- Where Have All the Pastors Gone

Church > Where Have All the Pastors Gone

Where Have All the Pastors Gone?

Observations and Thoughts By Forest R. Steenfott

Preface to: “Where Have All the Pastors Gone?” Why I Wrote About Pastors:

Under normal circumstances a person would not write about this considering their life story. Being or not being a Pastor was a big part of my life. I’ve had so many blows and rejections over these past years. I haven’t had a true pastor for 25 years, whom I could confide in. They all have been self-glory seekers, and specially self-centered. The pastors I had in my early years were Christ-centered. They truly were under shepherds like their Chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ. Remember what the Lord said Matthew 11: 28-30 “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” This should be the same call and attitude of pastors. They are to be shepherds and servants of Jesus Christ.
I do have a few pastors and missionary friends, but they are not local residents. I love these folks dearly. I know much about them and their families. They are truly ministers of Jesus Christ. They have been a great comfort to me over the years. I praise God for them.

Observations and Thoughts By Forest R. Steenfott

INTRODUCTION AND CONTENTS

        All of my adult life has been in the Church, which is now fifty-six years. The last twenty years I have been without a pastor, which continues on to this very hour. There have been men in the pulpit preaching their hearts out, but they were not pastors. I ask the question, “Where have all the pastors gone?” The problem of being pastorless began to evolve 1980. I have remained in the church, but I was even denied opportunity to serve my God. Both my wife and I felt that we were going through the “valley of the shadow of death,” in this respect. This is why I’m including “Where have all the pastors gone” into my life story.
        I have been through some devastating adversities in my life without the counsel and encouragement from a pastor. I will quote from other authors that see the same problems. I thank God for some very close Christian friends that stayed by me.
        I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior when I was sixteen years old in 1947. I dedicated my life to Jesus as Lord of my life. I had a five-year Bible College education and pastored for several years, and have been continually involved in the church life and ministry, the study of the Word of God, and reading from many Bible scholars. I spent some time in Alaska in mission work. I have been doing counseling with some folks, and doing home Bible studies. This has been with my own Bible study curriculum.
        There have been some troubling changes in my thinking over the years regarding pastors and churches. The first writing I did a few years ago on this subject was “Education and Wealth in the Church.” During the last few years I became alarmed in respect to the attitudes I saw in pastors. I put together this work on pastors and churches.
        I began to study and teach about the seven churches of Revelation chapter two and three. The Lord personally addressed the letters to the seven churches through Apostle John. The Lord had each letter go, “To the angel of the church of _________ write.” The word for “angel” is messenger. I believe that the letter was directed to the responsible leader or pastor of the church. I find support for this in the epistle to Ephesians the fourth chapter. Notice the awesome responsibility of the pastor teacher in the eleventh and twelfth verses, “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.”