CS, I’m asuming you’ve never been a youth pastor.  Some of those things mentioned were done as pranks, but some in the heat of the moment.

Ask any youth minister in a poor neighborhood, and the things mentioned are common issues that can arise.

Ok Leonard,

Throughout anything I’ve ever posted here I have included positive experiences I have had with Church/ Pastors and I will review that for your benefit.

Currently I am in an OLD Southern Baptist Church in a small remote town in the West. My pastor is a retirement aged man who’s is first and foremost a servant. He and his wife live simply and humble.... spending 25 years pastoring people along the rivers of Zimbabwe tend to have that effect. He has no regional or national following and his main goal in our church seems to be to connect the different generations within our church… which is AWESOME !!! This church is the second most involved church in missions local first then globally that I personally have seen. The Gospel is plainly preached every week and souls are saved. Elders routinely preach in this church… once a month on average I would say.

My family is involved in an high medium to large interdenominational church in the mid south area. The pastor preaches verse by verse through the Bible and the people have grown into spiritual sequoias. The pastor battles depression and seeks not to be known himself but to make Christ known, probably one of the most humble men I have met. The town is a media capitol and has a lot of publishing.... this man could easily pursue that during the week but buries himself in study and serving and the people rejoice and thrive under his servant leadership. No sense of people coming back each week needing to be refilled, they are carefully taught how to FEED THEMSELVES ! The Church is very strong in missions and each generation is not only equally represented in attendance but very involved and connected. The elders routinely preach, again probably once a month on average.

The church of my college years was a Calvary Chapel in South Florida, a high medium to very large church. They “get by” on a staff of 5 including the Senior Pastor. Elders (and there are less than 10) are older GIANTS of the faith who are elected because of their long tested Faith and their layered and aged wisdom. They are honored and honor the people by diligent service. Almost all of them spent their lives in foreign missions and several continue to organize and train people for lives in the foreign field. They weren’t elected because they are popular or very visible. This is by a great measure the strongest church I have seen in the area of missions. HUNDREDS of villages in central America and Africa are drinking both fresh water and living water because of this congregation. The Pastor is in his late sixties left a life behind of extreme wealth and atheism, much like Paul he spent a lot of time hating and despising Christians. He teaches verse by verse, through the Bible and the people rejoice !!! HE spends six weeks of every year in Sudan putting his life on the line, literally a number of times , to train young pastors.  The Word is so esteemed in this church. The people are well trained and take the Gospel to the streets of this town. Most people who come to this church for the first time (and often for the first time in their lives) do so because they have heard and received the Gospel during the week, from a member of that congregation.

I have spoken many times about the bi-vocational pastor of my youth. He lived his life in a very difficult way, being pastor and making his living in GRUELING factory labor. He did this for the sake of a few friends from his youth he wanted to reach and was afraid they would see him as profiting from the Gospel. How BOLD is that? Just AWESOME !! He had a child who had downs syndrome and because of this he truly looked to serve what we might consider the very least of these. He died a couple months ago, imagine the crowns he will lay at Jesus feet !!! There are many, many more examples of great men who are pastors that I have come across but have not been under their authority.

Commonalities? Extreme humility from people who lead. Checked egos. A STRONG urge to not only know the WORD in it’s entirety but to make it known and to teach people how to study and feed themselves. HUGE push towards missions and not just peace corp type work but preaching the Gospel to ALL people. You can’t preach it if you don’t know it.  They send out people who KNOW IT !! These are men who do not want to be known and seek the power of influence (which is a virtue in the church today) but instead make Christ known.

So, Leonard, yes I have a lot of gripes about the church and many of it’s leaders and yes I need healing and grace in a number of areas of my life. But along with the bad I have seen an awful lot of good. What you hear from my frequent posts is a sliver of my life and my passion.