Part 5 in a 12-part series. For the series intro and index, click here.
Faithfulness to “preach the word” requires that you persevere in prosperity and adversity. Paul writes, “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season” (2 Timothy 4:2).
It’s not clear whether “in season and out of season” refers to Timothy and his varying temptations to timidity and fear, or to his audience, who could be either receptive or antagonistic. The smart guys who serve us with their commentaries differ on this. I’m persuaded by those who think it’s a reference to the audience, because verses 3 and 4 describe hearers who “will not endure sound teaching.”
Faithful preaching of the gospel isn’t broadly appealing. And when the message isn’t appealing, you can be tempted to compromise. John Stott writes, “Whenever the biblical faith becomes unpopular, ministers are sorely tempted to mute those elements which give the most offence.”*
But whatever the demographics and disposition of your locale, and regardless of numerical growth or lack thereof, your charge is to be faithful to preach the gospel in season and out of season. You must preach this word, whether your hearers are receptive, indifferent, or even antagonistic.
Being faithful to the message requires more than exegetical precision and homiletical skill. Faithfulness to the message requires pastoral wisdom and discernment: “reprove, rebuke and exhort” (2 Timothy 4:2).
We aren’t proclaiming a message in a vacuum. We are preaching the gospel to specific congregations, to people with names and faces. In these words—“reprove, rebuke, and exhort”—these people are in view. Each Sunday you preach to a group of hearers with varying perspectives, temptations, and levels of maturity. And pastoral discernment is required so you don’t rebuke someone you should exhort, or exhort someone you should reprove.
To reprove is to confront or to expose. As Timothy was to confront false teaching, we are to confront false ideas. To rebuke is to humbly and boldly address those who are not listening or responding to God’s Word, who have hard, proud hearts. To exhort is to encourage those who are teachable, attentive, and responsive, to explain to them how to live in light of the gospel. And any of these people could be in your church every Sunday.
Familiarity with the text is required, but not sufficient. We must also be familiar with our church. A pastor must spend time with those he serves. He must get to know them so he can wisely, appropriately, compassionately, and skillfully address them from the text, both through his preaching and in private conversation. Someone once said, “The pastor doesn’t get his message from his people, but he does get his message with his people.” There is wisdom in that. Don’t think you can craft effective sermons while isolated from those you serve.
Faithfulness to the message requires pastoral wisdom and discernment, which you gain by taking the time to know your people. The more you know them, the more skillfully and effectively you can reprove, rebuke, and exhort your church.
The “Ordinary Pastors” blog series is adapted from C.J.’s unpublished chapter by the same title and is scheduled to appear in the Together for the Gospel compilation book, The Unadjusted Gospel (Crossway, 2012). C.J. has contributed chapters in two other similar compilation titles: Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology (Crossway, 2009) and Preaching the Cross (Crossway, 2007).
* Stott, The Message of 2 Timothy, 112.
I have learned a very important lesson over the years: those I have the privilege to teach are not usually most affected by the general content of my teaching; they are often most affected by what I am most passionate about.
I am still learning this, and it’s all too easy to forget.
When I teach, my passion must be theologically informed, and proportional to the content or point I am making in the sermon. This insight is not original with me (no insights are original with me!), and I have found this point better articulated by Dr. Don Carson in a lecture he delivered last year at the CBMW Different by Design Conference (Feb. 2, 2009, Minneapolis, MN). While speaking of those who are passionate for social justice, he delivered this caution:
There are some wonderful instances of ordinary Christians, not least the young, who are concerned to preach the whole gospel unabashedly and do good first to the household of God and then, as much as is possible, outside as well [Galatians 6:10]. That has got biblical mandate behind it.…
My warning would be to those who are coming along and talking a lot about, “I want to be faithful to the gospel, but I also want to do social justice of good works.” My warning would be: it is not just what you do, it is what you are excited about.
And the implications are broader than social justice. All manner of topics can capture our excitement, like church methodology, parenting style, or any other point of application. Carson continues,
If I have learned anything in 35 or 40 years of teaching, it is that students don’t learn everything I teach them. What they learn is what I am excited about, the kinds of things I emphasize again and again and again and again. That had better be the gospel.
