It’s been a very busy couple of weeks. So, instead of me posting a post on preaching, I’d like Tim Keller to sit in for me.
Thanks, Tim (May I call you that?)
Here is a portion of what he says:
I have often seen many men spend a great amount of time on preparing and preaching lengthy, dense, expository messages, while giving far less time and energy to the learning of leadership and pastoral nurture. It takes lots of experience and effort to help a body of people make a unified decision, or to regularly raise up new lay leaders, or to motivate and engage your people in evangelism, or to think strategically about the stewardship of your people’s spiritual gifts, or even to discern what they are. It takes lots of experience and effort to know how to help a sufferer without being either too passive or too directive, or to know when to confront a doubter and when to just listen patiently. Pastors in many of our Reformed churches do not seem to be as energized to learn to be great leaders and shepherds, but rather have more of an eye to being great teachers and preachers.
As an experienced pastor, I would say that I wish, in looking back, without denigrating one bit the study and preparation for preaching I have done, that I had spent far more time ‘learning of leadership’. As much damage may be done to a body by careless leadership as by weak preaching.