I agree with much of what Nadiine has said. Although I was never in full time ministry I have filled the pulpit enough to know that it is not easy to come up with two sermons a week plus a Bible Study message. Add to that is visitation and causal conversation with those who ever drops by the church office or the manse. Some are looking for spiritual help, some just a friendly word. There is also the grieving families and funeral services to be supplied when needed. Services which can not be set aside until a more convenient time. Over and above this you have folks dropping in with marriage problems and troubles with their kids. Every minister needs to fit in prayer time for himself and his congregation. A minister needs to be a genius to handle it all, but he is not. He is really just a man attempting to do the work of our Lord.
He also has to think about his own family. He needs time for his wife and kids. (I might add that the little lady in the manse has got to be a saint. She will spend long hours alone. She will see her husband counseling women of the church for what seems untold hours. (If he is wise he will need her or a board member to sit in on counseling sessions where it is likely to be just a lady and himself.) It is unwise for a man to council a woman in any building or car alone.) A minister’s wife can not afford to have a jealous bone in her body and she must known how to keep her mouth shut on things she hears.
In many cases she has to be both mother and father to her family. Many a minister's work has been cut short by a wife who was all gong-ho to marry when she looked with dreamy eyed at her minister husband to be and a manse in an ideal community. However, when she had to live with demands of a troubled church and the long hours of her husband’s position, she suddenly declared God didn't call me to the ministry and at that point her husband's ministry was over.)
A minister's position in the community is different than most of his parishers, it demands a commitment to his work on a 24-7-365 times table. I remember when I was in Bible College, an old minister who was the collage pastor at the time told me, "a minister can be as busy as he wants to be, because the work is always in front of him. There are sermons to be prepared, visitation, attending services in the church, mingling with the kids and checking to seeing that church and biblical standards are being taught to the young ones etc., hospital visitation, and being active in community affairs, such as school board meetings, and Parent\teacher associations, you name it. You could work 24 hours a day if the old body could take it. Since it can't you have to seek to do the most important things each week and hopeful the stronger members of the congregation will take up the slack."
There are weeks the sermons suffer because something else had to take priority over the study time. Something that was not expected demanded the time the sermon should have had. Just as the wife has to fill in many of the husband's responsibilities in the home, so a good board and church members need to do the same in church affairs. The sad fact is too many church boards and congregations seem to feel that it is their position to fight the pastor's every move, while failing do church work or witnessing for themselves. Statistics tell us that the work in any church is done by 5% of the congregation.
Having said all that, Whether a pastor reads his sermon in mono tones, whether he raises his voice or whether he talks like a businessman in the pulpit is not important. What is important is that he preach the full Word of God from Genesis to Revelations. That he doesn't water the gospel down. That his messages hits both the saint and the sinner, the Board member and the kids in the pew. That he lives what he preaches. Keep in mind he is not a politician who is looking for votes in the next election. He is a minister preaching to get souls into a right relationship with God. He doesn’t preach to win friends but he does preach to influence people. That he demand the highest standards of those in his church who name the name of Christ. That he see success as souls saved and not necessarily names for the church roll.
Many churches would never be satisfied if St. Paul or for that matter Jesus Christ where to stand in their pulpits Sunday after Sunday. Today’s church want young preachers with 30 years experience. They want preachers who lead in the same chorus for half an hour and call it worship Sunday after Sunday. They want preachers who make them feel at ease in the pew, while preaching biblical messages that tell them nothing is wrong with their life style. They want preachers whose sermons tickle their ears on Sunday, sermons which they can forget it on Monday. Some minister are yielding to the unscriptural demands of a worldly congregation. Churches want pain free revival. It will never be. God doesn’t deal in pain free revivals, if he had Christ would never have been crucified.
My parents both worked on staff at the church I grew up in, so they knew the pastor/leadership.
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