Home Pastors Articles for Pastors Why a Good Pastor-Teacher Keeps Repeating Himself. Or Herself.

Why a Good Pastor-Teacher Keeps Repeating Himself. Or Herself.

So, pastor teacher—go ahead.  Repeat yourself.

Yesterday, as I write, a denominational leader was chatting with several of us about the frustrations of his job. “So many don’t know what the Cooperative Program is! We have to keep on explaining it every time we stand up in a church.” (He was referring to our denomination’s plan of distributing offerings from the churches.)

He’s a younger friend of many years, so I took the liberty of gently reminding him that new people are always being reached by our churches, coming in from the cold, without a clue as to what we stand for or how we operate. “So,” I said, “you and I will never be finished explaining these things.”

My wife is a lifelong teacher. I asked her, “Why does a teacher repeat herself?” She jumped on that. “We’re told people black out every few seconds. So many do not get all of what we said. And some were not listening the first time. So we repeat it for them and it helps those who did get it the first time. And then, there are times when the teacher did not explain it clearly. So, she has to repeat it and try to get it right this time.”

As Paul said to the Philippians, “Repeating myself is no trouble. And it might help you!” (my paraphrase of 3:1).

Everyone get that? I said, “Repeating myself is no trouble. And it might help you!”

This article about being a pastor teacher originally appeared here.