Having multiple teachers/preachers…

1. Keeps your church from being dependent on one personality. How many established churches do you know that would all but close up shop if their pastor, God forbid, left the planet simply because they focused everything around that one individual? That’s anything but helpful…or even healthy. Having different people in the pulpit fights against personality-driven churches because you’re exposing the church to multiple personalities. Thus the church would have the best chance of moving positively forward facing even the harshest of realities. Think of investing in teaching teams as congregational life insurance. If you die, your church wont.
2. Allows your church to appreciate (and learn) from different styles. There are teachers who are more pastoral than others, some more prophetic; some are “preachers” while others are seen as classic “teachers” and instead of your congregation getting used to (and by default, appreciating) only one of them, team teaching helps them appreciate the differences God uses in other teachers to grow them spiritually. If you have a knife, you need a spoon, a fork, etc. This also argues for adding teachers who are different than the senior/lead pastor. Duplicate the task, not the style.  (For the record: For those who understand the prophet, priest and king personality/style categories, we have a teacher for each at CCCC)
3. Gives the lead pastor time to actually…lead. It’s amazing how much I get accomplished in the weeks I don’t have to preach. Preaching prep takes time by necessity. Freeing that time up with someone else dedicated to preaching will absolutely make a huge dent in your capacity to lead well. No question! Want to be a better leader? Develop at least one more teacher to rotate with on Sunday and see if it doesn’t make a massively beneficial change in your leading of the church. You’ve simply got to decide if preaching by yourself to the church is more valuable than your leading of the church. Trust me, you will find yourself preaching less  and leading more – and liking it (that is, if you’re a leader)!
4. Extends the endurance factor. Every preacher has a “magic number” of weeks he can preach until he’s good for nothing and needs a rest. Having a stable of pastor-teachers extends that number exponentially. I used to be running on fumes about 8-10 weeks straight of teaching. I have yet to find that number since rotating on a roughly 50-50 basis (give or take a few weeks with other teachers) on Sundays. It seems like my batteries don’t drain as much, thus they need less time to recharge. I’m able to give my sermon prep  more energy and creativity than when I preached weekly. Not only has it positive for my sermons but on my family. I find myself having to work less to stay engaged as a husband and father simply because I don’t feel the pull of developing a weekly message.

Now, let me say that there is nothing wrong with “one pulpit, one pastor” churches. My assumption is that  is how most churches have operated for centuries, if not millennia. But that doesn’t mean it has to be that way. Indeed, I wanted to give just a handful of reasons why having multiple teachers is something worth considering. Believe me, there are a lot more reasons out there. Think about it for you and the health of the church you lead.

Twelve years later and I’m still greatly blessed by his sharing of the pulpit.

I could spend the next few moments sharing the benefits of team teaching, but I’ll leave that for another post. I wanted to simply share something I’ve learned about myself and preaching.

Get comfortable with yourself because you can’t be anyone else. When I began, I regularly found myself being blown away by Bruce’s messages. He truly is a master preacher. His sermons were always well thought out, insightful and the language he used was crafted to perfection. Many times I would find myself saying, “Man, I need to preach more like Bruce preaches.” But, in trying to preach the way Bruce preached, I implemented practices, approaches and styles that not only were hard for me to do, they actually worked against the strengths of who I was in the pulpit. After finding enough frustration down this road, I finally came to grips with the fact that I wasn’t Bruce. I was me. Better yet, God wired me the way I was. I either needed to accept that fact or get used to walking the road of disappointment and disillusionment in preaching.

Now I’m greatly at peace with that fact. Honestly, it’s taken me much longer to get that into my head than I’d like to admit. I can say though, not only am I more content with who I am as a preacher, it has actually freed me up to enjoy God’s work through preaching. It’s even allowed me to acknowledge and embrace my strengths homiletically. And that itself has truly been a grace from God.

