Today’s guest post comes to us from Carl Trueman for TheAquilaReport.com.
While there has been an understandable reaction in parts of the Reformed world against the kind of radical downgrading of ordained ministry which has come to mark much of the evangelical world, this has itself created problems.
Perhaps most obvious is the priestly culture it can generate, where the result is that some come to think that, if they are not ordained, they cannot be of real use to the church. This then leads individuals who simply are not called to the ministry nonetheless to pursue it, often at great cost — financial and emotional — to themselves and frequently to their loved ones. Indeed, this probably accounts for part of the high rate of ministerial drop-outs.
In Table Talk, Luther outlines the qualifications of a good preacher in a way that is refreshingly practical.
The first five are: ability to teach; possession of a good head; eloquence; clarity of speech; and a good memory. The list is interesting because it focuses first on practicalities, things often lost in the romantic spiritual notions of ministry we often have.
Click here to read the full article and the remaining marks of a good preacher.
Your partner in ministry,
Nelson
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