After my conversion to Christ, I began to devour Biblical preaching. It fed my soul and fueled my spiritual growth. Most every sermon I heard was from great expositors: Stephen Olford and James Boice on Sunday morning and Stuart Briscoe on Sunday afternoon. Additionally, I began to listen to and read books by Bible preachers like W. A. Criswell and John MacArthur. My wife’s brother, Jim Crayton, was such a solid preacher who influenced me when I was called into the ministry.
I knew that was the kind of preacher I wanted to be. I just didn’t know how. So, I enrolled at Fruitland Baptist Bible Institute as it was called before becoming a college. There I sat under the instruction of the late Kenneth Ridings who inspired me to not only preach through books of the Bible, but informed me on the method of doing so.
For nearly fifty years that was my pattern as I pastored churches. In my first church, Cane River, in Burnsville, I preached through the book of Genesis on Sunday evening, and was working my way through the Gospels on Sunday mornings. My intention was to systematically preach through the entire Bible. Serving there for three and one-half years did not allow me the time to finish! Yet in the churches I served after that, we also had a Wednesday night service that gave me additional opportunities. In four churches—during which my longest tenure was six and one-half years—I preached through numerous books of the Bible. Coming to Pole Creek, God privileged me to pastor those dear folk for twenty five years. My planning for my preaching became much more intentional.
By fall, I would go away for several days all by myself. It was just the Lord, me, and my Bible. I had been thinking about what the needs of the church were currently and what the next book of the Bible would be helpful in addressing where we were spiritually. Was our worship lagging? Maybe I ought to preach from Psalms. Had our evangelistic zeal waned? God might be leading me to preach though Acts. Was there some conflict and moral issues needing to be confronted? 1 Corinthians would address those. Did we need a better understanding of how the church needs to function? 1 and 2 Timothy would hit that head on. So, prayerfully I would determine the book of the Bible I would preach through each year—or several books, if they were shorter—and I would over the course of a few days, map out the direction of my preaching for the next calendar year. I would lay out the title, text, and thrust of each message. Then, I would share it with our worship leaders, so that the services would be planned around that day’s theme—especially music that reinforced the message. There were times that I even suggested songs that enhanced the exposition.
God blessed this. I could have stayed and followed that pattern on and on until the Lord called me home. The very practice taught the congregation to reverence God’s Word and the relevance of His Book, as well as what truths the individual sermons brought to them.
Here is how Tim Patrick states it in his book, “The Whole Counsel of God.”
For many of us who are preachers, it may be a good discipline to set aside something like a week or even half a week each year just to plan our preaching programs. Perhaps this could even be a time when we get out of our normal routines altogether so we can really focus on this critical high-level work. A few days away from the office, or at least with regular meetings cancelled and regular lines of communication closed, can make a significant difference to doing good, deep work rather than just quickly cobbling something together without properly thinking and praying through it all. It is always hard to carve out this time, because there is never a shortage of work to do in pastoral ministry, but we would argue that if pastoral ministry is grounded in good ministry of the word, planning this ministry deserves time and attention. Just because it is possible to get by without doing this does not mean that is acceptable or good in the long run. It may also be possible to get by in Christian ministry without visiting church members or without much prayer. But that does not mean either of these practices is faithful or healthy. We give time to the things we value, and if we preachers value our people and the whole Bible, we ought to give time to preparing a balanced diet. (Location 1567, Kindle edition).
No comments:
Post a Comment