Make no mistake. I haven’t “arrived” preaching-wise. There’s still more to learn, grow and do. But thanks to serving in a multiple-teacher church, I realize that in trying to be someone else in the pulpit you are ultimately robbing God, the church and yourself. God made you to be you with  all your strengths and weaknesses. That’s good to remember whether you preach with a team or you are the lone ranger at your church. I know in the world of podcasts, downloads and online messages, many a young preacher is exposed to different styles of preachers he admires. However, if he isn’t careful, that healthy admiration in front of the computer can turn into an unhealthy imitation behind the pulpit. This doesn’t mean you can’t learn from other preachers. On the contrary, I think was can and should! Just be careful that you are learning from other preachers to be a better you, not a poorer version of them.

So, when you alight upon the pulpit this Sunday to open up the oracles of God, make sure it’s you who’s preaching.

Initially this might appear to be an arrogant assumption. It is true, I cannot see into the heart. I can’t make guarantees for who has or hasn’t genuinely received Christ as God and King. But I am reminded of Christ’s sobering words in Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven…” There will be those who think themselves converted by God in Christ only to find out in the end that they were alienated from God and his grace. Dare I say I encounter some of those individuals every week at my church – the ones who see Jesus as another accoutrement to their life, not wanting him but only the gift he gives, ready to abandon him at any moment of discomfort or inconvenience. In the West, it’s hard to pastor churches full of rich young rulers (cf., Lk. 18:18-23).

I’m further reminded of this sad reality when I hear parishioners talk about their confidence in morality as justification for their right standing with God, or how he loves them less when they drop the ball spiritually, or why their religious activity is an indication of their favor with him– and all this while holding big, thick Bibles faded and tattered not from neglect but consistent use. All of it grows my conviction that, especially in the South (i.e., Bible Belt), part of my calling is to convert the converted. What does this mean for a pastor?

Chiefly, I believe it means he should be tireless in the proclamation of the gospel from the pulpit. Like many of my Reformed forebears, I am persuaded that the gospel isn’t just a door we walk through but the room where we live. In other words, Christ crucified doesn’t only show me where eternal life begins but from where (and whom) it continues to flow. Thus, the gospel is for both the unbeliever and believer and should proceed from the pulpit with great regularity. However, I sense neglect from some preachers of gospel-oriented preaching because it may feel remedial for the older believers in the congregation. They’ve heard this before and need something different, something more. My earlier comments notwithstanding, let me encourage you to keep faithfully and consistently reminding your congregants of the gospel from the pulpit if only for the fact that the continual ringing of the grace bell will, over time, be a clarion call finally heard by many of those who already think they’ve received the gospel…but haven’t.

In a world given to a consumer, pseudo-faith called Christianity, Inc., my dear pastor, make it your mission to convert the converted.

Dustin Neeley

• On Leadership
• On Preaching

I must say after watching these videos:

1. I really like nodding my head (doesn’t that just mean I’m engaged in the conversation?). It looks great, especially when Dustin begins the preaching interview saying “Yancey, you’re obviously a gifted preacher…” [Me: nod, nod, nod] I’m thinking, “Yes, I’m tracking what you’re saying,” but it looks like, “Yes, of course I’m a gifted preacher. Move on and get to your question.” Needless to say, it’s painful to watch.
2. I probably need to blog to better explain myself at every point. So don’t be surprised if you see a post on “emotional eisigesis.”
3. I am an animated guy – always have been. I am reminded of it every time I see myself teaching on video at our other campus. It’s a full, life-size image of me on the stage, and hard to swallow with my energetic gestures, random pacing and other general movements that make it more like watching a tennis match than a pastor behind a pulpit. These videos are no different.
4. At least I’m glad I’m (halfway) comfortable being in my own skin, or these videos would never be linked here.

A good pastor may or may not:

1. Know all the best new music from the hippest indie bands
2. Forward wonderful quotes about God written by other pastors
3. Have a great grasp of the latest buzzwords like “gospel-centered”, “missional”, etc.
4. Look like he just exited Urban Outfitters and know how to handle a man-purse
5. Buy only Apple computers instead of those pesky, affordable but not-so-cool PC’s.
6. Have a tattoo (in the name of cultural relevance, of course)
7. Be on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks.

