As a pastor, I have the opportunity to regularly teach from the Bible. Honestly, it is probably my favorite part of the “job.” I’m an inquisitive person and so I love the studying and preparation, I love mining out nuggets of truth and wisdom and I love writing/developing the best way to communicate these nuggets in ways that are relevant to the lives of those who will be listening. (If you are familiar with the “Strengths Finder 2.0” by the Gallup organization, then my top 5 should make all of this clear to you-Input, Strategic, Connectedness, Ideation, Intellection.)
I have spent a lot of time teaching/preaching and there are several elements about the practice that-in my opinion-are good practices for life. Here are a few of them.
- Always start with the Bible. This may seem obvious for a preacher, but the fact remains, it is sometimes easier to come up with a subject and preach from it, then to do the work of dissecting scripture to discern it’s meaning. In life, it is also important to always start with the Bible. It’s easy to make a Biblical outlook on life a secondary outlook, if for no other reason than convenience.
- Staying true is more important than staying popular. It is easy to “preach for the ‘Amens.’” Everyone likes to be told, “You did a great job” but it’s more important to tell the truth than to be clever. The same is true of the way we live. Stay honest, in the long run, you will earn the respect of others, and respect is more important than being liked for superficial reasons.
- Invest yourself into your sermon. People love stories, they are easy to relate to. People love personal stories even more. Taking a risk and putting information about yourself-especially if it doesn’t necessarily paint you as the spiritual giant most people assume a preacher to be-helps the hearer to know that it’s okay to be human. Don’t be afraid to invest yourself and take risks in life either. We are all human, and we all make mistakes, it is in embracing our humanity that we can honestly deal with it.
These are just a couple of brief thoughts, hopefully they are helpful to you.
-m
