Unknowingly Training Up Ministers
I recently read an article from Rick Warren’s Ministry ToolBox that discusses how reviewing other pastors’ sermons can be very inspirational and give new insights into enhancing your own preaching. The article itself is great, but I particularly loved the testimony Pastor Rick opened with.
A couple years ago, Pastor Rick was in South Africa teaching. While visiting a village, Pastor Rick met a preacher and had the following conversation:
Preacher: I know who you are! You’re Pastor Rick!
Pastor Rick: How do you know who I am?
Preacher: I get your sermons every week.
Pastor Rick: How do you get my sermons? You don’t have water or electricity in this town where you are. How do you get my sermons?
Preacher: They’re putting the Internet in every post office in South Africa. So once a week, I walk about an hour and a half down to the nearest post office, I download your free sermons, and I come back and I teach it. Pastor Rick, you are the only training I’ve ever had.
This is a truly awesome testimony. It is a great example of how God can use your work for a far greater harvest than you ever imagined. It is all the more reason that we purpose to create ministries of excellence that can not only further your calling but equip other ministers to do the same.
