Here’s the last thing in this short series of posts about preachers, myself in particular, and all preachers generally. These thoughts have come from reflection and introspection I’ve done generally over the past 17 years and specifically over the past five or six weeks as to why I keep doing what I do. I pray these thoughts have helped you better understand me. If I’m not your preacher, I hope they help you better relate to your preacher at your church.

The preacher is a member of your congregation. He is not a hired gun brought in to preach and grow the church, he is not a fundraiser or a change-agent, and he is not a motivational speaker. He and his family are committed members of your congregation.

The preacher does not enter the pulpit on Sundays from a secret door backstage or sit by himself on the front pew until it’s time for him to perform. The preacher is a fully invested and equal member of the church body. He rises from the midst of the congregation to proclaim what the church believes and what the church needs to hear. Typically, the preacher has moved his whole family to this town to be a member of this church and to give himself to the relationships and the mission of this church.

He is gifted by God and ordained by his fellow Christ-followers to faithfully study and pray and speak his Word to them. As one of them. He challenges them and teaches them; they keep him straight and encourage him. It’s a partnership. He worships and serves and shares life with the other members of the community of faith. He needs the church as much as they need him. As much as we need each other. It’s not a one-way deal.

Peace,

Allan

The sermon is not a cat video or an epic fail or an advertisement for another new and improved product you just have to have. It is the holy Word of God, proclaimed to the holy people of God, as an act of faith in God. It’s a miracle, really.

It kind of works like the sacraments, I think. Not exactly, but similarly. The sermon is human words spoken by human lips, but those words and those lips are indwelled by God. God works through the proclaimed words to communicate the realities of his love and grace. It’s divine speech. God’s will, his character, his mission, his desires–it’s directly revealed to us by God through the preacher.

It’s not a lecture, not a book report, not somebody telling you what to do, not somebody giving you new information. It’s a direct message from our holy Lord. Preaching is not us talking about God; it is God talking directly to us.

As such, the hearer should come into a sermon prepared to hear that Word from our God. The hearer should have already read and prayed through the sermon text before Sunday, anticipating that the Lord will speak to her or him. There should be an expectation. There should be an openness and eagerness to receive what God wants to give through the sermon. I tell people all the time that the sermon is just as much about the posture and attitude of the hearer as it is about the preacher or the words he speaks or the style in which he or she preaches.

The Sunday sermon is a holy moment of direct communication between the present God and his redeemed people. I wish more of us came to church each week with that understanding.

Peace,

Allan