Preachers 

        by Tom Woodard

In my thirties, with a wife and two small children, I attended First Baptist Church of Reform, Alabama. We had a pastor by the name of Neil Nichols, who was anything but a preacher. Or maybe I should say ‘everything’ but a preacher. Several years later, after Brother Neil had moved on, we moved our membership to Stansel Baptist Church, down the road about four miles, where we had a pastor by the name of James Purnell, who was also ‘everything but a preacher’. Nevertheless, folks called them, like they call all pastors, ‘preacher’. You see, down South, we call any pastor of any Church ‘preacher’, whether they can preach or not.

Now, I’ve had some preachers who could lay it on good - some real preachin’ preachers - and some of ‘em were fine men, genuine servants of God, like Brother Joe Whitt or Brother Richard Mason. Some, however, were up to no good, or just plain frauds. I won’t name any of the later lot, but the worst of them was an adulterer, a liar and a bad debt who could preach as good as any of ‘em! Southern folks, especially Baptist, set great store by a preacher who can preach to stir the dead, and if their pastor can’t preach they’re gonna grumble and complain, usually under their hat. See, I know all this ‘cause I’m a Southern Baptist, born and bred, myself. And a good Sunday morning sermon will stir the spirits, that’s for sure. But I’m here to tell you that if a man can preach and not much else he ain’t worth much pastoring a Church. That old scoundrel I won’t name, in addition to all those little faults mentioned above, was no more a pastor than a billy goat. He was so ‘eat up’ with himself he couldn’t summon a real care for anybody else if he tried. But now, he would ‘counsel’ with the ladies, in private, which is what got him run off from his last Church. Don’t know where he is now, or what he’s up to. Nor do I care, to tell the truth.

No, for my money (‘cause you know, the congregation does pay the preacher), give me a man like Neil Nichols or James Purnell any day over that unnamed scoundrel. Why? Because they were real pastors. They were the shepherds of their flocks. They were there when folks lost a loved one or were going through troubled times. If you needed to talk to them and lay down your burdens, they were there to listen and to offer well-grounded, Scripture-based advice. They were there to share your sorrows and sickness, and to help pick you up when you were down. They loved their flock - the members of their Church - and were involved with them from the heart.

What good is a Sunday morning sermon from a man who hasn’t got the time to counsel with you when you’re hurting? ‘Not much!’ is my answer!

I’ll tell you what I’ve observed about preachers versus pastors. Some men of God, like Brother  Whitt or Brother Mason, were both - good preachers and good pastors. Some are one, but not the other. But the ones who were good pastors were good pastors because they were in the will of God, and I think it’s because of this fact that they also - tho they couldn’t ‘exhort and holler’ - were good Bible teachers. Brother Neil Nichols was as good a Bible teacher as any ‘man of the cloth’ I ever knew. And here’s my point: You can hear a rip-roaring sermon and be stirred to the rafters, shoutin’ ‘Hallelujah!!!’, and the next day not be able to recall what the sermon was about. But you get a good old solid Bible teacher like Brother Neil, teaching you the Word rather than shoutin’ it at you, and you’re having knowledge and understanding of the Word inscribed upon your mind and your heart. You are being ‘grown up in Christ’. A man can be exposed to the exhortation of preachers all his life and still be a suckling baby in the Lord, but when you’ve got someone gently and lovingly teaching the Scriptures to that same fellow, he will grow in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. He’ll no longer be that new-born Christian, but a mature disciple of the Living God.

Now don’t get me wrong: I love good preachin’ as much as the next fellow. But if I were told I could have the one and not the other, I’d take a good ol’ Bible teacher, with the love of God in his heart, any day over a good rip-snortin’ preacher caught up in himself. When I got re-married a few years back, I knew who I wanted to conduct the ceremony - Brother Neil. He accepted, and did a fine job. But his love, shining in his face and expressed in the tone of his voice, was what made his officiating so special. A year after that ceremony, Brother Neil went to be with the Lord, but this is one old boy who will never forget the lessons he taught me about walking the Christian walk and learning the Scriptures with ‘heart learning’ and not just book learning.

Christ taught us to beware of false prophets, and there’s plenty of ‘em out there, but there are also many solid men of God - some of whom can’t preach, as we in the South understand preachin’ - serving their flocks with the love of God in their hearts. Men like Neil Nichols and James Purnell, and so many more I have known and could tell of. Christian men, and shepherds.  God bless ‘em!            


This Story is dedicated to the Memory of Reverend Neil Nichols, and to all good pastors and shepherds, everywhere.


Copyright January 12th, 2008, by Tom Woodard

Back to Index Reflections