A while ago the following sentence caught my eye. It’s from Pandora’s bio on the singing group, Hot Chocolate:
“An interracial English funk and soul group, Hot Chocolate scored a pair of huge hits in the 70’s but were otherwise more enthusiastic than skilled.”
Ouch!
This immediately made me think of what someone could say about me or any other preaching pastor.
I recognize that skill levels vary with individuals. It’s that way with athletes. There is LeBron James and there are other basketball players (older blog readers insert Michael Jordan). And it’s that way with preachers. I’m no Tony Evans or Tim Keller.
This week I begin teaching Advanced Homiletics to a class at LBC’s northern Virginia campus. I’m also in the middle of working with a Baltimore pastor in an independent study in Communicating Biblical Truth. So, I’m thinking a lot these days about how to teach hermeneutical and homiletical skills. As always, it forces me to think about how I’m doing. How skillful am I at…
- fighting the good fight of faith? At fighting temptation? At displaying the fruit of the Spirit?
- interpreting how Scripture functions for the Church? At theological exegesis? At understanding the human heart?
- communicating God’s Word in church? At speaking, pace, movement, energy, urgency? At relating to the learners?
Take a look at those three broad categories. What does it take to become more skillful in these areas. It takes intentional, intense prayer. It takes purposeful reading. It takes consistent pastoral interaction (loving and listening).
God help us preach better so that He gets glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).
Randal
P.S. Preach a good sermon, will ya?!
This post was originally published on September 1, 2015.
This is something that I have been asking myself a lot more recently. What can we do to measure or determine if we are getting better at preaching without comparing ourselves to others? The comparison game can be costly because we are not all on the same level.
Great question, Torre. It is probably best to allow others in our leadership to measure us. Notice that in 1 Timothy 4:14-16 the people are the ones that see our progress. The danger of comparison is always present. What is “better” for me and you takes into account our uniqueness. The standard has to be our own, not another. That way the evaluation is about our gift, not someone else’s. Hope that helps.
Professor Pelton,
Thank you for your thoughtful post. I must ashamedly admit that so often I find myself in the rut of contentment and complacency. I so easily become satisfied with “good enough” preaching and the status quo. However, we are called to so much more than that. We are heralds of God’s Word and we must be ever-striving to become more effective in our delivery and proclamation of God’s Word. I pray that we will continue to pray that God will graciously give us growth and motivation to improve in our preaching ability and effectiveness for His name’s sake.
Gabe, I believe that our walk with the Lord can lead directly to ongoing improvement by His Spirit and our efforts. In the same way that the nature of saving faith includes the presence and increase of Christian virtues (cf. 2 Peter 1:5ff.), it also includes increased effectiveness in the use of our gifts according to His will (His definition of effectiveness). Thanks for chiming in on this, brother. So glad we could meet together.
I greatly appreciated the content in this blog post. The desire to become more skillful often seems like a vague pursuit that lacks real “how to’s”. One consistent thing you noted that I have seen many great preachers notes is that reading is vital to maintaining long term effective preaching. The desire to become more skillful starts with learning from other. I believe that combined with your call to intentional intense prayer can go a long way. Thanks for the content.
You’re welcome, dear brother. So glad we could “meet” in class. I can’t agree with you more about the combo of prayer and study. Preach well this year!