Preaching Really Is The Answer

I get to pastor a great church. Malvern Hill is certainly not perfect (I’m the pastor, after all), but it is a great church. Our church is healthy, growing, and makes an impact on our community. God continues to save people through the ministry of our church from different backgrounds and ages. On any given Sunday, 1/3 of our congregation is 18 years old or younger, and our young people serve alongside our senior adults.

It is a great place.

I often get asked how we are reaching so many people or what we are doing differently at Malvern Hill–especially as it relates to reaching children and teenagers.

Interestingly, many people don’t believe my answer. They assume we must have uncovered some secret growth trick, some special program, or a new discipleship method.

The truth is simple and difficult.

The primary thing we do at Malvern Hill is preach the Word. The church is built around the preaching of the Word of God, and we trust in the power of the Word of God to build Christ’s church.

The discipleship of our church is built around the preaching of the Word. When our LifeGroups gather, they focus on the preached sermons and work to apply them in community. Our student ministry is built on discipleship and preaching. Our kids ministry–you guessed it–nothing special there either, just a commitment to regularly teach the word of God at age-appropriate levels. Our kids ministry utilizes music, catechism questions, and even Bible trivia questions to train up our kids in the way they should go.

Pastors struggle to believe preaching can be the answer, because they assume it must be more complicated. But nothing will shape and mold a church–nothing else can build a church into the image of Christ the way consistent, faithful preaching of God’s Word does.

Perhaps even more than pastors, church members struggle to believe that preaching is the answer because to believe preaching is the answer is too easy and too difficult. Church members are often looking for a non-profit executive to pastor their church. When they find a good executive, he can manage all the moving pieces and enable all the people to lead in their sphere of influence or preference. They believe (especially if they are managers themselves) that the church needs a good leader to raise up middle managers to generate efficiency that will lead to effectiveness within the church. This empowers people to manage the church.

Managing the church will not build the church. It may build an organization, but it will not build the living organism that is the church of Christ.

WHY?

Because the church was never intended to be managed by human wisdom. Jesus said he would build his church, and he builds it through the preaching of the Word. Finding a pastor who will preach the Word in season and out of season means finding a pastor who is subject, not to the ruling powers of a particular church, but to the King of the church. Finding a pastor who is committed to preaching the Word means finding a pastor who is committed, not to the vision of deacons or committees or boards, but to the vision of God and his Word. Finding a pastor who will preach requires being a church who is eager–not to lead, but to submit and follow.

Too many churches are dying, not because they are not well-managed or well-led, but because they are too well-led. There are too many leaders in the church who are effectively managing the church, but not nearly enough of the church body who are eagerly surrendering to the Word of God and submitting to the authority of the preached Word and the man who preaches it.

As I write this, I am confident there will be deacons, personnel committee members, and Sunday School teachers who read this and smugly snort that it is their responsibility to keep the pastor in line. If that is you, let me humbly suggest that your desire to keep the pastor in line and your desire to manage may very well be the very attitude keeping your church from experiencing God’s blessing.

The pastor has many responsibilities, but he has one primary responsibility and it is to equip the saints for the work of ministry. When Paul and Barnabas were laboring to see the church take root in Lystra and Iconium, they preached the word to strengthen the disciples. The saints were equipped through the preaching of the Word then, and they need to be equipped through the preaching of the word now.

Too many saints have decided that they are already equipped for the work and have proudly stopped up their ears to the preaching of the Word or have even decided that the preaching of the Word should not be primary in their church.

As you read this, some of you will no doubt be aware of pastors who have abused their position and neglected their duties. But, just because a some pastors have been sinful in the fulfillment of their responsibilities does not mean that all churches should jettison a biblical model.

Pastors, you need to preach and churches, you need to plead with your pastors to preach. The word of God is powerful as it is being preached and through that Word, God is raising up his church. There are many different things you could do to try to “fix” your church. You can build buildings or implement programs or create new staff positions. You can empower more volunteers or start an outreach. But, if you do not prioritize the preaching of the Word, it will ultimately fail.

It seems too easy to work–and it often feels too hard to implement. It seems foolish, and yet, the foolish things in the eyes of the world prove to be the wisdom of God.

¹⁸ For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹ For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
    and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

²⁰ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹ For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. ²² For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, ²³ but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Pastors, preach. It really is the answer. Churches, expect your pastor to preach and respond well to his preaching. If you happen to be a church searching for a pastor today, prioritize preaching in the search process. You don’t need a social media influencer or an executive manager. Those are fine, but they are not necessities. What is necessary? The preaching of the Word, so find a pastor who prioritizes preaching.

Preaching is the answer and it is the God-ordained method to building Christ’s church. How has your life been impacted by the preaching of your pastor?