There was a time I viewed preaching as a Sunday event—a moment in time when I could capture the attention of the congregation. At least for a brief moment, all eyes and ears would be fixed on me and what I had to say. The platform gave me a rush of adrenaline, which I anticipated as a weekly validation of my ministry.
I still love preaching more than anything else God asks me to do as a church leader. I still get excited every time I stand up and open God’s Word with His people. But I have discovered that preaching is not about one sermon delivered in one moment of time. It is not about the pastor seizing the opportunity to impress the congregation with his great oratory. And it is certainly not about the pastor validating his worth.
When a pastor preaches the Bible, he opens the back door and steps into the personal lives of people. He walks in on God’s activity that is already in progress. I’ll never forget the time a lady approached me after a Sunday service, and in an appreciative tone of voice, she said, “Pastor, you missed my toes and stepped on my heart today.” It was her way of saying thank you, but for me it was a reminder that the preaching ministry is not speech giving. It is soul care.
As that began to sink in, I had to step back and reevaluate my approach to preaching. Biblical exegesis, practical application, and engaging delivery remained vital components of every sermon, but that was not enough to fulfill my calling. Pastors should be skilled in our work, but we are not primarily experts. We not clinicians evaluating patients and giving advice. And we are not performers entertaining the masses. The work of preaching is a back door, sanctifying work in us just as it is in our people.
The apostle Paul was very transparent about this when he wrote to the Corinthians,
When I came to you, brothers, announcing the testimony of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom. 2 For I didn’t think it was a good idea to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 My speech and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a powerful demonstration by the Spirit, 5 so that your faith might not be based on men’s wisdom but on God’s power. 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
Paul was not a professional communicator. That was not even his aspiration. Instead, he preached out of his vulnerabilities, not his strengths. He preached over his head. And it was from a place of personal weakness that the Holy Spirit demonstrated great strength.
Pastors are leaders, and leaders should lead. But the instruction of pastors to “shepherd the flock among you” is a call to be an example rather than an expert.
Shepherd God’s flock among you, not overseeing out of compulsion but freely, according to God’s will; not for the money but eagerly; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 1 Peter 5:2-3
These words connect leadership with humility that finds expression in the preaching ministry of the pastor. That means as preachers, we are responding to God’s Word. We are confessing. We are repenting. We are obeying. We are growing in our ability to trust God.
Every preacher must grapple with difficult Bible passages. Sometimes we deal with complicated issues of prophecy or eschatology or other complex theological concepts. Good study can help us navigate those texts. But every time we open the Bible to prepare and to preach a sermon, God invites us to a new level of faith and obedience. Every verse of the Bible is sharper than any double-edged sword and penetrates into the deepest places of our hearts (Hebrews 4:12).
So when we preach, we are always preaching over our heads. We are always joining God’s sanctifying work in our own lives. We are always entering the pulpit with at least a slight limp as God graciously presses against us.
This kind of vulnerability makes most preachers uncomfortable. We would rather exhort others to obey God in a way that we won’t. We find ourselves hiding behind the text rather than responding to it. But biblical preaching is not the dissemination of biblical information. It is the demonstration of the transforming power of the Gospel through the life of the preacher.
Our people do not need to see us walking in victory as much as they need to see us trusting God in defeat. They do not need to see how smart we are. They need to experience the wisdom of God. They do not need to see a façade of perfection. They need a picture of the true perfections of Jesus. So while every preacher should hone his skills, the greatest work God does in preaching is not through our skills, but through our sanctification.
There are few joys greater than preaching to the same congregation week in and week out. But people do not listen to their pastor in a moment. They listen in a thousand moments. They listen to our lives as we live out the message we preach. They grow in grace as we preach over our heads and follow Jesus with them.