Evangelism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Evangelism - Essay Example Rainer reports the findings of a survey done of more than four thousand churches in US and he points out that many congregations are abandoning the biblical model of pastoral ministry. The pastor is actually required to spend time in prayer and in the ministry of word. However, congregations are demanding more attention and time from the Pastor for tasks that are not related to the biblical foundation. As time passes, more and more new and unreasonable expectations would be placed on the overburdened pastors and if the pastors have to meet all the perceived needs and demands of church members, they would have little time to devote to their primary and main calling preaching. The author has also attempted to justify that though the pastor is expected to be involved increasingly in the community in non-theological tasks but the extent of involvement should not be considered as the measure of success and failure when attendance at a Church starts reducing. The author also reports that a few decades back, the pastor had a position of respect and esteem and unfortunately today, many pastors get very little respect in the communities where they survive. In fact, many of the harshest and most unloving critics of pastors can be found within their own congregations (Rainer, 2001, p. 55). In later sections of the Chapter, Rainer gives details of the interview he conducted with 353 formerly unchurched people. Two main questions were asked that brought about significant responses about pastors and the first was did the pastor and his preaching play a part in your coming to the Church?" For this question, more than 97% of the respondents replied that they agreed. The second question require a much more subjective response and asked about what factors led you to choose the Church?". The subjective question items and the percentage of responses are indicated as below. As seen in the above figure, the