I am reading and preparing notes for a review of the book – “The Sword of The Lord” by Andrew Himes and I ran across the following quote from Andrew’s Grandfather, John R Rice that he printed in “The Sword of The Lord” newspaper in 1954….
“There is a wicked, worldly philosophy that is coming into churches. We get the idea that the churches are to take care of Christians. They are not to do anything but win souls. We get the idea that a preacher, a pastor is called to take care of the church and shepherd the sheep, and to feed the flock. There is nothing like that in the Bible. That is a man-made philosophy that is of the Devil, not of God. What pastors are called for is to use the church and lead the church soul-winning. What churches are called for is to win souls.”
I find it as an interesting perspective, whether I agree with it completely or not. I do see that it completely flies in the face of a lot of current Fundamentalist thought about the Pastor being called to “only tend the flock”. It does make me wonder what caused the shift.
Is a Pastor called only to be a Shepherd, an Outreach Specialist, or some combination of the two ? What do you think?