If the gospel—even when you are orthodox—becomes something which you primarily assume, but what you are excited about is what you are doing in some sort of social reconstruction, you will be teaching the people that you influence that the gospel really isn’t all that important. You won’t be saying that—you won’t even mean that—but that’s what you will be teaching. And then you are only half a generation away from losing the gospel.
Make sure that in your own practice and excitement, what you talk about, what you think about, what you pray over, what you exude confidence over, joy over, what you are enthusiastic about is Jesus, the gospel, the cross. And out of that framework, by all means, let the transformed life flow.
Seminary professors and preachers will transfer to others what they are most passionate about. And those we serve should see a difference between our passion for the gospel and our passion for other issues. It’s worth asking ourselves regularly: Is it clear to others that nothing excites me more than the gospel of Jesus Christ and him crucified?
During the second T4G panel discussion Mark Dever and Al Mohler discussed evangelism, preaching, and the hesitancy among some Christians to speak openly on tough subjects like God’s judgment. The conversation moves from evangelism to a discussion of how expositional preaching helps steady the preacher against the temptation to avoid tough topics. Here’s a transcript of the brief exchange.
Mark Dever: In the name of evangelism there are brothers and sisters that we know and love who are attempting to make the gospel something that is more immediately appealing than we are convinced it is in Scripture. So, for instance, you will have people who do not want to talk about hell. They believe in hell as much as you or I do, but they would say that it is counterproductive in our context today. What do we say to folks like that?
Al Mohler: I would say that we can’t accept that logic. Now at the same time we understand how you can be absolutely unbalanced in talking about hell. There are some people, very rare these days, but more commonly in days past, where they would simply celebrate the joy of preaching hell. And their only message was a “hellfire and brimstone” message. There can be an imbalance there.
That is where expository preaching that is verse-by-verse and text-by-text and chapter-by-chapter and book-by-book doesn’t allow you to ride a hobbyhorse. It doesn’t allow you to enter into that imbalance. It takes you on to the next truth, which you then have to prepare yourself to teach and to preach.
I don’t think we are very good, arbitrarily, at setting a sense of balance for ourselves. But you ask a great question. What happens when there is an issue and you recoil from it? I honestly think that means—
MD: And in your own mind you’re recoiling from it because you really mean to be helpful.
AM: Yeah, you could even say it is a well-intended recoil because you love your people and you are trying to reach them for the gospel…
There is a sense in which I think that that means you have got to prepare your heart, and perhaps your message, with a whole new sense of brokenhearted determination to present this text in the larger context of the gospel, the great narrative of Scripture, and God’s purpose to bring glory to himself by the salvation of people through the blood of his Son…
But if, indeed, we recoil and say, “I don’t believe people can handle this,” then we are violating what we say about Scripture. If we are really saying that lost people can’t handle this text and come savingly to a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and be drawn even by this text in Scripture, then we are violating what we say we believe about Scripture.
The entire conversation can be downloaded here.
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Photo source: Southern Seminary Communications
In the first panel discussion at T4G, a question was raised about preaching and the priority of sermon application. C.J. asked Mark Dever how he includes application as a part of his weekly sermon research. Here’s a segment from the discussion.
C.J. Mahaney: Mark, how would you help a pastor who devotes the majority of his time in his preparation to the exegesis of the text, to the neglect of the application of the text?
Mark Dever: I would tell him, as your question implies, that he shouldn’t neglect the application of the text.
CJM: How would you help him alter the patterns of his preparation so that his preaching is different in its accent on application?
MD: Once he is confident of the meaning of the text, then he should spend time in prayer and reflection. And that may just be my personality, but I find talking to other people very helpful. If I know the four points I am bringing out [in the sermon], what are the implications of each point:
• for the non-Christian?
• for the mom at home?
• for somebody at work or in school?
• for us as a whole congregation?
• for the individual Christian?
And then do that with each point in the sermon. I find that very useful. It is sort of a structured meditation on each text.
