3 Lessons I Learned in My First Work (For Preachers Meeting - 9-18-23)

1. I learned some things about my effectiveness coming back to my home congregation …

My first work after preaching school.

They had given me a trial run (6 mo.) before preaching school; supported me approx. 50% of support to go to preaching school; came back and preached there for 3 years and 1 month.

(I had wanted to preach there a lot longer, but there were some things I began to realize about a year and half in).

Jesus says in Mark 6:4–6 - “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.” Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He marveled because of their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching.”

(I’m NOT a prophet obviously, but that principle often applies - It certainly did in mine).

While I was able to accomplish some things, it seems it often was a one step forward, two steps back situation.

The congregation has been dwindling for a long time — When I was a kid, about 80-90, were down to about 50 when I came back from preaching school, had gotten up to around 60 when I left — Now sadly they are back down around 40.

They are kind of stuck in their ways on some things …

They have a good young preacher coming in January and I really hope he can help them make a turnaround.

But that brings me to a realization that I had, and that was that a congregation’s survival cannot depend on just one man — Now if that Man is Jesus Christ, well of course the congregation’s survival depends on Him!

But as far as a mere man as in a preacher, he can’t do it alone — For a congregation to really grow, it takes a preacher, but also elders & deacons and all the members working together to grow the congregation.

So that was the first biggest takeaway that I learned in my first work.

The second one really humbled me.

2. Coming out of preaching school, I thought I knew the stuff!

I knew everything I really needed to know about preaching, I thought — after all, I had just spent 20 months straight doing nothing but study the Bible!

I was ZEALOUS! And I was ready to come in guns blazing, 100 mph!

Don’t get me wrong, preaching school was EXCEPTIONAL teaching me how to study the Bible — that and the friendships I got from school were my main takeaways!

But as far as EXPERIENCE in MINISTRY goes — I didn’t have a clue! (We did talk about it some at school, but you really need HANDS ON experience when it comes to that!)

I remember going to a preacher’s meeting, and in my zeal, I decided that I was going to set somebody straight.

(Article by a brother that he had written — something to do with the inspiration of the Bible, and you could tell that it almost had some modernist-type leaning to it — Had to read between the lines a bit — I decided to correct it for my preacher’s meeting talk).

(Now looking back, as far as I can remember, I DO think that I had the right idea that the article wasn’t very good).

But the way I handled myself in my talk was not good — I just utterly ripped the guy apart — I didn’t contact the guy and let him know why I didn’t like his article — I just hammered him.

So although I think I had the right idea perhaps, I didn’t go about it the right way — And probably for something like a preacher’s meeting, I should have just done something that was my own material.

(And it almost came back to bite me — When I was accepting the work at Marietta, somehow word got around and a preacher that was at that preacher’s meeting told the elders in Marietta that he didn’t have a good impression of me because of that event).

Finally … this last one REALLY humbled me!

3. Make sure you truly follow Matt. 18:15-20 …

I had befriended a man a little older than me at an area congregation down the road — Pretty good, sound congregation as far as I know.

Anyways, he had asked me about another area congregation one time — I can’t remember why — Maybe he was wanting to recommend one for a friend to go to or something.

Anyways, he asked me what I thought about this particular congregation, and I said, “Well, they’re okay on some things … But I’ve heard they’ve got some problems … And their preacher doesn’t teach the truth on marriage, divorce and remarriage so I wouldn’t recommend them.”

Of course, I had zero first hand experience on this — I was going entirely off of hearsay.

Fast forward about three weeks maybe — I get a knock on my office door!

“Hey, are you Chase Green?”

“Yes Sir.”

“May I come in and speak with you for a moment?” (“Sure”)

“Tell me a little about yourself, son.” (I do)

“Well, do you know why I’m here today, son?” (“No sir.”)

“Well, I’m _____________ ____________ (so and so preacher that I had been calling a false teacher).”

UH OH .......

Anyways, we had a long talk and he flat out told me that he DOES preach the truth on MDR, but people had basically been spreading rumors about him on it and not telling the truth.

(At this point, I’m thinking well I have to take him at his word for it, at least for now).

And you know what, regardless or where he really stood on it, this guy DID come to me in person like Matt. 18:15-20 teaches, something I wasn’t willing to do for him before that.

So I learned that big lesson the hard way!

I would love to give maybe just a few moments for discussion to see if any of us have learned any similar lessons in ministry?