds so awful. Especially when I think about my background and having

John MacArthur as a pastor. I want a pastor, of course. And by the way, whenever I called

John or said I need something, John was ready to talk to me. But here I want a preacher.

I don't want someone that Horton reports that other folks want as relevant thematic preaching incorporating creative use of drama and contemporary worship.

What's your one ad look like? If I had any brains, if I had a cracked staff probably would be better.

I should have somebody do some research on modern day pastoral one ads.

Wouldn't that be good? Ray, get on that. Get on that. These are some other things that Horton talks about in an old article that people want for pastors.

This is how we advertise for pastors. Gifting and leadership, shepherding, administration, recruiting, team building, problem solver, large church experience, 1 ,000 plus.

I guess if you have that many people, you do need a problem solver. Must have a heart for God.

Oh, you know what? That's not too bad. But if it's just in the phraseology, it's just in this kind of watered down, emaciated,

I want him to have a contagious faith. I want him to truly worship

God. Now, this is not a joke here. This is not kidding. No kidding, not kidding.

A servant leader who worships God through choirs, orchestra, drama, handbells, and banners.

Why didn't they teach me that at seminary? And why am I not teaching this to the men at seminary, at Southern Seminary?

Handbells and banners. I like handbells. I like banners, but from the pulpit. Basically, what do folks want these days?

They think church growth is more money, more numbers. Let's build a building. And so we need a

CEO. We need somebody to make us happy. We need somebody to tell a few jokes, so part comedian.

I learned everything I did from preaching from a comedian. I think you might want to look that up and see who said that.

You might be surprised, Mark Driscoll. Or at least he learned his preaching style initially through a comedian.

That's what he said. I didn't say it. How about team builder? How about team leader?

Doesn't that sound kind of like Star Trek? Team leader, take me to your team leader. Innovative, progressive, change -initiated, initiating.

These are all directly taken from old want ads. I should have done the new stuff, or Ray should have.

People developer. Boy, we got people movers, people developers. Approachable, we talked about that before.

Someone who can envision and create ministry delivery teams. I teach at a seminary.

I don't know what that means. I have several degrees. I write books. Relevant, able to lead worship through audio -visual technology.

Is this jack work? Oh, this is good. This is classic, this is a real one.

Degrees in music or business required. A degree in theology.

Ready for the punchline? Preferred. Now what would

Paul be thinking right about now, what about Uncle Paul? I guess we got

Paul as kind of a nice coach. He's dynamic. Paul looks good.

He's relational. He's approachable. Paul says, I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.

And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in the demonstration of the spirit and of power that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

That your faith face, excuse me, your faith might not be in me, Paul says. Your faith might not be in my rhetoric and my oratory and my

Greek skills, but in the power of God. You wanna honor the

Lord, Pastor? You proclaim the word. You wanna protect the flock, Pastor?

You preach the word. You want your church to grow real gospel growth, that is the maturation of the saints?

Then you proclaim the word of God. That's what we're after.

And so if you're on a search committee and you are trying to find a new pastor, of course, it's the old laughable joke that every person who's a pastor and they don't have a job, they want a wonderful church with executive secretaries, six figure salary, all kinds of perks.

And they're sitting there unemployed. And the church, what do they want? They want a pastor with 20 years experience, several theology degrees or business, music preferred.

And they want him to have written a bunch of books and have a nationally known radio show.

If they're willing to pay $22 ,000 plus parsonage. Oh man.

So here's what you do. Instead of saying to the person that you're thinking about, well, could you please send me one or two of your sermons we can listen to?

Here's what you do. I've said this many times before, but you need to vet him better. He needs to vet you better as well.

But here's what you need to do. Could you please send me the last five messages you preached? And then you can pick your top five if you want.

I want the last five or 10 because then you're gonna realize if someone listens to the last 10 sermons of mine, here's what they're gonna say.

I have a general idea of what comes out of that pulpit every single week. Now, initially they'll find out quickly,

I hope, that this is what you see is what you get. We're gonna do next week. Hopefully it's delivered better, but at least it's authorial intent.

It's showing what God says, what God means. He is faithful to the text.

Some days he delivers it better than others. Some days it's packaged better than others, but it's faithful. You will find out after 10 weeks whether it's faithful or not.

And here's one of the main, oh, main,

I was gonna say this is a sine qua non, but this is what. If you can ask and then answer this question when you hear someone preach, if you're on a search committee and you need to find a new pastor, since pastors leave about every three years, this is probably coming to a church near you soon.

Could I listen to that every week? Now, technically that's not correct because you could listen.

You might not want to, but you could. You could listen because listening doesn't cost much. But what

I mean by that question that I've stolen from Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, he means was the guy faithful to the text and is he in his delivery style, does he deliver it in such a way that you would say, you know what,

I could listen to that 52 weeks a year, Sunday morning, Sunday night for 20 years.

Now, everybody has their own idiosyncratic issues and behaviors. I mean, of course, myself excluded.

I almost said included, that would have blown the joke. But could you listen every week?

That's really the issue. Could you, yes, of course, technically, but could you so that you grow, your family grows, that he preaches

Christ Jesus every single week? After all, John chapter five and Luke 24 say that these scriptures,

Old and New Testament, bear witness to Jesus, right? So what I'm not looking for is someone who's approachable and who knows how to build infrastructures and knows how to envision and create ministry delivery teams.

I don't know what that is. That sounds like something I had at the GI lab yesterday.

This is preach the word. This is what you do. This is the main thing that a pastor must do.

And it makes sense because the chapter before in 2 Timothy chapter three, it says all scripture is inspired by God, profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God, the preacher, may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

And so since that is true, since that is the case, that the word of God is so breathed out by God and is so wonderfully all -sighted and so perfect and so designed to have people be instructed and corrected and reproved and trained in every aspect of righteousness, building in them through the

Spirit's power, comprehensive righteousness, then he needs to deliver that.

The ministry delivery system is the pastor as he ministers the word to the people.

He's the conduit. He's the PVC pipe. He's the one. 2 Timothy chapter three.

Remember, Timothy, you were saved from this word. You were saved through the word. You were saved as God made the word alive.

And see why it's important to be then a pastor of the word. Therefore, you must preach the word.

You're a special herald and you make announcements. God commissions you.

Make the announcement and do it with a clear voice so everyone can understand. Do it with a loud voice so everyone can hear and do it faithfully as a steward so you answer to me and on that judgment day, you don't put your head down in shame.

There's gonna be stricter judgment for you, teacher. James chapter three.

When you stand and earnestly proclaim the good news about Jesus Christ, the virgin born son of God who cloaks himself with humanity.

Friends, you want a one ad for a pastor? Let's just say for argument's sake, he can do everything excellently, but he doesn't preach the word.

He's a good mentor. He's a good life coach. He's got a good bedside manner.

He's approachable. He's relevant. He knows how to do ministry development systems.

He is catalytic. He is dynamic. He's a people developer.

He's got organizational skills. He can balance checkbooks. He can do administration.

His wife can play the piano. He can do special music. He loves handbells.

He's especially good at banner making. He leads the choir. He's got a contagious faith.

He's got a heart for God. He's such an innovator. He makes change. He initiates.

He's progressive. He leads, he builds, but he doesn't preach the word. Fire the guy.

Just this week, someone says, you know, my pastor, he basically doesn't preach the word. I said, you need to fire the guy.

Go talk to him and have him fired. Relational skills, pastor coach, preach the word.

In season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction.

My name's Mike Abendroth. You can write me at info at nocompromiseradio .com.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE its staff or management.