I won’t necessarily put all that in my sermon, but I will make note of all that and a lot of it will get in my sermon.
CJM: But that is an intentional part of your preparatory process.
MD: A very important part.
Ligon Duncan: Is your application grid available at the 9Marks site?
MD: Yes, it is a couple of places. It is on the 9Marks website. It’s also in Michael Lawrence’s new book Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church: A Guide for Ministry. He has a grid that you can fill in with the points of your sermons in these various categories [see page 184].
Later in the discussion Dever said that of the 25–30 hours he invests weekly in sermon prep, around 5–10 of those hours are spent on application. The full audio recording of this panel discussion can be downloaded here.
The sermon application grid is available from 9Marks in two downloadable PDF versions: a blank grid and a sample completed grid.
In his new book Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church, Lawrence highlights four benefits of the sermon application grid:
Having thought through each of the categories, I’m much more likely to avoid repetition and personal hobby-horses. I’m more likely to apply the text beyond the very narrow range most Bible teachers normally operate in: ethical application to the individual Christian life and gospel appeal to the non-Christian. And I’m more likely to apply the text to the corporate life of our church as a whole and to consider worldview implications for the non-Christian. Most importantly, I’m reminded by this grid that one of the most important “applications” isn’t about me or us at all, but simply what the text teaches us about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and how the Trinity has worked together to purpose, accomplish, and apply our salvation to their eternal glory. (page 185)
For more on the grid and its value to the preacher, see chapter 11 in Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church.
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Photo source: Southern Seminary Communications
March 2, 2010 by Tony Reinke
Categories: Preaching | Reading | T4G
"I harbor a prejudice against all new editions [of books] and a preference for the originals, even though they wander about in sheepskins and goatskins," said Charles Spurgeon. Spurgeon here shows a bias toward the old tomes. And he reveals just how prickly a preacher can be about his library.
You can learn a lot about a man by the books in his study (or by the ratio of books to the sports equipment he keeps in his office). Either way our friends at Together for the Gospel have been busy featuring videos filmed in the hallowed libraries of Ligon Duncan, Albert Mohler, Mark Dever, C.J., John MacArthur, and R.C. Sproul. Each of the six available videos can be viewed here, beginning with the most recent study video with R. C. Sproul, a video that has caused a bit of a stir and has led some to stop and give serious thought to the question: Is C.J. crazy? Hmm.
Come see for yourself at the Louisville Convention Center April 13–15 for the low, low price of [click here to find out]. Until we meet in Kentucky, you can meet the men, and their libraries, here:
R.C. Sproul - Study Video from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.
Lig Duncan - Study Video from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.
Al Mohler - Study Video from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.
Mark Dever - Study Video from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.
John MacArthur - Study Video from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.
C. J. Mahaney - Study Video from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.
Welcome back to the conclusion of my interview with Phil Sasser, senior pastor of
Sovereign Grace Church in Apex, North Carolina (part one
here).
Phil, what books on preaching, or examples of it, have you found most influential in your own preaching?
I have been most inspired by
The Sacred Anointing by Tony Sargent and
Between Two Worlds by John Stott. I have been most practically instructed by
Christ-Centered Preaching by Bryan Chapell.
Of contemporary preachers, I have been probably most influenced by C.J. Mahaney and John Piper. While C.J.’s use of humor and illustrations is a challenge to some of us non-funny, pedantic pastors, his gospel-centered emphasis on application is, in my humble opinion, without equal. John Piper’s preaching emphases on the glory of God, the love of sound doctrine, and passionate commitment to the gospel always inspire me to resist the temptation to entertain or tickle the ears of those to whom I preach.
What single bit of counsel has made the most significant difference in your effective use of time?
My father once told me that you could determine what a man would turn out to be by two things: the friends he kept and the books he read. My father’s love of reading and commitment to spend time doing it was one of the many wonderful gifts that he gave me.
