I've been preaching some at a church for well over a year. We have many visiting pastors, and the thing that always seems to come up is the congregation wants someone who will say  "God lead me to Pastor You"

I have this response to that attitude:
If God calls you to be somewhere, you should commit. "Be there" regardless of what seat they offer you!

We all know if they don't get voted in to lead then they won't remain where God lead them. I'm willing to work the sound mixer, teach Sunday School, preach, display perserverence in our growth and show self-control.

When I was asked:
I told the person that asked me I feel lead to proclaim God's word from any hill in earshot of listeners, but I'd would also kick the dust off my feet and find another hill if their hearts are hard. I want to be apart of a city on a hill that is living in the word of God even if the seat offered isn't at the head of the table.

Now I wonder by what Biblical basis has this type of "burning bush" proclamation became tradition in the modern church? Because the last few pastors willing to outright proclaim this have displayed obvious failures of the flesh.

Seems like that goes both ways where the search committee or elders should be praying for guidance to the right pastor. It was unusual for us to ask someone to come preach unless we thought they were the right one. Didn’t always work out that way, but it worked overall.

Perhaps stop searching outside the congregation and start searching inside it.

Meh. I think God can call very clearly and He can speak quietly by opening doors to lead you somewhere.

I do believe there are too many men who take jobs as pastors with the (perhaps ego driven) ambition of an evangelists while lacking the understanding of what it requires to pastor believers. But they want the vocational security of a pastorship. So when their parish doesn’t grow, they move on claiming “God isn’t in it”.

The reality is that all God’s children need pastorship, but somehow He never seems to call anyone mature to pastor these little churches with an aging membership. That always seems to be for “other people”, invariably someone young and inexperienced or old and ready to retire, because God has apparently given everyone else this vision that they’ll take on a church to restore it some glory (measured in improving attendance and tithing, of course) and have it busting at the seams in a couple of years. The horror of God actually calling someone to lovingly pastor a dying congregation is something they can’t contemplate...at least not for themselves.

There are a couple of nursing homes with nothing planned for Easter Morning. I think I might look into having services for them. It seems to solve so many problems like financial ones and attendance issues. I'm just amazed that nobody nowhere wasn't already planning such a thing with them.