I’ve been watching the presidential candidate debates – I know, I really need a hobby – and it occurs to me that if churches called pastors the way parties nominate presidents . . .
- We’d line up 7 or 8 prospective candidates and ask them inane questions that have little to do with the job
- We’d expect them to take potshots at each other, but with a smile
- They’d be raising money from church members so they could turn around and use it to tell people how frugal they would be in the job
- We’d be polling the congregation 3 or 4 times every week to see which candidate was most popular
- We’d finally elect a candidate, then spend the next four years complaining about him.
Oh, wait. That last one is what we do when we call a pastor!
Michael Duduit is founding Dean of the College of Christian Studies and the Clamp Divinity School at Anderson University. He also serves as Professor of Christian Ministry. He is the founder and still serves as Executive Editor of Preaching magazine, one of the nation’s premier publications for pastors. His email newsletter, Preaching Now, is read each week by more than 40,000 pastors and church leaders in the U.S. and around the world. He is founder and director of the National Conference on Preaching and the International Congress on Preaching. He has been a pastor and associate pastor, has served a number of churches as interim pastor, and speaks regularly for churches, colleges and conferences. He is author and editor of several books, including the Handbook of Contemporary Preaching, Joy in Ministry: Messages from Second Corinthians, Preaching with Power: Dynamic Insights from Twenty Top Communicators and Communicate With Power.