The time I've spent reading has been significant but the fruit has been immeasurable. Jonathan Edwards has two excellent sermons that have been most helpful in my understanding of the importance of the effective use of time: “The Preciousness of Time and the Importance of Redeeming It” from Ephesians 5:16 and “Procrastination or the Sin and Folly of Depending on Future Time” from Proverbs 27:1.
I have an aversion to contemporary time management books.
What single bit of counsel has made the most significant difference in your leadership?
It is very difficult to identify the most significant. I suppose that being more aware of the evidences of grace in a person’s life than his/her sin is one of the most significant. My heart's natural inclination is toward pride and self-righteousness. Those natural tendencies are the enemies of our soul. They leads us to ungodly appraisals of ourselves and others. Being intentional in recognizing the Spirit's work of grace in others is a powerful antidote to censoriousness and a negative view of others.
Having the privilege and responsibility to care for the souls of others requires that I have a grace-filled perspective of them. Seeing the fruit of the Spirit first makes me freshly aware of how powerfully God works in a person's life. My eye becomes more attuned to the effectual work of the gospel. It gives me a better perspective even on the challenging aspects of pastoral care. I am filled with a greater appreciation for others and a greater faith for their continued growth in godliness.
Where in ministry are you most regularly tempted to discouragement?
As our church as grown, I have become more aware of my inadequacies in leading our pastoral team. I am very comfortable in a small church setting. Leading a team of pastors is more of a challenge for me. God has seen fit to overcome my inadequacies by giving us a very godly and mature team. And I have benefited greatly by my relationships with other Sovereign Grace pastors of larger churches.
Do you exercise? If so, what do you do? If not, why not? (Please be specific.)
I have a gym membership and try to get there 2 or 3 times a week. Mostly I'm trying to rehab my new left knee. I love to play golf, but it is of minimal exercise value.
Currently, what sport do you like to play and/or watch?
My first love was baseball, but those days are long gone, so it has been replaced by golf. My favorite sports to watch are college football (Ohio State), college basketball (Ohio State and N.C. State), major league baseball (Reds), and golf.
What do you do for leisure?
Reading is the constant. I also watch romantic comedies with Cassie. I'll probably catch a lot of grief for this admission. When alone I sometimes listen to classic rock and roll. Dylan, The Byrds, and Paul Simon are at the top of that list. I have also been know to shoot pool at the local pool hall and I have a weakness for online chess.
If you were not in ministry, what occupational path would you have chosen?
My first profession was a pharmacist (I sold drugs legally as opposed to C.J.), but if I had to choose again, something other than vocational ministry, I would either be a teacher (high school or college) or a lawyer.
My friend, you would have made an excellent history teacher. I learn new stuff about history whenever I am with you! But I’m so glad that instead of teaching history you were called to teach God’s Word and pastor the wonderful local church in Apex.
February 11, 2010 by Jeff Purswell
Categories: Leadership | Preaching
Here’s an interesting thought experiment: how would one of our theological forebears—a sixteenth-century Reformer, say, or an eighteenth-century evangelist in the Great Awakening—assess modern evangelicalism? Let’s remove the inevitable confusion that sheer historical distance would create; how would we fare theologically? pastorally?
Although it’s impossible to know which facet of the contemporary church would look strangest to our hypothetical historical observer, let me nominate one for consideration: the modern paradigm of “pastor as leader.” Tracing its exact roots is difficult, but we can generally surmise that modern business theory, mediated through the church growth movement, is the source of this paradigm—a paradigm that would be unintelligible to our time-travelling friend.
It’s true, of course, that in a very real sense a pastor (along with his fellow elders) is the leader of his congregation. Scripture envisions elders who “rule well” (1 Timothy 5:17) and calls them to “exercise oversight” (1 Peter 5:2) and to employ diligently the gift of leadership (Romans 12:8). And so pastoral ministry inherently involves certain leadership functions: inspiring the church with a biblical vision, administrating the work of the church, training leaders who can help lead the work, creating structures that capture and embody the application of the truth that is taught from the pulpit. Pastors not only teach the truth, but also come alongside their flock to help people apply truth to their lives.
