Walking Alongside the Preacher

Why do we want to see the old doctor rather than the young resident? Why do we give greater esteem to the experienced professor instead of the newly appointed? Why do we prefer legal counsel who “knows his way around a courtroom” more so than the graduate fresh out of law school? Essentially, we respect them for the years of dedication they have spent in their field—years of experience and practice that cannot be short-circuited.   

We often allow those who devote their lives to working in fields that speak into our lives a voice to speak into our lives—we are willing to consider setting aside our limited knowledge if we recognize their capacity for greater insight into our situation. They have spent years honing their ability to think conceptually within their field so they might speak to us through an enhanced perspective. We listen to the doctor when a health plan is presented. Greater consideration is given to the seasoned scholar when he speaks on his area of expertise. Legal counsel is trusted when sound advice is given.  

Many times, we do not view the preacher or his work in the same way. Instead of recognizing in him the same credibility through his years of study, a seasoned voice that can speak to us from the Scriptures, we place expectations on him. We want him to have the energy of a twenty-year-old, the financial security of a fifty-year-old, and the knowledge and wisdom of an eighty-year-old.i Borrowed from a whimsical cartoon, this quip offers a perspective that sometimes goes unaddressed—many churchgoers do not have a clear understanding of the preacher, his work, or how he goes about it.ii The result may be unintentional but catastrophic if churches maintain an environment that is not conducive to the years-long endeavor of growing seasoned preachers. Preachers require time—not just in their initial training—but a life spent in devotion to continuing study, meditation, and spiritual development. These are the qualities we seek in those whom we give our deference when they speak into our lives. 

One of the ironies in the history of the church is the fact that the person who is expected to speak every week on issues of ultimate importance … has been in many quarters begrudged the study time necessary to prepare. Not everywhere, of course, but in many parishes there is strong resistance to granting a pastor [preacher] any study leave … not until a minister is persuaded that working in the study is being among the flock, and not until the flock accepts that fact, can a ministry, and especially a preaching ministry, attain full stature and be consistently effective.iii — Fred Craddock 

A recent study of Restoration Movement churches suggests widely differing ideas among preachers and elders in the preacher’s time needs for sermon preparation.iv Collectively, the research did not bear out the differing time aspect (preachers and elders generally were found to allow about the same amount of time). However, inconsistencies on how we view the preacher and his work did emerge. Our view of the preacher and his preaching matters; it will ultimately determine how, or if, we value him and his work. 

If we view the preacher as an employee, we might be ascribing some qualities to his work we should not (e.g. answering to a time clock).v Viewed in this manner, he is to make sermons and do it in a timely manner. Every seven days he must have a sermon prepared—like a manufactured product—readymade for the consumer, designed to spiritually equip and enrich those who have gathered to hear it. However, the sermon is not an assembly line product. Furthermore, the preacher’s work is to speak into the lives of the gathered church. Therefore, we must ask ourselves, “How reasonable is it to force the sermon writing process onto a time clock?”  

Of the preacher who makes sermons like an assembly line product, it has been said: 

The man of special preparations is always crude; he is always tempted to take up some half-considered thought that strikes him in the hurry of his reading, and adopt it suddenly, and set it before his people, as if it were his true conviction. Many a minister’s old sermons are scattered all over with ideas which he never held, but which once held him for a week … the truth which the preacher gathers on Friday for the sermon which he preaches on Sunday has come across the man but has not come through the man.vi 

The famous evangelist Charles Spurgeon in his book Lectures to My Students says, “We have urgent need to study, for the teacher of others must himself be instructed. Habitually to come into the pulpit unprepared is unpardonable presumption: nothing can more effectually lower ourselves and our office.”vii 

Can preachers cut corners and be mere assembly line producers? Absolutely. Ethical consideration aside, he can: download a sermon, read it over, make a few slight modifications, and be ready to go into the pulpit in an hour’s time. In this, he has invested nothing of himself—he has produced an assembly line sermon for one-time use, and then it is ready to be shelved or discarded. This is what separates a life spent in preaching versus someone who can come up with something to fill twenty minutes in the pulpit. If the sermon does not come through the preacher—if the sermon is not something the preacher has personally searched his spiritual depths to invest for the good of the gathered church — what good is it?viii 

Speaking to the assembly line approach to sermon preparation, Craddock makes this astute observation, “When the preacher’s study is confined to ‘getting up sermons,’ very likely those sermons are undernourished. They are preacher’s sermons with the mind of a consumer, not a producer, the mind that looks upon life in and out of books regarding usefulness for the next Sunday.”ix 

In contrast, what practices have placed the doctor, the professor, and the lawyer at the top of their field? The doctor takes as long as it takes to treat a patient. The professor takes as long as it takes to prepare an engaging lecture or learning experience. Legal counsel takes as long as it takes to present an adequate case. How long does it take to write a sermon? As long as it takes! “When asked how long it takes to prepare a sermon, a wise preacher will respond, ‘My whole life!’ Indeed, we pour everything of ourselves into our preaching … If we are to be effective and not just busy, then we must settle once and for all that we are willing to do some clear, hard thinking about our preaching.”x 

