Being a Young Pastor (Part 1)

If you care to read my blog, I want to forewarn you that my next several posts will be mostly self-focused, yet done in an ecclesiastically-relevant and biblical manner.

I recently came across a short online article entitled "To the Young Pastor" by Dr. Ron Gleason (Grace Presbyterian Church and rongleason.org) from Ligonier Ministries and it summarizes the faithful pastor that I both should strive to be and long to be. So, if you are reading this, I covet your intercessory prayers. Please pray for me that I will be the type of pastor that Dr. Gleason describes in his article, which I will be posting in my blog part by part.

First, a pastor must...

Preach expository sermons from both the Old and New Testaments. The preacher’s foremost task is to preach the Gospel. Many voices in Christianity today tempt us to forget this. They encourage us to do what will attract the unsaved. Nevertheless, the pastor is primarily called to proclaim the riches of Christ through the preaching of the Word and the clear exposition of Scripture. In this manner, he both equips the saints and prepares them to present the true, pure Gospel to the lost. Expository preaching has three decided advantages for any pastor: First, it takes the congregation through a book of the Bible so that they are able to observe and understand the various covenantal themes contained in it. Second, this type of “series” preaching protects the congregation from the pastor’s “hobby horses.” Therefore, rather than preaching on a number of his favorite topics, he is bound by the text to preach and teach the variety of doctrines found in the Word of God. Moreover, in the history of preaching it has been this expository approach that has proven to be the most spiritually beneficial to God’s covenant communities. Third, this will solve the problem for the younger pastor of choosing a text every week. Being guided by the text and your exegesis, you know what you’re preaching on next week.