I Thessalonians 3:2
“and sent Timothy, our brother and God’s minister in the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith;”
This is a great description of the job of a pastor; to establish the people in their faith and to be comforted by that faith. Today we’ll focus on the first topic. Most of the establishing is done by good bible teaching. The bible describes who God is, how to have a relationship with Him and how we are to live.
Pastors have different style in their teaching ministry. Some teach through books of the bible. In my twenties I went to a church that did this. On Sunday night the pastor went more quickly. He would go through about five chapters of a particular book of the bible. It was a good overview. In time he would cover much ground and was able to teach from many books. It was a zoomed out version. From the weekly readings he would choose a topic for the Sunday sermon. On Thursday night, he taught through a different bible book. this study was in depth. He might spend an evening on a verse or two. It could take years to get through a book. The people would get a good understanding of biblical doctrine.
Other pastors teach topics. Typically several weeks would be dedicated to that topic. This allowed the pastor to sense the needs of the people and choose a topic accordingly. My present church does this. We have weekly small group meetings in which we go over what was discussed in the weekend sermon. This allows for an in depth look at the topic as well as connecting with people and building relationships.
Lord, thank You for our pastors and their teaching ministry. Give them wisdom and guidance as they teach us