At times there is the need to invite a guest minister to preach in your church , especially from another town ,city , nation or continent . This demands that you should give the guest minister good hospitality . There are etiquettes that govern the way a guest minister is treated in the church of God . If you as a pastor invite someone who travelled to preach the gospel in your church , there is a way you treat the guest minister that will bring glory to God . The following are the ministerial ethics and the etiquettes that qualify the way you treat a visiting preacher of the gospel .
1. Pay for all expenses
If you deem it fit to invite a guest speaker , you must understand that you as the host will bear all the cost and expenses involved . Under no circumstance should you leave bills unpaid or make it the responsibility of your guest speaker . There are expenses like fuel , transportation, lodging, flight or ticket ,etc that the host minister must be ready to cater for .
It is unethical to invite a guest minister from far , when you know that your ministry cannot afford to pay for the expenses nor the bills . Please consider the cost first before inviting a guest minister .
2. Provide adequate funds
It is important to give the guest minister enough funds that can cater for all travelling expenses , if need be even before he set off to come for the ministration . After ministration , make sure you give the visiting speaker enough financial remuneration or honorarium . Bless the visiting speaker adequately , with enough cash , so that God can bless the church . Many guest speakers have been left stranded after honouring an invitation to preach the gospel in another town ,city or nation , because the money the host church gave them was not enough .
3. Take Care of food
Make sure that your guest speaker eats adequate food that is hygienically prepared , spiritually safe , environmentally clean . Food can be a blessing or a curse , if your guest speaker eats food that is demonically polluted , it will affect him spiritually and bring spiritual attack to him .
Make sure the food is good , prepared by the right person , served by the right person ,and the man of God eats in a good environment .
4. Good accommodation
If you invite your fellow man of God , give him the best hospitality that you can afford in a nice accommodation . You should know that a guest speaker always comes in the spirit of an angel , who wants to bless the church and take the church to another level .
So you have to treat him more or less like an angel of God , so that the spirit of God will use him to bless the church and the congregation thereof .Give him the best accommodation ever , in fact you need to invest in giving the guest minister a good lodging in a nice environment .This will invoke the grace of blessing upon the host church .
5. Introduce him by his desired title
It is important that you introduce him by his right title ; titles bring responsibility , auction , honour and a sense of humour . Titles also portray an office , from which the preacher is going to function .
Do not ignore the title the guest speaker carries , bears or desires to be called , it is a sign of covenant of his office and ministry to God . Ask him the right title he wished to be introduced to the congregation ,such as pastor , teacher , evangelist , prophet , apostle , Rev. , Bishop , Seer , G.O , Dr. etc .
''He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. . '' Matthew 10 :41
So receiving a minister by his title , brings gracious reward , if he is introduced as a prophet to the congregation , a prophetic grace will visit the congregation, if he is introduced as an apostle , apostolic grace will be released upon the congregation , while he ministers .
6. Do not arrange false miracles with the guest speaker
We are in the end times where a lot of satanic ministers have joined the bandwagon of deception . These parade themselves as ministers of the gospel and introduce fake miracles , and arrange testimonies with fake members to deceive the congregants . Try as much as possible never to arrange any such miracles with visiting ministers of the gospel . Neither should you invite any such false ministers into your pulpit , who come in to introduce false miracles into the alter of God . Beware !
7. Give the Guest minister the theme ,
As much as possible give the guest speaker the theme or the topic to preach on , this will keep him on track , especially if it is the first time he is being invited into your pulpit . Many guest speakers have caused confusion in host churches , by preaching even against the church doctrine .
8. Give the guest minister time to minister
Guest ministers must be given a time limit to minister on your pulpit to the congregation . This is important , because every church has a time culture that the congregation is used to , if the guest minister over uses the time , it will affect the attendance of consequent church meetings .
Church members may not turn up well if another guest speaker is to come . If you give a guest speaker time to minister , it helps him not to overdo things during the duration the ministration .
9. Interrupt if the guest is deviating
There is a need to protect your flock from wolves in sheep's skin , so anytime you observe that the guest speaker is preaching or doing something that can affect the church in a negative way , you have the right to interrupt . For instance, if he is preaching against your church doctrine , such a message will scatter the flock of God , you have to interrupt and stop him .
Or if he is giving false prophecies , you have to stop him. If the time is overdue , you can stop him if he is pushing people to fall down by force , you have to stop him . You as a host minister has the final authority in the church , you gave the microphone to him , you have the right to collect it from him if he is deviating .
10. Do not harm the guest speaker
Please , no matter how evil you are as a pastor, never harm your guest speaker , an innocent minister of God who has come all the way from another place to minister in your church must not be taken for granted . Because God is with him , and the Lord will take vengeance.
11. Invite someone you trust
Whenever you are thinking of inviting a guest minister , you must try to invite someone you trust , or know about his ministry very well .Many wolves have come in sheep's clothes , so you must pray and seek the face of God , whenever you want to invite someone into your church as a guest minister .
12. Make sure he is following your church doctrine
Always make sure that the guest minister is preaching and doing everything according to your church doctrine . In the early days of my ministry I invited someone who came to preach against one of our doctrines ; he actually preached against the use of Olive oil to pray for people .Meanwhile , we have being using it to pray for our church members and anointing them with oil .
So I had to try and clear the air of the doctrinal confusion he came to create in my ministry then . Some guest ministers lack ministerial etiquette so they behave anyhow wherever they are invited to preach , beware !
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