We deviate from Scriptural precept and historical example, however, when a pastor’s role as “leader” displaces his primary role as a teacher—a shepherd who feeds God’s people with the truth of his Word. The relentless call to pastors in the New Testament is to the ministry of the Word, from the apostles’ retirement from mercy ministry (Acts 6:1–4) to Paul’s dying words to Timothy (2 Timothy 4:2).
I doubt anyone reading this would reject the content of the previous paragraph. My concern is rather with a false dichotomy that I fear is all too common: a dichotomy in the pastor’s mind between “teaching” and “leadership.” In the pulpit or behind the podium, we’re “teaching;” anywhere else, we’re “leading.” My modest goal in this post is to destroy this dichotomy. There is no more powerful or fundamental expression of a pastor’s leadership than the preaching of the Word. At its core, that’s what biblical leadership is: setting forth for our people a biblical vision of God and his purposes, and then calling them to give their lives to it and live in light of it (and outside the pulpit, modeling for them what it looks like). Every time we preach, we’re making room for God to lead his people, allowing his Word to set direction, to impart encouragement, to provide comfort, and to instill faith. Much more is happening on a Sunday morning than the mere transfer of information. This is our key leadership moment.
When we think about “leading” our churches, we can spend hours with our teams strategizing and brainstorming initiatives and structures, identifying emphases, and planning special meetings—all important functions. But we can spend hours doing all this and leave the Sunday preaching diet entirely out of the equation—when it should be central to whatever direction you’re providing the church in a particular season.
No form of leadership a pastor provides is more decisive than his proclamation of Scripture. Preaching both defines the priorities for your church and fuels the implementation of those priorities in the church. We must never sever the connection in our minds between leadership—providing direction for the church—and your preaching plan. It’s that preaching plan, and its execution, that provide the most powerful and biblically rooted leadership. And I’m not just speaking about the “leadership opportunity” on any given Sunday. The preaching diet over a period of time will be the most formative, shaping influence on a church.
If all this is true, what then? If you’re a senior pastor, then nothing you do this week is more important than, nor should it supplant, your prayerful preparation for the preaching of God’s Word. If you serve on a pastoral team with a specialized sphere of ministry, you should be thinking about how the Sunday preaching can be applied in the life of the church in your sphere. If you’re a member of a church, there is no more important moment for you than when you sit under the teaching of God’s Word, hearing his voice, and receiving direction for your life as a part of your church.
I believe that if we were to more consistently think and respond in such ways, we’d look a lot more familiar to any surprise visitor from the pages of church history.
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Jeff Purswell serves as the Dean of the Sovereign Grace Pastors College and a pastor at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD.
Welcome back to the conclusion of my interview with Carl Trueman, Professor of Historical Theology and Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Read part one of the interview
here.
Carl, what single piece of counsel (or constructive criticism) has most improved your preaching?
From my wife, my most faithful supporter and most astute critic: be aware that when you preach, there are children in the congregation and I must neither make them stumble nor preach over their heads. I think particularly of a time when I preached on 1 Corinthians 1 and referred to the church in Corinth as probably containing the first century equivalent of “pole dancers.” My wife rebuked me afterwards for using a term which could have provoked embarrassing conversations for parents over a Lord’s Day family lunch. Point taken. Never done it again. Other times I have used pretentiously technical vocabulary which kids (and some congregants) would not understand. At such times, I did not preach Christ, I preached Trueman and how clever he is. I now try never to do this, and confess it when I think I may have slipped. As a professor, this is always a temptation, so now I assist my wife in teaching the 4 year olds in Sunday School. That has helped me—and humbled me—more than anything with regard to how I communicate in the pulpit.
What books on preaching, or examples of it, have you found most influential in your own preaching?
Examples: the godly pastors I have been blessed to sit under. Iver Martin (now in Stornoway Free Church of Scotland) and John Currie (who now works at Westminster but who was my pastor in Philadelphia for 6 years).
Books: Peter Taylor Forsyth,
Positive Preaching and the Modern Mind. Simply the best book on the theological practice of preaching ever written.
