- I'm one of the students with the most preaching experience there. This does not mean I preach well or better than anybody else in the class. It's just surprising that most of my classmates have had fewer preaching opportunities, aside from those who are much older than me.
- Explaining what expositional preaching is not, Dr. Gibson preached a 6 minute "sermon", deadpan, on "Old Mother Hubbard", expounding on each word in the poem: Old, mother, hubbard, went, cupboard. My favorite moment: "Indeed, we all love to go to the cupboard, don't we? We love going to it because it's just there!" I felt sorry for the international students who might not have known what was going on.
- This is not just Dr. Gibson, but also many other preaching profs as well: there is the sense here that the preacher is the intermediary between God's word and his people. The exact words that wereused is that the pastor is a"bridge between two worlds." I have a high view of the importance of preaching and the role of the preacher, but I don't think I agree with this idea. It seems to imply that lay-people have no chance of understanding God's word without a special in-between guy who interprets the Bible. It suggests we are the messangers, we are the ones with God's authority, we are at the center of God's communication to his people-- it's all resting on us... What happened to the priesthood of all believers? Doesn't the Holy Spirit minister in lay people as well as ordained? Jesus was the final intermediary between God and Man. We don't need to set up another. Preachers are not bridges, nor priests, nor special prophets. We're called to be shepherds, to lead God's people to the green pastures of his living Word. They can read that word themselves without us. Our work on Sundays and Fridays and other preaching days should result in a greater hunger for God's word and God's people growing in reading and obeying that word on their own. What do you think is the preacher's role in relation to God's word and his people?
It has been a restful week: not much work yet and no sermon this Friday.
1 comment:
Your final comment reminded me of something Francais Chan said once. To paraphrase, the stark reality is that for most of their congregates, the preacher/communicator will be literally the only Word of God that they will hear in the course of the week.
His point isn't to emphasize how congregates should learn how to read and dig into the Word(though that should definitely be encouraged), but to underscore that the preacher/communicator must take extra diligence in preparation, prayer, and humbleness when approaching speaking the Word and not to just slap things together or be concerned with being hip/cool b/c the reality is, most people won't hear God's Word any other way in most churches. It's not that they can't, it's that they won't naturally pick up the book and read it.
Does it put extra pressure on the preacher? Sure. Not as much as misrepresenting what God has said or allowing insecurities to taint the meaning of the Scriptures when His words are conveyed to people.
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