Stephen, here are my off-the-cuff suggestions to encourage Richard the young preacher.
- Guard your life with God jealously. Let no work interfere with your relationship with the Lord. Make your time with him in prayer, reading, and meditation a priority.
Richard is a fine Christian man and I believe he will be a good preacher.
Why am I sharing this with TFR? For two reasons: (1) I hope you will pray for Richard. There are some advantages to his current situations and some disadvantages. I pray the former will outweigh the latter. (2) If you have any words of encouragement for Richard, please share them and I will pass them along to Richard. We need to encourage all preachers, but especially young ones.
More on this young preacher at the link above, where you also may insert into the comments area your encouragement, so that Stephen may have them all in one place.
God is testing his people. Will his church continue his mission in the midst of an economic crunch? Will they insist on publishing abroad the only message that will bring eternal salvation to the billions of Earth's population?
A Catholic news service today touted the headline: "Recession Held as No Excuse for Abandoning Poor." Members of the Catholic hierarchy expressed concern that rich countries might abandon help for the poor when the belt tightens.
Biblically, the concern should be for the church's continued participation in the mission of God. Many are cutting missions first out of their budgets as offerings fall. Missions is the first to go. Churches forget that they exist to carry forward the work of God in the world. While they continue to invest ever more heavily in benevolence and disaster relief -- all the while, often, labeling that as missions -- the true task goes wanting. Proclamation, preaching, teaching the gospel, evangelism, fall out of favor.
Even the most conservative churches who stand on sound doctrine follow this trend. This influence can be traced directly to post-modernism. We feel averse to a straightfoward proclamation of Jesus as Lord and Savior, putting forth his claims, setting out the plan of redemption, calling men to repentance.
The great ship slowly turns from the course set by its captain.
4. With caution -- 1 John 4:1 tells us not to believe ".every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God". Why shouldn't every "religious" person be believed? Because ".many false prophets are gone out into the world". It is indeed a sad statement that not everyone can be believed. Sincerity does not necessarily equal truth.
via freegroups.net
A truth needed more than ever, if that's possible. The challenge is not to lose the "hearing with gladness," Steve's third point, but to be always discerning. And to be discerning without being always suspicious.