What single bit of counsel has made the most significant difference in your effective use of time?
Two things. One is not a piece of counsel but a perk of my job as Academic Dean. I have a delightful lady who works as my assistant and looks after my schedule for me. That has helped. I am an organizational numbskull, as she, and her longsuffering predecessor, will confirm.
The second was the insight that, if you wait for an extended period of time to get a project done, it never comes along. Make constant use of the fragments of time you get on a regular basis. Use that fifteen minutes before a meeting to read or to write a paragraph. Use your time driving to work to think through the passage you are going to preach on at the weekend. Use the little bits of time and you find they really add up to something more substantial. To quote Bruce Springsteen: “You spend your life waiting for a moment that just don’t come; don’t waste your time waiting.”
What single bit of counsel has made the most significant difference in your leadership?
Again, I have to plead to be allowed to break the rule and list four things.
(a) Pick your battles. Not every hill is worth dying on; and not every battle is something you are competent to fight. As a younger man, I wanted to fight all comers and win every battle. Neither necessary nor possible.
(b) Be part of a team who care for you and whom you trust to tell you when you are going the wrong way or crossing a line that should not be crossed—and listen to them. Yes-men are fatal to good leadership. A trustworthy colleague who is prepared to oppose you to your face is worth his weight in gold.
(c) Understand that leadership is lonely; being liked by everyone is a luxury you probably cannot afford. Deal with it and get on with the job. If you want to be liked, be a circus clown; if you want to lead and lead well, be prepared for the loneliness that comes with it. This is why, for me, a happy home has been crucial for it has been a place where work is, as far as possible, kept far away. Home is the one place I can go each night and know that I am loved, and I guard it fiercely. I have even banned my kids from Googling my name—if there is nasty stuff out there about me, I deal with it at work; I do not allow it into my house.
(d) Don’t waste time defending your own name for the sake of it. If Christ’s honour is at stake, or the innocent are made vulnerable by some attack on your character, you need to respond; otherwise, let it be. If I responded to every wannabe crank who thinks I’m arrogant, hypocritical, lying etc. etc., I’d never have the time to do anything else. The secret is not caring about your own name except as it impacts upon others.
Where in ministry are you most regularly tempted to discouragement?
Have I failed as a husband and a dad? Have I preached the whole counsel of God? Why do I still struggle with the same sins with which I fought on the day I first believed? Do I really care enough for the people in my church? Is my teaching leading people to Christ or away from him? Am I driven solely by a desire to raise my own profile? These kind of questions periodically strike me down.
Do you exercise? If so, what do you do? If not, why not? (Please be specific.)
Fanatically. I spin, cycle, and especially I run distances. I’m a consistent sub-4 hour marathoner (but only on Saturday races—I am a Presbyterian, after all!), and hope this year to run a 50k ultramarathon with a friend who is a Presbyterian pastor in Colorado.
Currently, what sport do you like to play and/or watch?
I run. I love to watch rugby. Every summer, I spend three weeks watching the Tour de France on television (even had to switch my cable provider this year when the Tour switched channels!). Above all, I like to watch my sons compete in their sports, particularly middle distance running.
What do you do for leisure?
I run. I read, especially history and pulp detective fiction. I enjoy a good glass of brandy with close friends and conversation. I like to spend time with my wife and boys as I can.
If you were not in ministry, what occupational path would you have chosen?
Tough one: I like to write, so journalism would have been a desirable path; but I also like to argue, so maybe a trial lawyer. If I had enough money to just do whatever I wanted, I think I would want to work as part of a Tour de France team, a park ranger in the mountains somewhere far away, or the owner of a traditional English public house, with open fire, horse brasses, fine ale, and a dart board. I could just stand behind the bar, pulling pints, and complaining, in good English fashion, about the weather, the cricket, and the fact that nothing tastes quite as good as it did when I was young.
Carl, reading your final answer and these alternatives makes me freshly grateful for the call of God on your life, that you are called to serve the academy, the church, and the next generation with the gospel.