Consider the contrast between the two types of preachers being described: 

One preacher depends for his sermon on special reading. Each discourse is the result of work done in the week in which it has been written. All his study is with reference to some immediately pressing occasion. Another preacher studies and thinks with far more industry, is always gathering truth into his mind, but it is not gathered with reference to the next sermon. It is truth sought for truth’s sake, and for that largeness and ripeness and fullness of character which alone can make him a stronger preacher. Which is the better method?xi 

The preacher should be taking as long as it takes because he is doing what is required to bring his burden from the Scriptures to bear—it is the burden he carries in his work. How does the sermon writing process unfold for the preacher? Approaching an answer to this question involves considering deeper spiritual truths that might be discerned from everyday occurrences. 

Without question, there are many common practices preachers labor in as they write sermons: word studies, exegeting the text, looking for illustrative material, consulting Bible commentaries, etc. However, what separates typical sermons from great sermons is the degree to which they address the spiritual matters that are most pressing to those hearing them. The preacher who has spent a lifetime in the work of preaching has developed into a seasoned preacher—like those in similar fields he has accumulated years of experience and practice in a field that cannot be short-circuited.  A good doctor “treats” by assessing the patient in front of him. A good professor “teaches” by assessing learning needs of those in front of him. The lawyer “discerns” and proceeds with the case that is in front of him. Likewise, the preacher “draws” meaning out of the Scriptures and applies it in a meaningful way to those in front of him. 

Preachers spend much of their time with one foot in each world—the temporal and the eternal—the seemingly mundane as well as the monumental. Ideally, all Christians do this with varying degree in their devotion and prayer time—but the preacher spends much of his time in this frame of mind. As he goes about his day, his sermon writing is not necessarily confined to a church office. Instead, his sermon writing—his work as a preacher—is bringing to bear truth and Godly wisdom wherever he finds it in his everyday experience and presents his observations—cast in this light—to the gathered church.  

Truth can be found everywhere, it’s all around us: in a flat tire, in civil servant vehicles with sirens screaming toward an emergency, in a dream vacation, hitting the winning homerun or missing the winning shot, reuniting with an old friend, in the lives of the penniless as well as the ultra-rich. Truth can be found in the married couple of sixty years looking on as their grandchild makes her own wedding day vows while they reflect on their own journey and pray for God’s blessing on this one. Godly wisdom is with the mother who lovingly continues to be a mother to her daughter who has just brought the family’s first grandchild into the world—gently guiding her through her first days of motherhood. Godly wisdom is knowing that the final gaze upon a departed loved one at the close of the funeral service is soon followed by the void created in this loss. These represent only a small window into the mind of the preacher and his observances where he extracts truth and bears it out in sermons to the gathered church. 

John Stott in his book Between Two Worlds notes: 

The preacher’s life must be a life of large accumulation … He must not be always trying to make sermons, but always seeking truth, and out of the truth which he has won the sermons will make themselves … Here is the need of broad and generous culture. Learn to study for the sake of truth, learn to think for the profit and the joy of thinking.xii 

When the sermon comes from the preacher’s innermost being, the messages that come through him carry greater meaning and impact—they are much more than a product made to meet the need of having something to say every seven days. These are deeply personal messages that have arisen through study and personal reflection throughout the sermon writing process. These are words he will stand behind, defend with, mentor with, comfort with, and help others with in ways he may never know. If these are not the kinds of messages resounding from the pulpit, by what other means can a sermon be brought to bear with the needed conviction to motivate a response in those hearing the Word preached? The preacher can only do this when he is allowed to take, “as long as it takes” to bring forth a sermon from the Scriptures. In this, respect and latitude in going about his work are due to him if he is to speak into the lives of the gathered church. 

Every sermon should end with a call-to-action. Better stated as, “In light of what you have just heard, this is the desired action or response.” Considering the great importance of preaching, we must also consider the potential for danger if we become accustomed to pulling the preacher away from sermon writing and preaching preparation. On any given week, souls who may need the preacher’s very best may be endangered if he has not been allowed to take as long as it takes.  

Consider the economics of a preacher’s time as explained by Haddon Robinson:   

Your fellow Christians … will spend far more time on this sermon than you [the preacher] will. They come from a hundred homes. They travel hundreds of miles in the aggregate to be in the service. They will spend three hundred hours participating in the worship and listening to what you [the preacher] have to say. Don’t complain about the hours you are spending in preparation and the agony you experience. The people deserve all you can give them.xiii 

As we look to those whom we allow to speak into our lives, we allow them to do so because they have shown themselves to be approved workmen of their chosen field—master craftsmen. The preacher is no different—he is one who speaks into our lives on matters of the greatest importance. In the Sundays to come when we meet the preacher at the church door and exchange pleasantries, “great sermon today” or “you really did great on that one,” take time to consider, “What made it great?” Was it great because it’s the seventh day and the preacher had come up with something else to say, or because we met the preacher—our mind with his—and a message of truth and Godly wisdom from God’s Word was earnestly delivered?xiv