Pastor, do you expect lives to be transformed when you preach the Word of God? How many lives? Do you anticipate individual transformation or congregational transformation? Probably both. But do you target the latter? The deliberateness of your community-focus will set the trajectory of sermon-listening within the church. William Thompson explains, “One would certainly not want to downplay or eliminate the personal nature of Christian experience; neither would one make it the totality of Christian experience. Preaching is always helping to enhance or downgrade community, whether it intends to do so or not.”[1] Has your preaching been directed at the entire flock of God under your care, or just to individual sheep? Have you proactively promoted community sermon-listening?
Usually, it is more encouraging to gauge the spiritual growth of select individuals in the church than to measure church-wide growth. If you only hear the positive responses from those who are excited about your sermons—those who are growing in Christ and are constantly giving you good feedback—then you will more regularly be satisfied with the fruit of your ministry. As a result, many preachers tend not to reflect on church-wide impact because it’s often not as encouraging as individual impact—or at least, it’s harder to measure. Ignorance can be bliss.
John Stott comments:
Low expectations become
self-fulfilling. Where little is expected from sermons, little is received.
Many moderns have never been taught to expect sermons to matter much, and so
their habit at sermon time is to relax, settle back, and wait to see if
anything the preacher says will catch their interest. Most of today’s
congregations and preachers seem to be at one in neither asking nor
anticipating that God will come to meet his people in the preaching.[2]
Preachers with low expectations find
themselves preaching toward individual-change rather than communitywide-change.
Instead of risking the disappointment of a non-congregation-wide response to
the preached Word of God, they preach their sermons calling only for individual
responses. Subsequently, they overlook the community-aspect of many New
Testament passages. Don’t allow yourself to do this. Remember the second person plural imperatives and plural pronouns in the Bible. Explain the corporate nature of sanctification when the Bible calls for it. Yes, community-oriented
application is harder to foster, but when it’s in the text, you need to faithfully
communicate its intent.
When you conclude your sermon in prayer, pray for a church-wide response. Even when the sermon application is directed at individual Christians, pray that the church will work together to make the necessary steps toward Christlikeness. Then call the church to discuss the implications of the sermon immediately after the sermon. This is what partnership is all about. Normally, the church family will engage in conversation after the service, so prime them with discussion points. These can guide their fellowship over tea and coffee (or whatever follows the service).
As you call for church-wide transformation, be compassionate towards the people. Call the flock of God to obedience, expressing your love for them. Their struggle against sin is just as difficult as yours. Lloyd-Jones taught:
To love preaching is one
thing, to love those to whom we preach is quite another. The trouble with some
of us is that we love preaching, but we are not always careful to make sure
that we love the people to whom we are actually preaching. If you lack this
element of compassion for the people you will also lack the pathos which is a
very vital element in all true preaching.[3]
May
Samuel Chadwick’s love for preaching encourage you to continue this most
important role:
I would rather preach than
do anything else in the world. I would rather preach than eat my dinner or have
a holiday. I would rather pay to preach than be paid not to preach. It has its
price in agony and sweat and tears, and no calling has such joys and heartbreaks,
but it is a calling an archangel might covet. Is there any joy like that of
saving a soul? Any thrill like that of opening blind eyes?[4]
[1] William D. Thompson, Listening on Sunday for Sharing on Monday (Valley
Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1983), 31.
[2] J. I. Packer in Dick Lucas, Preaching
the Living Word: Addresses from the Evangelical Ministry Assembly (Geanies
House, Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, 1999), 32–33.
[3] D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers (Grand
Rapids: Zondervan Publishing, 1971), 92.
[4] Archibald Naismith, 2400
Outlines, Notes, Quotes, and Anecdotes for Sermons (Grand Rapids: Baker
Books, 1967), 184.
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