The Pastor as a Theologian, Part 1
By Rev. Dan Thompson Ph.D.

One of the most difficult things about being a pastor is that Sundays come around so quickly!  Week after week after week you study and prepare to preach.  As soon as a sermon is finished, it’s time to begin preparing for the next sermon or lesson.  Sometimes people seem to understand what you’re saying and you sense that God is using you to shape people’s lives.  But often it feels like you have very little influence on the way people think or the way they live their lives.  It feels like your study and hard work in preparation to preach doesn’t really matter all that much.  Then there’s the nagging sense in your own mind that what you said in last Sunday’s sermon may not really be what that passage of Scripture was teaching but just your opinions.  You remember the warnings in the Bible about those who teach incurring a stricter judgment, and you wonder if being a pastor is worth the risk!  What motivates you to keep preaching?  What keeps you going back to study the Bible week after week to prepare yourself for teaching and preaching and shepherding the people in your congregation?

I write as a fellow pastor.  I know what it is like to be discouraged in the task of leading a church family, and I know the joys of seeing people’s lives transformed by the power of the gospel.  If I was not absolutely convinced that [...]