January 21, 2010 by Tony Reinke
Categories: Preaching
Gaithersburg, MD—The strength of Sovereign Grace is hitched to the strength of the local churches. And the strength of the local churches is hitched to the health of its preaching.
That was the gist of the opening exhortation from Pastors College dean Jeff Purswell as he opened our first Expository Preaching Practicum last week (Jan 12–14). The Sovereign Grace Pastors College hosted the practicum, a modestly sized three-day preaching lab with 22 senior pastors invited from various regions including the suburbs of Phoenix, north Philadelphia, California, and Wales. The men gathered to sharpen their preaching skills through instruction, preaching, evaluation, and discussion.
Jeff Purswell led the practicum. He opened the week with these words:
I have an intense excitement about this week. We [Sovereign Grace] participate in a lot of conferences, but this is just a small gathering of a few of us, and hardly anyone knows about this. But the potential effects of this week will be vastly disproportionate to its visibility. I'm not sure that we can do much that is more strategic… Why are we doing this? As preaching goes in your church, so goes your church. If preaching declines, your church will decline. And more broadly the same is true. If preaching declines in the churches of Sovereign Grace, Sovereign Grace will decline.
After the brief exhortation the work of preaching and evaluation began. Ten of the men were prepared to preach a sermon before the group. After each sermon was delivered, the other 21 men completed detailed sermon evaluation forms covering everything from faithfulness to the text, the use of illustrations and application, clarity of organization, and strength of delivery.
Jeff then led a 90-minute period of discussion and instruction for each sermon. The group discussed the sermon’s strengths first, then its weaknesses. At C.J. Mahaney’s request, Jeff offered sermon structure alternatives and instruction on various aspects of preaching and Bible interpretation. C.J. added comments on the sermon and on pastoral leadership in general.
In attendance for the practicum was Eric Turbedsky, senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church Orange County (Pastors College class of 2001). Eric was one of the ten fortunate men selected to preach. When asked if he was nervous to preach before the dean, a sage who can spot exegetical bloopers like a hawk spots field mice, he said, “Are you kidding me? I was terrified. I want to know who drafted me to preach! But seriously, who is going to complain about Jeff, C.J., and 20 guys who preach regularly, devoting concentrated time to encouraging you in your strengths and to offer hope for your weaknesses? It was clear from the very outset of the week that everyone in the room was for me…and about half of them were feeling the pain, too. I left way more aware of the grace available to preach and the joy of partnering with a hawk like Jeff.”
Although hosted in a classroom, the format was anything but merely academic. “The type of learning that occurred is something that could never be gleaned from a book or a lecture context,” Jeff said. “It was both stimulating and encouraging to hear such a wide range of types of preachers with different styles and different gifts, all effective in their own ways. It is encouraging for a guy to know that he can preach within the framework of the unique character and gifting that God has given him. And just by watching the diverse preaching styles and strengths it was suggestive and instructional for guys.”
Ian McConnell, who serves as pastor for preaching and vision at Grace Bible Church in north Philadelphia, was surprised by the format. “I was surprised that although it was in an academic environment, it was so much more than that,” he said. “It turned out to be an environment where God’s Spirit met with us through the preached Word and ministered grace to our lives in some very dynamic and discernable ways. I heard nine exceptional messages that filled my heart with greater faith and deepened affections for the Savior! I was not only challenged to preach better, I was challenged to live my life in deeper conformity to the Word of God for the glory of God.”
To Jeff, the most unexpected fruit of the week was watching relationships nurture. “Unlike a conference when you catch up with friends between sessions, the practicum enabled guys to build relationships as they worked together,” he said. “The week was intense. These men put themselves on the line by preaching and by receiving evaluation from other men. They were engaged together, working together on text after text, getting their hands dirty together. This relationship building during the week was of a different kind than I’ve experienced before in a typical conference setting.”
Collectively the week was a great success according to C.J. “This practicum was eight years in the making,” he said, “and it was a peculiar joy to see this dream come to fruition. I sat in the classroom listening to the sermons and the valuable feedback and imagined the thousands of sermons these men will preach in the future and how those sermons—and my sermons!—will be affected and improved by our investment this week. In seeking to strengthen the local church, our week could not have been more strategic or significant for the health of the local churches represented.”
