Quiet Hints, Chapter 5–"Starts Good and Bad”

Notes taken from Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers by Charles E. Jefferson, Chapter 5,"Starts Good and Bad.”

“A bad start in a pastorate is disastrous. The blunders of the first few weeks may throw a shadow over many years.”

“When the minister goes into his new parish he ought to give himself at once to his supreme task, feeding the sheep.”

“But if he begins, as many a man has begun, by endeavoring to show the sheep what a wonderful man he is, he will wreck the peace of many days.”

“Nor should the new minister convert his earliest sermons into programs of parochial work. We are living in a driving age, but it is possible for a clergyman to drive too fast. A minister of the Gospel is not a sheep-driver, but a sheep-feeder.”

“For a stranger to come into a parish and proceed forthwith to tell his hearers what he expects them to do borders closely on the impertinent. Why not first of all feed the sheep?”

“Sheep like to be fed. They never resist. When repeatedly fed by the same shepherd they will follow him whithersoever he leads them.”

“Many a man has complained bitterly of the foolishness and stubbornness of his sheep, who would have had no trouble had he only placed the feeding before the shearing.»

“Nor should there be undue haste in knocking to pieces the contrivances which the former minister created. These things should be allowed to stand, if not forever, at least till day after tomorrow.”

“You may be able to introduce an improvement here and there as the years come and go, but please wait until after dinner before you start.”

“Instead of splitting former societies and methods into kindling wood why not be content to feed the sheep? Feeding sheep involves no perils, whereas kindling-wood may lead to a conflagration.”