While those characteristics are neither good nor bad, they do not…I repeat…they do not make a good pastor. It might say to others that your pastor is cool, but it doesn’t make him good. What makes a good pastor? Among many things, a good pastor:

1. Loves his congregation and prays for their growth in the gospel (Phil. 1:3-6)
2. Effectively and faithfully preaches/teaches the Bible; even the things people don’t really want to hear…yet they preach in a way that helps them to hear it (2 Tim. 4:1-4, Eph. 4:29, Acts 17:23)
3. Leads his spouse, heads his household and honors Christ by pastoring his home before he pastors the church. (1 Tim. 3:4)
4. Seeks to be a servant instead of daydreaming of how he can become a celebrity pastor like the guys he listens to, read s and sees at conferences (Mk. 10:44-45, I Tim. 4:6)
5. Spends time in the Scriptures not just for his next sermon but for his soul – for growing in sound doctrine and a deeper love for the gospel (2 Tim. 4:14-15). Like Charles Spurgeon said, you cut him and he bleeds the Bible.
6. Works hard and has realized a balanced life is a myth. He simply strives to be healthy, not using it as an excuse for laziness or justifying to others his inordinate amount of time at Starbucks by saying it’s how he best prepares for his messages. (Col. 1:29)
7. Depends on the Holy Spirit and refuses to glide through ministry by his sheer talent and personality. (Ac. 1:8, Eph. 5:18)

I mention these characteristics because even pastors can get duped. Seeking to be culturally relevant, they can far too easily make being cool an idol. And while trendiness isn’t a sin (I intentionally used “hip” characteristics that mostly describe me), a preoccupation with trendiness is – giving too much weight to the wrong things. When we spend more time on the first list than the second, that’s when we’re in trouble. It’s also why it’s good to periodically remind ourselves what God calls his under-shepherds to do. And while you won’t find tips from God’s Word on the right haircut to get, the right songs to put on your iPod or even the right guys to quote. You will find the right qualities to pursue. And as you do, you may not be a rock star, you’ll be something much better…a pastor.

Preaching may be easy for some but it’s not for me. In fact, there are days scattered throughout the year when my disappointment gets the best of me and I consider leaving the pulpit altogether. I’m sure there’s probably a broken part of me still tied to performance and merit-based living which the Gospel freed me from that whispers in my ear, “Yancey, if this is the best sermon you can muster on a weekly basis then you need a new seat on the church bus.” Granted, I don’t hear that voice often but it has stayed with me long enough to cause me to look upon my teaching ministry with great caution and reservation.

I’m sure some of my issues flow from the fact that preaching is much more an intuitive than systematic process for me. Every so often I’m asked by pastors in other churches about how I put together a message and almost always I’m embarassed to reply because of my inability to share with them point-by-point how it happens. The reason for that is it looks different almost every time: sometimes I start breaking down a text on paper, or I brainstorm the flow of an idea on a marker board, or I research for a period of time and then write the sermon from start to finish! Now think about that, in my ten (almost eleven) year tenure as the teaching pastor of my local church I’ve likely preached upwards of around 500 sermons. One would think I’d have a rock-solid process of message preparation by now but I don’t. That’s nuts! Frankly, it bothers me that’s the case.

I must say, this angst in my preaching is completely internal. There is not a week that goes by where I don’t have several encouraging, uplifting emails filling my inbox about how God has used my latest message in the lives of my parishioners. I am grateful for that. Indeed, I rarely delete any of them. Furthermore, I’m a part of a leadership staff which reinforces my teaching gift with similar votes of confidence and support. That’s a big deal to me as well. I tend to give a louder voice in my life to those whom I deeply respect and there are fewer men I respect as much as those who comprise our Executive Staff. Make no mistake, my struggle with preaching is one where I’m in a room locked from the inside.

