How do you build a ministry that allows you turn dozens of yearly calendar pages? I know of no one better than Robert K. Oglesby, Sr. He has been preaching for 57 years with forty-eight of those as the preacher for the Waterview Church of Christ in Richardson. Few (if any) can say almost a decade later that they are the only preacher a church has had.

He can.

What are the traits that let you minster to a congregation—year…after year…after year? Here’s his list:

1. A Good Example–Followers are impressed if you are doing what you ask them to do.
2. Authenticity–People want someone who is “real”, because they eventually see through “fakes”.
3. Vision–The leader must dream and see ahead of the group to things that don’t yet exist, but need to.
4. Articulate–The vision won’t matter unless the leader can articulate and describe the vision so that all can see it (Example Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech).
5. Consensus Builder –The “lone wolf’ cannot make it far. He must discreetly be able to persuade the group that he is leading them the correct way. (This involves a healthy dose of “group dynamic” experience.)
6. A Truth-seeker–His real motive must be to find what’s really true about a text or a church situation, in spite of his own bias.
7. Listener–So many leaders talk, but don’t really listen to what people are saying to them. (A leader loses contact quickly in such situations.)
8. Inspirational–He has to have some “charisma” in order to inspire people to do what needs to be done, even if it’s a difficult, distasteful task.
9. Diplomatic–Kind words are best. Never should a leader deliberately be unkind.
10. Receptive–If someone else’s idea is better than yours, by all means, accept it and change.

If you want longevity in the pulpit and strength in a church, embrace the idea of becoming a better person rather than moving to a different church.

Robert G. Taylor

The reason is the attitude many people have toward evangelism. For years, the excuse remains, “I don’t know enough.” The sense is that it takes a Bible scholar to pull off teaching. Others believe it takes a “preacher with a bag of tricks” to “talk people into the baptistry.”

Training sessions involve intricate study of systems. The teacher must “memorize” vast portions of scripture. Bible-markings and complicated charts finally boggle the imagination. The conclusion is simple–I’m not cut out to teach my friends the truth.

Yet attitude of evangelism is never as complicated as some have made it. It can be summarized in a simple sentence:

“I don’t know. Let’s find out.”

Those who are successful are sharing knowledge not teaching facts. They don’t send out a machine-gun spew of verses. They are simple people who don’t want to argue someone into submission. They want God’s word to have an honest hearing and they are willing to keep their egos out of the way.

Before you give up on an evangelistic church, examine your attitude toward evangelism. It may be the chock holding the steam engine back.

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Do you want to give your congregation a flavor of a evangelism from an easier slant. SMC has two special programs designed to help evangelism to be painless. The Story video series is a “door opener” that allows you to share the story of the Bible in a non-threatening way. Personal Evangelism Training is a series that has worked for hundreds. It requires no memorization and allows you to be the sharing friends. Go to the video library page and scroll down to Special Tools for Outreach to find the programs.

But one category is vacate. No one wants to preach any longer.

Once the primary field of those studying Bible, preaching has fallen on hard times. Many   theories abound.

• There’s no money in it.
• It’s outdated and antiquated.
• It doesn’t “feel” as good as missions or youth ministry.

While there’s a subjective measure of truth to all the reasons advanced, two tend to be ignored. The first is the topic of this post.

To become a preacher, you have to have respectable models of the profession.

At one time, the preacher was the most educated man in town. He served as the conscience of a community, the locomotive of all that was good, and the most-admired man around.

The damage to preaching reputation came from many sources. The wolf-in-sheep-clothing televangelist in late 20^th century unjustly caricatured all preachers. A younger generations saw through the “fleece for profit” mentality and quickly dismissed both the preacher and his craft.

But another source is a closer to my heart. I grew up in two distinct churches. During my elementary years, we attend a small church of 100. The preacher’s office had a revolving door. In 8 years, we went through four preachers. One left under the unashamed cloak of adultery. Another sat on the parsonage steps and strummed a guitar. His sermons came not from study by a poorly written sermon outline book. The preaching was thin and the preachers more forgettable than the sermons.

When I was twelve, we moved to a larger, growing church. The preacher, Robert Oglesby had order to his sermons. They made sense. In addition, he worked hard and displayed competence both in and of the pulpit. He cared for people, cared for the future of the church, and cared about the preaching.

The contrast was not lost on a young man who was asking the question, “what do I want to be when I grow up?”

If you are a preacher, you are affecting the future of preaching.

Work at your sermons. Learn to outline, illustrate, and make the text come alive. Don’t fool yourself. Everyone (even the 8 year old boy) knows when you are resting on old material.

Work on your attitude. Really care for the church. I meet my share of “I’m here to tell off the church” types. Their messages are dismissed  far before the final “amen.” Love the church. Preach to improve not to pummel into submission. Don’t tell people off or “straighten them out.” Help them improve.

Work on your lifestyle. Work hard. Put in the hours, Be balance in both preaching and work. Be humble and stay a learner. Have a love for the work and a love for the people that says, “I’m proud of what I do.” No one can belittle a man who believes what he is doing is of eternal value.

I’ve been blessed to know great preachers in my life. I’m also saddened to know inadequate preachers in my life. Thankfully, I crossed paths with someone I could respect at the right time in my life.

Don’t wring your hands over the empty pulpit. Be the mold into which other men will pour their lives.