Sound The Trumpet

Some Pastors seem to be absent from their church every other Week. Why is that? I must say, I am thankful for our Pastor who rarely misses a service. More than that, I know my Pastor is in town if I need him. I don't have to wonder if he will be at visitation. I know he's doing the real work of an evangelist. One absentee Pastor defended his absence from the pulpit claiming Paul admonished Timothy to do the work of an evangelist. He was referring to the passage below:

In this passage, Paul is giving Timothy a charge concerning the ministry. It is a number of different instructions every Pastor should take to heart. First, Preach the Word. Above all else, the Pastor is to preach the Word of God to his flock. In his preaching the Pastor is to do several things: he is to be instant in season. The Pastor's preaching should be relevant to the day in which he lives. Timothy had no purpose in preaching against Internet pornography or prime-time television. Those were not the problems of his day. Another interpretation of be instant in season, out of season is to be willing to preach the Word regardless of what the people may want to hear.

In his preaching, the Pastor is to reprove, rebuke and exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. The majority of the PASTOR'S preaching is supposed to be corrective (or preventative) in nature. Too many pastors are throwing little sugar-stick candy sermons which only make the people feel good or comfortable in their sin. Of course, these pastors are preaching like this because of Paul's warning in verse three: their people will not endure sound doctrine. Perhaps these Pastor's have no backbone, perhaps real preaching would be a conviction to them, perhaps they just have no testimony (you can tell this in their rebellious kids). 

Paul gives some other warnings and gets to verse five where he instructs Timothy to watch, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, etc. What is the work of an evangelist? We have assigned the title of Evangelist to someone who travels from church to church as an itinerate preacher. Most of the time, the visiting Evangelist is not really Evangelistic in his preaching. Many Evangelists are afraid to preach hard on sin. They fear they will loose their meetings if they don't leave a congregation feeling good. They are just more sugar-stick preachers. Paul never intended Timothy to be an itinerate preacher who neglected his church. Paul's instruction to Timothy was to evangelize his Jerusalem. The Pastor is to work at reaching his community. This is the evangelistic work of the Pastor.