Hello everyone, I want to be a preacher. I think that if anyone should be explaining things about God to all the simple sheeple of this world - that person should be me. It's easy to preach a sermon. You start out with a prayer asking God to bless the words you will say. Then you pick a scripture from the New Testament. Like this - "And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." It's easy. Then you talk about some bad things about this world. There are a lot of bad things in the world - but I would say something like - "people care about and spend more time and money on entertainment than reading their bible. People have turned their back on God." Then you throw in a few scriptures from the Old Testament. The purpose for this is to confuse the audience, and make them think you know something, because the Old Testament is kind of old and hard to understand. Every sermon has to have at least one joke. You have to make the audience laugh so they like you, but you can't just keep telling joke after joke like Jerry Seinfeld because then the audience would hate you. One joke is all that is needed per sermon. After telling the people something bad about this world, you have to give them hope. There are a few good scriptures in the New Testament that do this. "for verily I say unto you, If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain, Remove from here to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you." And that's about it. You are allowed to tell a few lies when preaching. As long as you mean well, it's okay.
I don't see how you are the most qualified to preach. But then again its pretty damn easy. "I know that some time during the day the lord has touched you and said "send $5 to Brother Jon" and good things will happen for you. and if you act fast as supply is limited we'll send you this glow in the dark holy rosary to help light your path to eternal glory. Act fast and send that holy cash today and you too will receive the lord's blessing."
I'm an ordained Universal Life Church (Original Modesto, CA) and hold the titles of Cleric, Litterarum Doctor and Prophet and street preach all the time in front of churches and other holy places during events and on the street near other ministers to counter the evils of faith and rending apart said religions. Well I'm as ordained as any other minister with the same first amendment rights as any other minister I love shouting my message to the faithful even having police called on me but I just whip out my identification and say I'm an ordained clergyman (which ever ID I decide to use). I love pulling the Prophet one the most since a PROPHET trumps other religious titles even Popes since reason chose me as one of the enlightened to undo faith and all that plus it sounds cool.
It takes eight years to become a Catholic priest and it takes $8 to become a "certified minister" in some evangelical churches. At least the Catholics take their religion a bit more seriously!
What a gigantic waste of time. Eight years to learn nothing. Now, let me explain it one more time so that you'll thoroughly understand. Gifts and callings are without repentance. Do you know that? You can never make yourself something that you're not. See? You're born in this world sovereignly by God with different things to do. You take a man that wants to be a preacher and goes off to get himself an education. He will never make a preacher. He might make a lecturer, but preachers are borned. God calls preachers. That's right. See? And you might try to be a singer and you set up and squeak tenor for four or five hours every day, or something there like that, you'll never make a singer. Singers are born. That's right. But I disagree with this guy above. No one is born a preacher. Any joker can learn to be a preacher. http://branham.ru/message/message748e.html?sermonum=137
Relax, don't take it personal that I wouldn't scam the public. Weren't you an agnostic? That was my impression.
I do not taking it personally, what I do have is a curiosity about the premise of your previous statement on the topic of morality. Why make a claim that you are thus far not willing to back up? I am a Deist.
No prob, I'll spell it out for you: In post 1, Superman outlines how to make an easy living as a preacher. It's a time tested plan used the world over, by men who are looked up to and claim to be models of virtue and morality due to their positions as preachers, while scamming the public. The comedy in my first post comes from the contrast between the preacher & the atheist who declines the easy money; who has morals & who does not? If you doubt I have morals, you'll just have to take my word for it.
My view is that both groups have a moral foundation. Those who argue that the other has no moral basis argue from a position of ignorance as neither group has a monopoly upon morality. The great thing about being a Deist is that I can believe in God yet I am not bound by the dogma of religion. The bad thing about being a Deist is that I tend to be at odds to one degree or another with both religious theists and atheists.
