Why do preachers preach?

In this day and age when everyone on the face of this planet knows about the bible and Jesus, ( for those of you who don't, my apologies) Why is it necessary to preach what the bible already teaches us? Jesus tells us to knock and the door will be open. Are these preachers the ones who are greeting us behind this door?Whos to say I chose the wrong door? Just throwing this out there for anyone who cares-OO

reply to post by oliveoil


1) They get paid to do it.

2) People still listen

3) They like to do it

They want your money. They are ravening wolves when it comes to money. Alot of them are windbags who like the sound of their own voice. The ones that get all excited and yell and scream, never read the passage that says Jesus gently drew men to himself. Bottom line really? They're just in it for the money.

reply to post by oliveoil


Let preface this with I think God has less to do with some so-called Churches, than an easy living for the Church hierarchy.

They say prostitution is the world's "Oldest Profession"

I disagree: I think the oldest profession is being a Shaman, or Holyman and claiming to represent an omnipotent deity.

A lot of people throughout history chose this profession because it was an easy way to make a living, and gain power without a single drop sweat from more honest work.

Why preach? Either the preacher or imam or rabbi believe, or they are just drumming up business and donations.

I believe in a God, but I distrust organized religion implicitly.

Forgot to add:

At least most prostitutes deliver what they promise; few shamans can say the same.

I'm siding with the money on this one.

During my last few churchgoing months, I would sit back & listen about how we need to pay the tithes..the church needs our support...blah blah blah.

I've got an ex-uncle in law who's made a killing off of preaching. The flock follows him blindly & caters to his every whim. He has all three kids of his AND their kids living it up in the million dollar home the "church" bought him.

Back nearly two decades ago I taught a class at a church that was compromised of "high-risk" teenage boys. High risk because they came from broken homes, lived at the poverty level & it was high-risk that they would revert to drugs or a life of crime since that was their family background.
I thought I was making a difference until one night - there were no classes. There was a meeting. A meeting in which the church bus drivers voted and decided to stop their route (the way the boys got to church) because "they were too much trouble" to bother fooling with. In the same vote, they voted to sell the buses & spend the money on some new padded seats, some stained glass windows, and a few chandeliers to go in the church.
Kids were crying as they left, one of the deacons comforting words were "Don't worry - you'll find another church to go to" - I said - "So will I"

I've never been back.

Im not entirely innocent myself. I come on here(ATS) preaching what I have learned about , and the truth is ,no one can entirely know everything there is to know about a omnipotent God.Face it, according to the bible god is infinite knowledge, we are finite.How can we even fathom the idea of an infinite god? Okay let me spread my finite knowledge to someone else who is also finite about an infinite god?

Money? No. My wife and her mother are both preachers. My wife does it for free and her mom makes enough to pay the bills. Sometimes they don't even take up an offering. To say that preachers preach because they want your money is just ignorance, imho. There are some people who masquerade as christian preachers who actually just want to make a buck, sure, but I wouldn't call them all moneygrabbers. Way to not do your homework.

Church is important for a couple of reasons. First: To edify the believer. Preachers have more time to study the word than most people, and therefore can offer insight the regular Joe doesn't have time to figure out / nor does he usually want to... people are lazy. Second: When someone in the community needs prayer, needs to get married, needs someone to speak at a funeral, needs marriage counselling, needs someone to offer scriptural comfort to the sick and dying... who else would you call? Third: Churches exist as a meeting place to glorify God, to praise Him, to honor Him, to spend time with Him, and to do these things with other believers. Preachers aren't going anywhere.. thank God. If a christian were to move into a new town, where would he go to meet other believers? No place better than a church with similar beliefs. Church people (pastor and congregation included) will love you like family, help you when you need it, be your friend, your teacher, and your neighbor in Christ. The list goes on and on.

I find these things obvious, and it raises the question: Why does this thread exist?

reply to post by alonzo730


conmen the whole lot!!! i moved to a town in east nc. last year-- stats--5000 people, 36 churches!!


church goers are morons-- definition to follow
moron-
1.a person who is notably stupid or lacking in good judgment.
2. Psychology . a person of borderline intelligence in a former classification of mental retardation, having an intelligence quotient of 50 to 69.
Use moron in a Sentence
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I'm sure that a select few do it out of the good of their own heart, but for the lot - it's money. Even if they aren't particularly aware of it.

