Phil, good one.  David Cloud has done some good research about rock 
groups and what happens to rock singers.  I'm glad the cookie cut 
pastor crumbled.

earlier, Phil Scovell, wrote:

>I was asked to speak, many years ago, in a friends church.  The town of
>Meeker, Colorado, high in the western Rocky Mountains, had a population of
>about 1500 people.  The pastor, a good friend of mine, and once upon a time
>was my pastor, too, had moved to this town by the leading of the Holy Spirit
>to begin a new work.  He started with one family he knew there.  Eventually,
>within a few short years, there were 150 members and the building was so
>crowded, they were considering double morning services to fit everybody in.
>The pastor had personally led nearly every member to Christ; he was just
>that sort of a guy.
>
>As I said, I was asked to be one of the guest speakers, the keynote speaker,
>if you can believe that, in this man's church during the two day conference
>he scheduled.  Several other preachers in the area were invited to speak as
>well.
>
>After the first day of services, we had a lunch set up downtown in a rented
>building in order to house everybody who came.  Across from me sat a man who
>didn't like me all that much.  He had asked me to preach five days on the
>book of Revelation in his church years earlier, which I did for him, and
>frankly, I liked him personally and believed him to be a great man of God,
>who loved lost souls, and was a good Bible preacher and teacher.  The week I
>spent with him years earlier were fun and I felt a closeness to him at that
>time.  However, since I was a youth pastor in those days at another church
>about 50 miles from his church, we often invited other churches to our
>church in order to get more young people involved.  He brought a few of his
>young people once and I preached that night, after a whole day of youth
>activities which had been planned, and I had preached on the involvement of
>Satanism in some rock groups and the worship of Satan in known occults of
>that day.  This was in the late 1970s and quite frankly, few people had
>heard any such type of preaching on that topic.  I had done a lot of
>research and offered some quite graphical descriptions of Satanic worship
>services and the involved of famous people in the occult at the time.
>Later, this pastor, trying to make a joke about my preaching, said, "Brother
>Scovell, I almost got so I hated you."  I asked why, and he said, "Well,
>after the hell fire and brimstone sermon you preached to the youth that one
>night, all my kids talked about all the way home was how wonderful you were
>and that you were the greatest preacher they ever heard."  He was joking
>but, as I said, he only tried making it sound that way when he told me the
>story about their 50 mile trip back home that night.
>
>Now, fast-forward to the two day Minnie Bible conference.  During Lunch, as
>I began to say, this man sat across from me and we had a good time of
>visiting as we ate.  Then he told me something quite unusual.  This brother
>was quite the cookie cutter pastor.  By that I mean, he and, my pastor, had
>been friends in the same Bible college.  This pastor I was seated across
>from, was the standard salvation preaching pastor who rarely preached on any
>other topic.  This particular day, he admitted to this very fact.  He told
>me that his most faithful church member asked him if they could have a
>personal meeting one day.  They made the appointment and upon meeting, the
>member told the pastor he was thinking of leaving the church.  My friend
>asked why and was quite astonished at the reason.  The church member said,
>"Well, pastor, it is because I am dying on the vine.  I have been a
>Christian for 25 years.  I know how to get saved and I have led people to
>Christ myself.  Yet, on every Sunday, all you seem to preach about is how to
>get saved.  I'm surely not against that but everybody in our church is
>already saved.  It's almost like you don't know nothing else, brother, and I
>know that ain't true."  I figured, knowing my pastor friend as well as I
>did, the he was going to tell me that he attacked the man and pounded him,
>Biblically, into the ground in defense of his ministry.  In stead, my friend
>said, "Brother, you know something?  You are 100 percent right and I'm
>sorry.  I have never pastored a church before.  I came here fresh out of
>Bible college and I just figured this was supposed to be what a pastor did
>but now that you mentioned it, I understand what you mean.  Listen," he
>said, "if you'll stay for a few weeks and give me a chance, I promise that I
>will begin including sermons that will build up the saints and not just
>preach to the sinners.  They shook on it and my brother did as he promised
>and the church member was happy and stayed and was his most faithful member.
>That night in church, this pastor friend preached in the conference and his
>preaching was the best out of everybody in the little conference and that
>includes me.  His preaching had a heart for the people and it showed.
>
>Phil.
>
>
>
>
>--
>No virus found in this incoming message.
>Checked by AVG Free Edition.
>Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.17.12/1203 - Release Date: 
>12/30/2007 11:27 AM
>
>
>
>
>--
>No virus found in this incoming message.
>Checked by AVG Free Edition.
>Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.17.12/1203 - Release Date: 
>12/30/2007 11:27 AM

John


-- 
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition. 
Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.17.12/1203 - Release Date: 12/30/2007 11:27 AM