The Pastors College plans to host future practicums with the goal of hosting all the Sovereign Grace senior pastors and later hosting all the pastors.
When asked what he would say to pastors who will experience the practicum in the future, Ian said, “The week was a very helpful time of receiving evaluation and instruction for my preaching. And it was a wonderful means of fellowship, encouragement, and God-magnifying joy! I expected the week to be great—and it was. I left thinking to myself, ‘I needed this—big time.’ I think you will leave saying the same thing.”
The next set of senior pastors will soon receive invitations to practicum #2, which is tentatively scheduled for June.
‘Tis the season for New Year’s resolutions—for examination, for new beginnings, for fresh resolve, for (at least momentarily) facing things we’re dissatisfied with and want changed. Ah, that’s it, isn’t it? So much of what captures our culture’s collective imagination at the annual turning of the calendar is the hope of change. Few things animate our imaginations like the prospects of a better future.
There is surely a biblical warrant for such impulses. Following Christ involves a constant process of self examination, of “putting off the old self” and “putting on the new self.” And obedience to the imperatives of Scripture inherently involves a Spirit-born resolve. Much of Paul’s prayer life was apparently taken up with requests that God “fulfill every resolve for good” in the lives of those he served (2 Thessalonians 1:11).
As I reflected upon the new year and my own hopes for change, my annual exercise was interrupted by a stark reminder of the difference between myself and God: I change, but God does not. “All flesh is grass,” Isaiah proclaimed, barely sprouting up before it withers and dies, but “I the LORD do not change” (Malachi 3:6). Regardless of my resolutions for the new year, it is only “the purpose of the LORD that will stand” (Proverbs 19:21). I have no idea what tomorrow holds, but “the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:6-8).
For a pastor all too aware of his own sin and deficiencies (though surely underestimating the extent of both), this news was beyond good—it was transforming, and it was bracing. I then emerged from my study and entered the classroom to teach homiletics to a group of future pastors; I did so with a treasured conviction newly strengthened.
Let me ask a question I asked those men concerning the preaching of God’s Word: “What do you believe about how God works in his church and in the world?” Not, mind you, “What do you believe about Scripture’s truthfulness, or sufficiency, or inerrancy…?”—all important attributes of Scripture which it certainly claims for itself. But one can produce orthodox formulations of all of these and still lack confidence in the power of God’s Word to convert hearts, to change lives, and to build the church.
So at the outset of this new year, here’s an invitation to pastors charged with preaching and teaching God’s Word. We may be in the process of evaluating our ministries, identifying areas that need change, seeking to learn and change and grow, and so we should. But let there be one area—one cluster of convictions—that does not change. Let’s not waver in our conviction that God brings about his sovereign purposes through his Word. As in creation and throughout salvation-history, so it is now in the church and in the world: God’s Word is uniquely his creating, preserving, governing, saving, and sanctifying instrument—as Calvin put it, it is his scepter by which he rules creation and his people.
Let’s not waver in our conviction that the preached Word is living and active. It’s not merely information to interest the mind or spiritual principles to apply to life: God’s Word personally addresses us, illuminating eyes and eliciting faith and transforming hearts, affections, and perspectives.
Let’s not waver in our conviction that the pastor’s peculiar call is to bring God’s Word to bear upon his people. Amidst all the responsibilities and duties that clamor for the pastor’s attention, none transcends the call to teach God’s Word. If you are a pastor, your governing priority, whatever your specific responsibilities are, is an unflagging, ever-strengthening, ever-growing devotion to the teaching of God’s Word, be it in the pulpit, the Bible class, the training seminar, or the counseling room.
There’s much I’d love to see change in my life this year. However, my primary resolve at the outset of 2010 is to bind myself to the unchanging—to the immutable purposes of our God whose has pledged his power to his unfailing Word.
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Jeff Purswell serves as the Dean of the Sovereign Grace Pastors College and a pastor at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD.