Preachers today are licensed and ordained by the church; men of old were ordained and sent by God. Preachers today go forth armed with degrees and credentials; men of old went forth anointed by the Holy Spirit. Preachers today are questioned by committees and hired to preach what the church believes; men of old came preaching, “Thus saith the Lord.” Preachers today give themselves to programs, visitation, church business; men of old gave themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word. Preachers today preach and men are persuaded to move their membership; men of old preached and, “they were pricked in their hearts and cried, Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Preachers today pray and the organ plays softly; Elijah prayed and the fire of God fell. Preachers today are afraid that they will offend someone; Paul was afraid that he would not. If there is no offense, the gospel has not been preached.
Author Unknown Article copied from the July 15, 2012 church bulletin Grace Baptist Church Danville, Kentucky
A Particular Baptist Blog 
So to all the pastors and preachers out there…..Which are you?
Though I certainly appreciate the sentiment, I think some of the particulars by this unknown author are troubling.
Men should indeed by recognized by the local church, not self-appointed. That is not in opposition to being sent by God — it is the church affirming that a man has been called by God.
Whether or not a guy has a ‘degree’ (which is largely irrelevant), he does need annointing — and the Holy Spirit can and does annoint those with an MDiv and those without one.
A church ought to question a man about what he believes. And if someone says “thus saith the Lord”, he’d better be quoting from the Bible, otherwise he’s making up stuff in his own vain imagination.
If “programs” are about people, and visitation better be about people, he is shepherding the flock. Hopefully, that’s part of his ministry of the Word. And when he’d visited, then he has more to pray about. Those two don’t necessarily conflict with each other.
Some of us today don’t pray with music in the background, and we recognize that the fire at the time of Elijah was a unique event, not to be repeated.
Some (many) today are afraid about offending, but that was true of the past as well. And some today are not afraid of offending, recognizing that, as stated, the gospel does indeed offend.
The ideas stated by the author are not incorrect, but I think they made some false contrasts.
Brother Dave,
Excellent observations and description.
Welcome to APBB and thanks for taking time to reply.
Soli Deo Gloria.
Greg Coleman