But should that make a difference? If my nerve problems were a result of a desire to perform, to be better than the other guys who were preaching, then it's certainly a good thing. The scary idea is that maybe I'm not taking the task seriously. Whether I'm going to be a pastor or not, the Word of God is still the Word of God. It's still worth a serious treatment.
My usual posture is to assume the worst about myself. I would naturally assume I'm not taking the Word seriously enough. Against all odds, however, I am confident that my lack of nerves came from a lack of pretense. I didn't want to cast the illusion that I'm going to be the next great preacher (not that anyone thought that).
I'm going to preach once more this semester, and I hope that I can have a similar experience. But even if I don't, the Holy Spirit is powerful, and He determines the effect of the Word preached. That, I think, is the key to preaching.
3 comments:
you and I live parallel lives. When I went on staff in Athens, I told the wife I was going to change nothing about my behavior at all because if I had to change something, then I wasn't ready in the first place. However, I don't know if I could have held that attitude if I didn't know I was only doing this for a year. Thus, my peace came from knowing I wouldn't be doing this indefinitely.
Rex Queems (the phony)
I posit that most elders (that is, PASTORS) are not professional pastors. At least in Scripture.
So, nothing holds you back from being an undershepherd (under the Senior Pastor, aka Chief Shepherd, Jesus) along with other men and also keep a job as a nutty professor and billionare novelist.
A single, dynamic, CEO-type professional, Senior Pastor/President is a modern abheration, in my view.
Just do it, nike.
I agree. I would be happy to be an elder at a church, I just don't want to be the 'head man.'
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