A PASTOR SHOULD PREACH
The Gospel Is a Pastoral Prerequisite.
What DOES the pastor do all week? Well, a pastor should preach. Paul wrote to Timothy, “…devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.” (1 Tim. 413) But what does it mean to preach?
In it’s most basic sense, to preach means to proclaim.
The Greek word kérugma (kay’-roog-mah) carries with it the proclamation, preaching or heralding of the Gospel, especially in reference to the fundamentals of Jesus Christ. (BibleHub.com – Strong’s 2782)
A pastor is preaching when he is publicly proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Which begs the question, “So what happens on Sunday morning? Is the pastor preaching or teaching?“
Well, we would state that every Sunday a message or sermon is preached from the pulpit. However, it’s perhaps not always true. Some sermons are more teaching than preaching. There is a difference, which we’ll understand by the end of this week’s series.
Why Preach?
Now let’s move on to the why; why should a pastor focus on preaching?
The short answer is that people’s eternities depend on it. How are people supposed to accept Jesus if they’ve never heard of him? For example, look at Romans 10.
“…how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” (Rom. 10:14)
Preaching Is Evangelical
Preaching at its heart, is evangelical. Preaching is all about proclaiming the Gospel to the world. Proclaiming the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and humanities opportunity to have eternal life through Him.
Regardless of being a youth pastor, camp pastor, children’s pastor, associate pastor, lead pastor or pastor of community life and equipping (my current title); a pastor must be willing and able to clearly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
This is a foundational function of pastoral ministry.
At this point, maybe you’re thinking, “Wait, if a pastor’s in a church. Why bother preaching if everyone’s saved?” The short answer is, “You don’t know that everyone in a church service has accepted the Gospel.“
The larger answer leads to a philosophical debate on whether a pastor should preach or teach on Sunday mornings. We’ll come back to it at the end of this week’s series, once we’ve fully unpacked both pastoral functions of preaching and teaching.
Sermon Prep
For our last note on preaching, I’d like to include a quick word on sermon prep or the process of preparing to preach. At ChurchLeaders.com, Rick Ezell wrote the following:
“In seminary, I learned how to exegete a text in order to preach it. Unfortunately, that is only one side of the preaching process. The other side, if you want your preaching to be practical and relevant, is to exegete the audience.“
A pastor’s preaching will definitely suffer if he neglects spending time in the Scriptures. But a pastor’s preaching will also suffer if he neglects spending time the people.
And this isn’t a new concept for preachers of the Gospel. In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul wrote about becoming like a Jew to reach Jews, becoming like a Greek to reach Greeks, becoming weak to reach those who are weak.
Paul was able to exegete his audience before he preached to them, so that he could effectively preach to them. This principle has not and should not change.
