A Preacher’s Responsibility

A preacher has a number of responsibilities and hopes for the congregation. Here are a few of them:

1. Represent the words of God to them accurately, so that they can compare everything in their lives with the truth of Scripture

2. Give them a vision of the majesty of God

3. Help them find their greatest delight and happiness in God

4. Instruct them in the flow of history and their place in history

5. Show them the world as it really is

6. Equip them for the work of the ministry

7. Explain and dissect their problems in the light of Scripture so they can see who they really are

8. Bring the whole congregation to live no longer in the flesh but in the Spirit

9. Question the ungodly traditions of the congregation

10. Oppose the sins that have taken root

11. Confront their prejudices

12. Contradict their philosophy

13. Expose the nature of paganism and how it is affecting them

14. Stop them from drinking from the poison well

15. Terrify them with the law and the consequences of breaking it

16. Kill their self love

17. Destroy their comforts in their good works and moralistically high view of themselves

18. Expose their self-congratulatory spirit

19. Incite them to repent

20. Show them their inner pharisee

21. Confront their lack of love

22. Counsel them to grow in love through mercy and forgiveness

23. Stand in the way of their current desires

24. Lower their opinions of themselves

25. Raise their opinions of Christ

26. Cast them hopeless on the gospel of Christ

27. Convert the lost

28. Console them with the gospel

29. Comfort the broken hearted

30. Give hope to those who have lost it

31. Bind up the weak, through Him who is strong

Only God by the power of His Holy Spirit can fall on a congregation for these things.

From this post at Scott Brown's blog.