PREACHING - Can it make anything grow?

My very good friend John Schroeder over at Blogotional, one of our Alliance's most prolific bloggers, put up a few words on preaching this morning, long before Minnesota's dairy cows were seeing the early shimmer of morning's glory on the thousand lakes surrounding their pasture.

I thought I'd take a moment to put my two cents in; seeing that I've done it twice on Sundays 49 times every year for twenty years now. I guess that gives a preacher some soapbox rights!

As John reminds us, it's all Adrian Warnock's fault for putting up a pithy piece a couple of months ago, asking but not really expecting a lengthy response to the question "what kind of preaching transforms those hearing the message?"

The short answer is we need preaching which makes things grow, the kind of preaching that transforms people. Much preaching just bumps around in the darkness, when what is needed is for the preacher to turn on The Light. Similarly, much of what's left is more interested in the stage lights than the Light of the World.

John mentioned influencing bloggers is much like herding cats; sheep are not much different, only you must feed and lead sheep ... something real cats don't need. However, the more I get to know God's sheep, the more I like my dog!

But preacher is my name and preaching is my game ... God demanded it, so I do it! I can't think of a single thing I'd rather do ... and there's not much harder or more important.

John segued into sanctification (which is simply holiness or holy living); he then went to intimacy and discipleship of God vis-a-vis an authentic relationship. This is good stuff but is dependent on the transformation of the individual (see John's close), including the preacher. If there's no Transformer in the transformer, there'll be no Light for those living in darkness, that's for sure. And the saints won't get much either.

I particularly loved his grand take on God's history with man ... "man built institutions, God tore them down." To sort of summarize, John says ...

So what's all that got to do with preaching? Simple, preaching that speaks to me is preaching that finds a way to inculcate those two core beliefs of mine. That means that first of all, I need to be able to call the preacher "friend" and see the evidence of the word he expounds in his life. Secondly, it means that preaching that serves to build the church, in the institutional sense, will send me out in a huff.

Man, can I identify with that.

Preaching is really a simple thing ...

• people need to grow, send them the Light
• people need nourishment, plow the biblical soil
• people need hope, reveal the Anchor of that hope
• people need a friend, Jesus is our friend
• people need forgiveness, point to the Lamb of God who paid it all
  
• people are thirsty, lead them to the well of Living Water
• people need life, pull back the veil and show them the Truth, the Way, and the Life

People are people, we should preach like we know some! Too many preachers (and teachers) are like airplanes, they're determined to spend all their time over people's heads. What we need are preachers who love the sheep like God loves them, up close and personal, eye-to-eye.

The iMonk said in a post concerning mega-barns (my term), "if a preacher can't visit every one of his members every week, his church is too darn big." (sorry Michael, I know it is a paraphrase).

John's close is profoundly true,

A mediocre preacher will sound like a great preacher if he serves a congregation full of true and committed servants of the Lord.

Amen! And amen! Spring up O well, and give God the glory!