The people of God will follow the pastor who feeds them the Wordof God. That isn’t to say that they won’t balk once in a while. They can makethe pastor’s life a living hell. But week in and week out, year in and yearout, Christians will not cut themselves off from the one who sets theirspiritual table. Even the delinquent son has an uncanny sense of when dinner’son, and he knows he will not be refused.

While the people of God want desperately to flock to thespiritual food of the Word of God, pastors flock to seminars on how to runchurch boards, administrate programs and raise up volunteers. They come homewith straw to feed their people. Then they wonder why their parishioners arenot energized by their new social-scientifically correct leadership methods formanipulating them. Cows don’t like being herded into vaccination chutes. Peopledon’t either.

David Hansen, The Artof Pastoring: Ministry Without All The Answers (IVP), pp. 153-54