Comments on: The danger in loving preaching too much

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 14:02:45 +0000

I’m happy you wrote this. I just started preaching this year – it’s been a surprisingly lifegiving process, and a bit addictive. Thanks for sharing your wisdom.

By: sean

sean — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 11:31:03 +0000

In reply to sean. (Replying to my own comment because I forgot to add something!!) I was recently troubled when a church I know of had one opportunity to interact with a Senior Pastoral candidate for their church, and the only interaction they had with him (literally) was him preaching. I know it's common practice but it's both dangerous and limiting to essentially say that someone would be a great Pastor because they can preach.

By: sean

sean — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 11:27:59 +0000

In reply to Drew.

I often get concerned when some members of the church I go to complain because the Senior Pastor hasn’t preached for (insert random amount of time here – often 2-3 weeks).
I’d love to see him do all sorts of things in leadership of the church and only one of them is preaching
Given that the average sermon takes some 6-8 hours to prepare, whatsmore, it strikes me that the more often he preaches the less time he has to do the other parts of his role.
I’m glad that he’s not so committed to preaching that it stops him doing all those other important things because reality is there’s plenty of competent preachers out there but not so many gifted Senior Pastors.

By: Matthew Arkapaw

Matthew Arkapaw — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 06:20:32 +0000

Very helpful, Mike. Thank you.

By: Jeremy Weart

Jeremy Weart — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 01:41:28 +0000

Their are two men in my small Baptist congregation that are potential pastors. They lead well, along with me and other leaders. But I can see their gifting for teaching / preaching. I made it a point to have the pulpit at our church open to whoever comes our way. So I give these men opportunities to preach often. I don’t want our people to see me as the preacher and nothing else. I am an under shepherd of the Great Shepherd. It’s His spotlight and I pray I stay in the shadows of His glory!

By: Michael Frost

Michael Frost — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 01:04:58 +0000

In reply to Drew. Yeah, preaching should be a joy and a privilege, not something that justifies our role as pastors. I think this is one of the reasons why I'm so committed to a community of leaders in every church: so we're not reliant on one voice in our pulpits.

By: Drew

Drew — Mon, 18 Sep 2017 23:22:27 +0000

In my context the senior pastor gets concerned if he is not preaching for a few weeks in a row. He says the congregation would notice and potentially question him about it but I wonder if it is a bit of what you talk about here as well… Either way the angst confuses me and I certainly don’t share the concern for myself preaching.
What might it look like to lead a collective of Christians without preaching?
What do we do if someone is called into pastoral ministry but does not love preaching or maybe just shouldn’t?