Pastors are called to preach the life-changing word of God, a Florida pastor told a group of Alabama Baptist leaders Feb. 10.

Herb Reavis, pastor of North Jacksonville Baptist Church, Jacksonville, Florida, for nearly 35 years, told participants at an Intentional Leaders event in Prattville that “it’s hard to believe we can do what we love and get paid for it. But our task is to do it well and to be faithful to what God has called us to do.”

Reavis related that he was called to ministry as a 17-year-old after going on several youth mission trips.

“I think I imitated some of the great preachers of the day until I learned God called me to be the best me I could be,” he remembered.

No sermon autopsies

“We must be students and study the languages, but a sermon mustn’t be an ‘autopsy’ of a passage,” he asserted. “We’re to thrill people with the Word, finding the major proposition from Scripture and making it clear to our hearers. Warren Wiersbe called it ‘preaching with imagination.’”

Reavis noted a pastor’s power comes from the Holy Spirit.

“Sometimes we Baptists hear about the Holy Ghost and it scares us,” he said. “But we don’t have to be afraid of the Holy Spirit. He is the instrument of God, and we’re commanded to be filled with Him. 

“We receive all of Him at conversion, but we must continue to seek Him daily.”

Continue reading here.

This article was originally published at TheAlabamaBaptist.org.