A practice I’ve developed to help me fight against this struggle is continually reminding myself that I must preach in faith, by faith. I must keep telling myself that ultimately it is God’s Spirit not my communication prowess (or lack thereof) that moves the hearts of men. I should study hard, pray hard and trust God in Christ. My faith should be applied through the entire process of study, preparation, delivery and even what happens in the hearts of my listeners. Thankfully, this has become more default than discipline over the years. Yet there are seasons when I have to remind myself, “Yancey, you must preach in faith by faith.”

With all that being said, there’s actually a part of me which is grateful for my unease with preaching. I think there’s a blessing in being an insecure preacher if only for the fact that you approach the pulpit with a helplessness that leads to a dependence upon God to work in the preaching event…in you and in others. Conversely, I believe secure preachers are great threats to both themselves and their congregations. They can easily be tempted to think of their own greatness. To fall headlong into the sin of presumption simply assuming how powerfully their messages will affect the hearts of those who hear them. I do believe there is a confidence we can take to the pulpit but I’m afraid all too often some pastors have confused it with arrogance. The words from fellow pastor John Piper are helpful here:

You can mark it down that if you are a preacher God will hide from you much of the fruit he causes in your ministry. You will see enough to be assured of his blessing, but not so much as to think you could live without it. For God aims to exalt himself, not the preacher. (The Supremacy of God in Preaching, 19)

In the end, I believe I should receive my preaching insecurities as more blessing than curse. Phillips Brooks, who taught a course of lectures on preaching at Yale University in 1877, counseled young pastors, “Never allow yourself to feel equal to your work. If you ever find that spirit growing on you, be afraid. (Lectures on Preaching, 106)” Thankfully, I don’t believe that has ever been the case with me.

So, I will continue with preparing messages in a fashion that bewilders even me. I’ll still keep walking to the pulpit with great unease and uncertainty. And I’ll still continue, God-willing,  to deliver another 500+ sermons over the next decade. However, I pray I will do it all with an ever-deepening, always abounding faith that God is doing the work I can’t and very thankful he chooses to use people who are limited, if not broken, for his glory.

As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
- Isaiah 55:10-11 (ESV)

]]> http://blog.yanceyarrington.com/2009/03/08/theinsecurityofpreaching/feed/ 3 http://blog.yanceyarrington.com/2009/01/22/a-sermon-in-sketch/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-sermon-in-sketch http://blog.yanceyarrington.com/2009/01/22/a-sermon-in-sketch/#comments Thu, 22 Jan 2009 15:48:14 +0000 Yancey Arrington http://blog.yanceyarrington.com/2009/01/22/a-sermon-in-sketch/ The following is a sketch drawn during my message last night on “God and Covenant” as we seek to understand the major concepts of the Old Testament. I know people take notes during my messages but taking sketches??? Truth be told, we have an artist or two in our church who do this regularly, and every time  they show me their work I’m amazed by it. Thanks to Nick Skytland for his “note-taking”…

This is the “poster” of my latest series (see this post) which dealt with the practice of mortification (made famous by the Puritans). We wrapped it with MMA fighting and had a blast – fighters demonstrating examples of submission holds, even had part of an octagon cage on stage – sweet! It is one of my favorite series to date and I so-very-dig the look of it all. Hardcore brutha!

Thankfully, I’m going to lean on the biblical insights of a 350 year old pastor, John Owen. I was inspired to teach this series after re-reading through some of my highlights in Owen’s Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers. Owen, a 17th Century Puritan pastor in England, wrote a series of messages dealing with mortification (a great Puritan term for fighting – killing – sin) for teenagers. I doubt many teeneagers today, including their parents, would sit down and read Owen’s work. It is loquatious in style, archaic in terminology and short on syrupy, shallow fodder that fills up many modern day Christian books. It’s no small read but there are fewer books I know of that so clearly and biblically define the Christian’s response to sin.

I’m grateful to Owen both personally and pastorally. Regrettably, I still have sins that tempt me more than I’d like and leave me in defeat more than victory. I know I’m not alone but it still feels comforting to be able to turn to one of the saints of the Church Historical and be tutored once again on what the Bible says about fighting sin.

Here’s to entering the octagon with a little more wisdom and a lot more hope…