I've always believed that anything OF god wouldn't need human contribution to keep it going.

I've also believed that any sort of loving god wouldn't permit the suffering that inhabitants of this planet endure.

I've also believed that his "chosen", the "teachers, preachers" wouldn't be sex offenders and/or child molesters.

The whole scheme of any sort of organized religion literally sickens me to the core. ALL claim to be "on the way to heaven" yet hold different values and believe different things.
I believe in the individual. Every individual (excluding mentally ill or unstable) have the capacity in them to overcome any obstacle and do amazing things. If it takes a belief in God and threat of hellfire to make you be humane and kind and diligent and respectable then maybe...I'm thinking...that person should take a look at their self in the mirror & try to figure out exactly WHO they are.
The main fear factor in religion is hell, which is NOT present in the original texts. If you remove that factor from the equation - I think a great percentage of the participants would remove themselves.

reply to post by RapturedNotBeamed


You live it; you don't just mouth the words. My gripe is not with the believers, mine is with the phonies.

Because too often we see so-called churches and so-called "Men of God" like Fred Phelps and his "church" of pure hate and evil, Ernest Angely, Jim Bakker, and Oral Roberts who said God would "take him away" if he didn't raise more money for this or that - making God sound big mob guy named "Vitto". And then there are 'churches" that exist more to exercise power than to empower their congregations, or preach peace as they encourage war. Or hide obscenities committed against children.

My argument is not with those who sincerely believe and practice what they preach, my issue is not with a person's belief in God - I believe - my issue is those phonies who use people's genuine faith to feather their own nests and give God a black eye.

How is it worded? "Beware false prophets", yeah those who spell it "Profits"

When hurricane Andrew devastated Homeland, Florida, my mom, and my stepfather along with 20 other members of our small Southern Baptist Church took seven trucks of building materials, tools and relief supplies from our little rural area (nearest McDonalds was 45 miles away) up in Virginia, and spent two weeks working to help those people out.

Now I call that God's work - as is what you and your wife do.

For some, it is about the money. It's how they pay their bills. Then there are some who without a doubt enjoy teaching. There is also some who claim to have intimate knowledge, whether through dreams or visions and they will use that as a foundation to build upon.

The church of old is definately not like it is today. The earliest church was built upon the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon people. They would meet and talk about the things and ways the Holy Spirit was leading them and everyone would participate. Witnessing was very important early on and the word teaches that out of two or three witnesses "matters" will be established. And it can be hard to tell if someone is really spirit filled or not - but by their fruit we will know them.

I used to be in the rapture group until I experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit and I researched for myself all the possible definitions of the greek word harpazo and the latin word rapiere and I found definitions that matched my experience. People have to remember too, that not everyone is going to get the same measure of spirit. We know there is a precedent for some people getting double-portions and Jesus, himself, in the parable of the "Sower" taught that some will reap a crop a hundred fold, sixty fold, or even thirty fold. The Holy Spirit is likened to growing seed more than once in the bible.

People need to be careful who they allow to teach them and in this day and age it's probably best to worship God in Spirit and Truth because those are the ones he is seeking.

I don't believe in the New Testament since it goes against the Torah. So I would never listen to any preacher since they preach against the one true G-d.

Originally posted by Jovi1
reply to post by Romantic_Rebel

 

Some do it because they legitimately care about people and their souls. But most do it because they get their rocks off telling people how to live while they themselves go off living the very deviant lives they preach against.

Gotta disagree with you there. I've met a lot of preachers and I haven't found a single one yet who I'd describe this way. I think you've made some very reaching assumptions based on what you saw online or in the media. I'd venture a guess that you've never actually gone out and experienced bible-believing churches first hand, or haven't in a very long time, and not to an extent that would warrant such a ridiculous assumption.

