• —Answers to Pastors' FAQs—
• RULES & REGULATIONS What should I do ?
• Howard F. Sugden & Warren W. Wiersbe

There seems to be a legalistic atmosphere in our church, with an emphasis on rules and regulations.

Gilbert K. Chesterton said, "Never take down a fence until you know why it was put up."

Often a church becomes legalistic in order to protect its ministry.
Instead of trusting the Word, prayer, and the Spirit, church boards sometimes pass restrictive rules and turn pastors into policemen.

In time, the rules are considered sacred, even though the situations that called them forth disappeared long ago.

There is certainly nothing wrong with a church setting up biblical standards, so long as members realize that standards will not change anybody and that not everyone who obeys the standards is necessarily spiritual in his heart.

The danger of the legalistic spirit is that it is based on fear and generates criticism, and a critical church easily becomes a divided church. It also produces spiritual pride and an attitude that "We are better than other churches."

• We reproduce after our kind.
  • A critical pastor gradually produces a church full of critical people—and they will criticize the pastor the most.
  • A loving pastor will eventually create an atmosphere of love and acceptance.

It isn't necessary to fight the rules; just quietly go about your business and love the people, and the rules will gently sink into oblivion. This doesn't mean you lower the standards of the church. It means you raise the standards by giving the members a higher spiritual motive. Paul had some of this in mind when he wrote Romans 7:14-8:13.

There are three levels of obedience:

• The lowest is fear—obeying because we have to.
• The next level is reward—obeying because we get something out of it.
• The highest level is love—obeying the Lord because we love Christ and our fellow Christians.

People don't become spiritual simply by constraint from the outside; vibrant spirituality must come from compassion on the inside.

Nothing breaks the shackles of tradition like evangelism.

• —Answers to Pastors' FAQs—
• What's the best way to organize my library?
• Howard F. Sugden & Warren W. Wiersbe

The Dewey decimal system is standard and probably the best, but it can be very time-consuming. You almost need a full-time secretary to maintain it.

• Most pastors arrange their Bible study books in the biblical order:
  • Old Testament introductions and surveys;
    • Genesis through Malachi; intertestamental period;
  • New Testament introductions and surveys;
    • Matthew through Revelation.
  • You can set aside special places for:
    • theology books
    • dictionaries and lexicons
    • biographical books
    • and sermons.
  • It's usually best to keep commentary sets together in a separate place.
  • Regardless of what approach you take, have a system and follow it.
  • 
• Keep the books you use most often close to your desk or on your desk:
  • a Bible dictionary,
  • an English dictionary,
  • a Greek lexicon,
  • a Hebrew lexicon,
  • concordances (your main concordance open on a dictionary stand),
  • and whatever other literary tools help you in your studies.
• Keep a shelf near your desk to hold books relating to your current preaching plan.
  • For example, if you're preaching through the Gospel of Mark, place all the commentaries on Mark on this shelf.
  • It's also wise to keep the standard commentaries you use frequently close at hand.
  • This saves a lot of up-and-down motion, although the exercise might do us good!
• Be sure to index your library; otherwise, you will forget what material you have available.
  • You need not index the commentaries, because they're all in order on your shelves.
  • But you will want to index printed sermons,
  • special studies in miscellaneous books (the parables, miracles, names of Christ, etc.)
  • and material in dictionaries and encyclopedias that you might forget are there.
• Several standard filing systems are available, including computer versions, so look for the one that works best for you.
• You will probably want to file clippings and articles in manila folders.
  • These, too, can be included in your topical filing system.
• Many pastors record illustrations on three-by-five cards and file them under key themes:
  • redemption,
  • giving,
  • inspiration, etc.
  • Be sure you write out all the necessary information so the illustration is clear and accurate.
  • Nothing is more distressing than taking out an illustration card that reads "boy with dog in lake." Now, what was that all about?
• Don't become a slave to a system.
• Keep your method simple and it will save you time.
• Don't feel that you must file every clipping, and do clean out the file regularly.
• It's vital that your filing system include an index of sermon material in your library.
  • Most sermon sets are indexed
  • But a master sermon index will enable you to locate any message on a given text or theme quickly.
    • You can use three-by-five cards if you wish, devoting one card to each Bible chapter.
    • You need only list the verse, the volume and page number of the sermon, and it is done.
  • Add to your index the information about every new book you acquire as soon as possible, and mark on the inside cover "indexed."
  • If you permit books to accumulate without indexing them, you'll end up with a gargantuan task and probably decide the index is too much work and not worth it.

Ever Wonder about your Calling ?