My first pastoral appointment was to the Tunnel Hill FMC near the village of English in the center of the Hoosier Mountains of southern Indiana. I was a student at Asbury Theological Seminary at the time. Most of the older folks at that small congregation called me 'preacher'.
I thought it was characteristic of the area until I returned to my home conference in Pennsylvania. The truth is there has always been a small contingent in every church I've served who have simply referred to me by that title.
It's never bothered me; I'd heard it used as I was growing up. One term I did resist was 'Reverend' - somehow, it just never seemed to fit for me. I did, however, learn from a seminary professor (Gilbert James) that even this title was useful at times. ;-)
My preferred title has always been 'pastor' because that's what I considered myself to be. The adjective 'pastoral' relates to the keeping or grazing of sheep, except when used in regard to Christian ministry where it infers giving spiritual guidance.
It's easy to understand how the term 'preacher' came into common use. After all, when most people see us is on Sunday when we fulfill one of the more public parts of our role: preaching. Therefore, the one who does the preaching is the 'preacher'.
Preaching has always been important to me. I knew it was a big part of my public role. I recognized it as a great privilege and an awesome responsibility. I worked hard through the years to always be well prepared on Sunday mornings in particular. Right up until 1997, I also had to be prepared to speak on Sunday evenings. Add to this the responsibility for Wednesday evenings and I felt like I was in constant preparation mode. Again, added ammunition for being referred to as 'preacher'.
I suppose we all (pastors) have our unique ways of preparing. I know during the crush of responsibility while being a husband, father, full-time-pastor and also advancing educational pursuits, I was guilty of reworking a fair share of Chuck Swindoll's books into Sunday night messages. (blush)... But for most of my ministry, the better part of one day per week was used for sermon preparation.
My style emerged to be one of preaching series messages. I felt this had a better chance of making a lasting impact on people's lives. It also laid things out for six (or more) weeks which gave me plenty of time to develop my thoughts. I kept an active file on each message and added clippings and ideas to it until the writing day arrived. I preferred to sit down and write from beginning to end - whenever possible.
NOTE: I entered the ministry in 1974, and didn't write my messages on a computer until Chip and Ken Poole bought me one at Spencerville, Maryland in 1996.
The writing day was usually Thursday. I would re-read and tweak the message each day after that until Sunday. Many Sunday mornings, I would stand in my pulpit long before anyone else arrived and preach the message out loud. I tend to have an apologetic style of writing and would not catch those phrases until I heard myself voicing them out loud; so I preached to that empty sanctuary with a pen in hand.
I almost always approached my Sunday morning responsibility with a great sense of anticipation! I was genuinely excited to share what I had worked on and prayed over.
Along with my fellow pastors, I suffered when well-known pastors fell to temptations. It seemed that we all fell a bit with each of these exposes'. I had my own role models throughout the years. To name just a few: Paul Rees, Don Demaray, John Hendricks, John Huffman, Alistair Begg (made his decision for Christ at a Yorkshire Billy Graham Crusade in 1975), Chuck Smith, Chuck Swindoll, and others.
I've seen lots of transitions through the years, some of which were:
- transition away from making home visits (especially unannounced)
- transition toward counseling
- transition to computers
- transition from pastors to ranchers
- transition from pastors to leaders (CEO's)
But still, some people continue to call me 'preacher'.
We've lost one of the most significant of our group this week in the life and legacy of Billy Graham. I heard an interview this morning with a highly recognized Christian leader. He was asked why Billy Graham was able to transcend political parties in influencing presidents. Debbie was sitting with me as we watched. Before he could respond, I offered my own answer: "Because he was a godly man!" The Christian leader responded that it was because Billy was such a great communicator. I shouted him down: "No, no, no. It was because he was a godly man who was worthy of their trust!"
The day that Billy died, Karl Rove spoke of the grounding of all airplanes in the U.S. in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. Then he noted that one (and only one) exception was made. A commercial flight was approved to get Billy Graham to Washington, D.C. to be a part of comforting the nation.
He stood above us all without arrogance. He humbly and simply communicated God's love for all people everywhere and the necessity of having faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. I read that when he toured his own library in Charlotte, NC, he made the following comment at the conclusion of his walk-through: "Too much Billy, not enough Jesus!"
I heard it reported this week that in a private conversation with his father, Franklin Graham asked Billy what he wanted on his tombstone. His answer was significant and stated in one word: PREACHER.
He raised all preachers with that answer! :-)
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