Preaching Is Hard. Act Like It.

Aug 16, 2022 by

by Dustin Messer, TGC;

The best preachers make preaching seem easy, whether John Stott preaching 50 years ago at All Souls Langham Place or Brian Payne preaching last week at Lakeview Baptist. We’ve all heard great preachers go about the task of preaching with seeming effortlessness. When they make it look easy, it can tempt us to think that we’ll one day arrive at a point in our preaching career when we’ll be able to slack off a little and get away with it. But the truth is, even for the best among us, preaching is hard. Preachers get in trouble when we act like it isn’t.

Tale of Two Preachers

I want to tell you a parable about two preachers, Tom and John.

In Tom’s early days in ministry, preaching (and communication generally) was a challenge for him. He didn’t have the “gift of gab,” so he was nervous to be in front of people. Tom had other gifts that came naturally, but preaching was a labor. Yet labor at it he did, painstakingly writing out his sermons and spending hours in prayer and study. No one has worked harder at a task than Tom at preaching. At 40, Tom is a different preacher. God used the energy he exerted to compensate for his weaknesses, and in the struggle, Tom developed habits and disciplines that produced impressive homiletical muscles.

John is the opposite of Tom. Always a natural communicator, John found joy in his preaching, as did those who sat under his ministry over the years. But something has happened to John in the past decade. His sermons have become rambling and long—very long. At 60 years old, John is still being himself in the pulpit, but it’s an exaggerated, almost cartoonish version of himself. John’s sermons have become thick on shtick and thin on substance. You can tell he doesn’t put a lot of work into his sermons. His points are scattered; his stories center on himself and seem indulgent.

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