Thursday, March 31, 2011

CRITICAL PREACHERS

 by Stephen Dunn

Over the years I have found that one of the most difficult audiences for a preacher is an audience full of preachers.  Particularly early in ministry I always felt that I was being analyzed and/or critiqued.  The analysis wasn't necessarily critical.  "Is this an illustration I can use?"  "How could I have handled this text in a way that follows with theological persuasion?"  These are questions that preachers, who communicate for a living, find it hard not to ask.  It is a way of improving themselves.

But sometimes preachers are simply critiquing their brothers and sisters.  Very early in my ministry my denominational exec sent me to preach in the pulpit of a local pastor who thought the denomination was too liberal.  He who used that perception to justify teaching a doctrine that was contrary to teaching of the church from which he had been ordained and in his ordination pledge he had promised to defend.  When I got done his comment/compliment was "good doctrine."  I had to ask myself was this actually a compliment, or had I given him justification to continue to ignore the clear teaching of the church.

Such critiquing is rarely motivated out of love for Christ and His Church. Such critiquing also tends to make us poor worshipers and poor hearers of the Word because we do not come to the sermon with the intention of seeking to hear God's word to us.  We come because we are preachers and when we're not preaching we're just there for show instead of sanctification.

Beware of the critiquing spirit captures many a preacher's mind when listening to another preacher preaching. We just might miss the truth God wants to reveal to us when we're not so busy preaching.

Friday, March 4, 2011

THE VBS VALEDICTORIAN

If this doesn't inspire you to be a proclaimer .....  Wait til she gets to 3:30 when she really gets into the message