“Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching…Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them. so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” (I Timothy 4:13-16)
The dreaded foyer ambush, every preacher has experienced it. After spending 40 minutes spilling your soul before 400 sleepy people on a Sunday morning, someone inevitably comes up to you in the foyer and smashes your world. It is usually done through criticism, cynicism or contempt for what you have just said.
There was one particular morning ambush that has been burned into my memory. A person I have much respect for, a friend, a teacher, came up to me and with an off-handed comment clothed under a wry smile and handshake, said, “Wow, that was great. And just think, you get paid to teach for only one or two hours a week. I do this four hours every day, five days a week. I can see why you like preaching so much.”
She wasn’t being mean or cynical, she was just being honest. But let me assure you, it hit me like a punch to the gut. I wasn’t mad or offended, just taken aback. Was she right? Was my job of preaching, relatively speaking, a cushy job? One to two hours a week of speaking does seem like I have landed a lucky job — especially when you get to read the Bible the rest of the week.
The nit-picking part of me often wonders about the importance of my job, “C’mon, really, you call that work?” My dad traveled to a new city every week selling appliances and air conditioners to angry buyers looking for a deal…now that is work. All I am doing is speaking to a congregation of friends and family.
The following Monday after receiving the cutting comment, I decided to take some time to have a serious talk with God. So I grabbed the leash and took my dog for a walk in the woods; that is where I have my best times of prayer. “God, am I a slacker? Could I be doing more with my life? Am I doing any good for anybody?” It is easy to ascribe significance to a doctor, a lawyer, a soldier, a teacher, a farmer and even a barista at a coffee shop…but a preacher talking about an invisible God? Seriously, are people really being helped?
I waited for God to answer. But all I got in response was a question from deep inside myself, “Chris the importance of your job all depends on one thing: Do you believe you are preaching the very words of God? How you answer that question will give you the answer you are looking for.”
Do I believe that preaching involves the transference of God’s actual, powerful, saving, transforming word, or am I simply an actor on a stage?
If I am just an actor, what’s the use? If I am only trying to garner a following who like my use of metaphor, or think I am a nice guy, then my life and purpose is an utter failure. A court jester playing for a crowd. A marketing agent trying to bring in a larger profit margin so the church board will keep me on. In other words, if I am preaching for any other reason than I think I am sent by the living God, my job is a joke.
John the Baptist is described in Luke as a voice. Just a man crying in the wilderness. But boy did the crowds come. They didn’t come because he was dressed fine (camel’s hair and belt), they didn’t come to adopt his new paleo-diet (grasshoppers and honey), and they certainly didn’t come because of the breath-taking desert venue he spoke in (average of 95 degrees, direct sunlight and intense humidity). The reason they came is because Luke 3:2 says, “the word of the Lord came to John.”
People knew John was speaking for God. His word’s had weight and power. His words gave answers. His words connected people to God himself.
I read recently that the preacher is important for this reason alone, “Heaven & Hell and Life & Death are at stake every time he gets up to speak.” That’s it! I believe the word of God is different than a sales pitch, something other than a comedian making people laugh. God uses the preacher, me, to extend an invitation to enter his life by faith. By living by his word a person can come into direct contact with him. The Eternal God, the one who lives in heaven, extends an open door through the voice of the wee-little man speaking with a bible in his hand.
I have to also admit, while I love what I do, it also scares me half to death. What if I am saying things God has not commissioned to say? What if what I am saying is merely pointing people to trust in a man named Chris Weeks? In other words, I am responsible before the judge of heaven. That is why James 3:1 says a teacher of scripture will be judged strictly.
So while the teacher may be right about the amount of face time before the crowd, they are wrong about the audience. I am not performing for those in the seats in the auditorium. I am not trying to impress the crowd. I am being watched by God himself. And he is looking to see if what he wants me to say is being said. In Jeremiah, after God sent him his word, he says:
“The word of the Lord came to me: ‘What do you see Jeremiah?’ ‘I see the branch of an almond tree,’ I replied. The Lord said to me, ‘You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled.'”
Wow, God is watching. And if I am correctly preaching, I know this, “His word will not return void,” I may be one man standing alone, but God has my back.