Are you kidding me? Just look around at the ignorance in the world regarding Christianity, and ask why people who are educated in it would NOT want to preach. I came to ATS for a completely non-religious reason, but after looking around for a while, I signed up for an account because I was appalled by the disinformation and misstatements about Christianity that were rampant here, and not only from non-believers, but from people who claimed to be Christian!

Pastors and priests (at least not in the churches that I go to) are more certainly not in it "for the money", because there is precious little of that. My current pastor is a great speaker, a fairly persuasive guy and very good at tech -- he'd make a good living as a technology salesman, but when one feels the call of God, that's a somewhat higher calling than personal greed.

A pastor may receive a call in the middle of the night and make her way to the hospital to sit with a family who's mother has just died. A priest will drop whatever he's doing to rush to the side of a dying man to administer last rites. They are expected to create unique and compelling messages of 10-20 minutes every week, to manage a church, help arbitrate disagreements between members that are inevitable, and to always, always, be there for their congregation.

All for a wage that is frequently barely livable.

For why people in general preach (like why your family might bug you about not going to church,) realize that Christianity is about ETERNITY, not today. Today matters, and I'm as much a Christian because of its impact on my daily life as it is anything else, but we truly believe that decisions made here will affect you forever. That's compelling reason enough for letting people know what we believe to be true.

reply to post by RapturedNotBeamed


Then you would guess wrong, that is the whole point of the deviant life they dont broadcast it. They actively strive to keep it hidden. Then there is the definition of what is deviant. To me deviant isn't just about sex, its about greed, corruption and power as well. There is something very very wrong with a multi-million dollar church in a neighborhood that every other building is crumbling around it. There is something wrong when the man in charge is rolling around in a Cadillac while his congregation are lucky if they have a car at all. Churches are for the ignorant masses, they are little more than places where the mouth pieces for the intolerant and hateful. 90% of them are so far off their mission it isn't funny and at this point are more of a burden than they are a help.

reply to post by oliveoil
Oliveoil,

The problem is not many are "sent" of the right master. Those truly sent of God preach His Word, The Truth.

Ro 10:15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

The preacher sent of God edifies, builds and strenghthens faith instead of deceiving, leading astry His Lambs.

We have to sort thim out like the Bereans.

Ac 17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

A little leven levens the whole lump, same as Truth can not be mixed with any error as then it is not Truth.

Truthiron.

Originally posted by Jovi1
reply to post by RapturedNotBeamed

 

Then you would guess wrong, that is the whole point of the deviant life they dont broadcast it. They actively strive to keep it hidden. Then there is the definition of what is deviant. To me deviant isn't just about sex, its about greed, corruption and power as well. There is something very very wrong with a multi-million dollar church in a neighborhood that every other building is crumbling around it. There is something wrong when the man in charge is rolling around in a Cadillac while his congregation are lucky if they have a car at all. Churches are for the ignorant masses, they are little more than places where the mouth pieces for the intolerant and hateful. 90% of them are so far off their mission it isn't funny and at this point are more of a burden than they are a help.

I said, and I quote:

There are some people who masquerade as christian preachers who actually just want to make a buck, sure, but I wouldn't call them all moneygrabbers. Way to not do your homework.

You're way off base here. You're lumping all preachers in with each other, just like the media serves it to you. Remember that line from the Matrix (2, I think), where the oracle says "The ones that aren't doing what they're supposed to... well, you hear about them all the time". It's the same principle. Pastors and preachers who are preaching the gospel and living their lives for Christ makes for boring news. Do your homework, dude.

Grow up and get some reading comprehension skills never once did every last one but I have seen enough to know whats going on. Just because your wife and mother-in-law do this for a living doesn't really mean anything to me. If anything it gives me far more reason to doubt any position on the subject you can possibly take. Because for all I know you are one of the ones living fat off your little subjects trying to maintain the status quo. If you can not comprehend and accurately respond to what you are reading you need not be here we have more than enough of that type in here as is. It doesn't take a genius to figure out when your driving through the poorest sections of town everything around it is crumbling but on the same street 5 brand spanking new churches, complete with satellite dishes on the roof and caddy's in the first parking space to know where all the money is.