John Stott said that beginning preachers need at least twelve hours to prepare one sermon (J. Stott, Between Two Worlds, 259). Tony Merida added, "But even this does not take into consideration the amount of time for meditating late at night, thinking in the car, talking to other preachers, or doing outside reading. Biblical preaching is therefore an all-consuming task. Couple this with the other demands of the pastor’s ministry, and it makes for a laborious process. No wonder Paul told Timothy to give double honor to pastors who work like an ox at “preaching and teaching” (1 Tim 5:17–18) (Merida, Tony. Faithful Preaching (p. 99). B&H Publishing. Kindle Edition). Paul said, "If any man desire the office of a bishop, he desires a good work." Part of that work is sermon preparation. I had a church member say to me once, that preachers had it made all they work is 30 minutes on Sunday morning, 30 minutes on Sunday evening, and 30 minutes on Wednesday evening. He had no clue.

In spite of the abuses of ordination, John Hammett Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches: A Contemporary Ecclesiology, believes “there is a biblical basis for recognizing leaders in some way, and a properly understood practice of education could serve some positive purposes” (page 206). Hammett sees four positive results of ordination.

An elementary teacher was helping one of her kindergarten students get his cowboy boots on before leaving for home. He had asked her for help and she could see why. Even with her pulling and pushing, the boots just did not want to fit all the way – they seemed too small. She persisted and by the time she got the second boot on, she had worked up a sweat. She almost cried when the little boy said, “These are on the wrong feet.”

You know how boots can sometimes be hard to tell – so she looked closely and sure enough, they were. She tugged and pulled and finally pulled the boots off. She managed to keep her cool as together they worked to get the boots back on the right feet. Finally, just as she was finished, he said, “You know, these aren’t my boots.”

She bit her tongue rather than scream. Once again she struggled to help him pull the ill-fitting boots off his little feet. No sooner had they gotten the boots off, when he said, “See, they’re my brother’s boots, but my mom said I could wear ‘em.”

She did not know if she should laugh or cry, but she mustered up what patience she had left to wrestle the boots back on his feet one more time. Finally, she finished. Helping him into his coat, she asked, “Now, where are your gloves?” He said, “I stuffed ‘em in the toes of my boots.” In two years, she will be eligible for parole (Davey 3).

I like what Mike Stallard did when he traced the ministry of the Holy Spirit throughout the OT beginning with the Pentateuch through the Post-exilic books. This is laying a biblical theology foundation upon which you can build a systematic theology. It also avoids starting with the NT doctrine and arguing backwards or reading the NT into the OT. It seems that scholars who defend the permanent indwelling of OT believers by the Holy Spirit start with the NT doctrine of indwelling and argue backwards. This is the case with Robert McCabe in his article entitled, “Were Old Testament Believers Indwelt by the Spirit,” Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal vol. 9 (2004): 215-264.  He exegetes the following passage in the following order: John 7:37-39, John 14:16-17; 1 Cor. 6:19-20; 2:14-15; Ezek. 36:25-27; 1 Cor. 2: 14-15; Rom. 8:9-11; Num. 27:18, and Psa. 143:10. The majority of passages used to defend the permanent indwelling of the OT believers by the Holy Spirit are from the NT. Leon Wood starts his arguments for the permanent indwelling of Old Testament saints with the Holy Spirit with this statement: “But if the Old Testament saint was not permanently indwelt by the Spirit, how was he able to remain a child of God? The New Testament is clear that believers now are preserved by the indwelling Spirit 2 Tim. 1:12; 4:18; 1 Peter 1:5). Were Old Testament saints able to keep themselves? It is not easy to believe so” (Leon Wood, The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, pages 39-40). Mike Stallard begins in the OT where progressive revelation commences on this doctrine.