The Briefing Library: The Risks a Preacher Takes
It seems to me that these are the risks that every believer should be taking. Our lives should "declare the mind of God and demand a response" among people living in a godless, hopeless world.
—Chuck
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The Briefing Library: The Risks a Preacher Takes
The Risks a Preacher Takes
Phillip Jensen / Briefing #128 / February 1994
“Preaching can be a dangerous business”, Phillip Jensen told a group of trainee preachers at a recent conference. Because the gospel demands a response from people, preaching it faithfully means taking some big risks.
What are the risks that a gospel preacher has to take? Whether you are a pulpiteering preacher, a lounge-room evangelist or a pew-bound sermon-hearer, in Phillip’s answer to that question, you’ll learn a lot about the dangerous nature of the gospel of Christ.
Preaching is more than conveying information. Although it must involve the communication of ideas, it is not the same thing as a lecture. It is also more than pulpiteering. It can occur just as well in a letter or a conversation as from behind a lectern. In fact, we struggle to define exactly what it is that a preacher does.
Here is an attempt at a definition: “Preaching is declaring the mind of God, seeking a response”.
The two parts of the definition are both crucial if we are to be true to the gospel. We must provide information for people’s minds, that they might know God, for God’s mind is revealed to us in the Scriptures. This is something that few evangelicals would contest, either in theory or practice.
However, the second half of the definition is equally important. People will never hear the word of God without responding to it in some way. His word digs deeply into the hearers’ inner beings, judging their hearts (Heb 4:12). It is not something that can be received with impartial neutrality, nor is it something that can be preached in abstract terms. God’s word can be rejected or ignored or superficially accepted or wholeheartedly embraced, but precisely because it is God’s word, it calls forth a response, and we must preach it this way—that is, calling for the right response. As James reminds us, to treat God’s word otherwise is about as clever as looking into a mirror and then immediately forgetting what you look like. God exhorts us to be doers who act, not hearers who forget (Jas 1:22-25). The preacher must preach for a response from each of his hearers.
For this reason, preaching is inherently dangerous. In attempting to gain a response to his call, the preacher can become manipulative, histrionic or inappropriately charming. Preachers are not requesting minor alterations in behaviour, like an advertiser trying to persuade someone to change their deodorant. We are calling people to entirely reconstruct their lives under God’s rulership. We set out to capture their minds and hearts for Christ. Because of the weight of our message, we can be tempted to skew our preaching in order to reach our goal. This emphasis upon response can also lead to a creeping Arminianism which distrusts the power of God in the gospel and distorts the very message that is being preached.
As an exercise in balancing declaration with application and information with challenge, preaching is fraught with risks. Here are seven reasons why preachers should be paid danger money.
Read the seven reasons here>>
The Briefing Library: The Risks a Preacher Takes
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