Preaching - What Does the Bible Say?

There are two lighthouses on the southernmost tip, Cape Point—the first was built too high so that its light shone above the ships and failed to guide; the second was built much lower and has proved a safer guide. The point should be lost on preachers. It is never helpful to preach over people’s heads.

The minister who does not earnestly pray over his work must surely be a vain and conceited man. He acts as if he thought himself sufficient of himself, and therefore needed not appeal to God. Yet what baseless pride to conceive that our preaching can ever be in itself so powerful that it can turn men from their sins, and bring them to God without the working of the Holy Ghost. If we are truly humble-minded we shall not venture down to the fight until the Lord of hosts has clothed us with all power, and said to us, ‘God in this thy might.’

One of the things that I find so hard about the ministry is that you have to fill so many different roles and adapt to so many different situations. One minute you are at a funeral with the loved ones of the deceased, then you are in an elders’ meeting debating a vision for the future, then you are at a prayer meeting, then a pre-engagement session, then a new member’s interview where the person thinks the church is awesome, then a meeting with a member who is thinking about leaving, then sharing the gospel with a homeless man, then heading off to meet an atheist for lunch; and in all of those situations you need appropriate words. You need to know if you ought to share a word of encouragement, an intellectual worldview challenge, simple kindness and courtesy, laughter, tears, or all of the foregoing! In all of ministry you are looking for words.

It is a sad commentary on theological education that most seminaries and Bible colleges virtually neglect the Holy Spirit’s role in preaching specifically and in the Christian ministry in general. Most homiletic courses on preaching only pay lip service to this vital area of truth.