Only God's Man

Few things in Baptist Church life rival the experiences that come during the times of true revival and or the calling of a new pastor. The former, true revival is often prayed for but rarely experienced. History is filled with stories of meetings called revivals that resulted in a few people having warm fuzzy feelings rather than a congregation being renewed and revitalized through heaven sent revival. The latter, the calling of a pastor, occurs approximately every four years, on average, in Baptist churches. Just as with revivals, I%u2019m afraid that many times churches have settled for far less than a pastor sent from God. If your church is seeking a new pastor, does this really matter? Who will be your next pastor? Baptist churches are autonomous. They do not have pastors that are appointed by any ecclesiastical body. Each church seeks to find and call the man they feel God leading to be their next pastor. The process of Southern Baptists that unites churches and pastors can often be slow and agonizing. It is a process that seeks for heaven and earth to meet in order that mere mortal man might know and do the will of Almighty God. This book is a look at that process as seen through the eyes of a Southern Baptist pastor of thirty years. While many of the details of this book are extremely personal, many pastors and lay people will be able to relate. This book is not intended to make light of our time honored Baptist traditions but rather to cause us to look more closely at the process. Hopefully this little book will help us to either affirm our local church process or cause us to seek God as perhaps never before. While you may disagree with some things that you read herein, this one thing we should all hold in common: when it comes to calling a pastor for God%u2019s church, we should seek nothing more and settle for nothing less, Only God's Man !