Why I Love Preaching
My greatest joy in life is being able to preach God’s Word to a congregation of God’s people week after week, year after year. After over thirty five years in the ministry I still can’t get over the fact that I get paid to study God’s Word and preach it every Sunday. The reason for my joy in preaching was clarified for me recently when I read the opening paragraph in a new book on preaching by Darrell Johnson, Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church in Vancouver, Canada.
“Whenever a human being, Bible in hand, stands up before a group of other human beings, invites the gathered assembly into a particular text of the Bible and as faithfully as possible tries to say again what the living God is saying in the text, something always happens. Something transformative, empowering, life-giving happens . . . I believe the preaching of the Word of God changes the world. I believe individuals, neighbourhoods, cities and nations are changed by the preaching of the good news of Jesus Christ. For in preaching the good news of Jesus Christ (which is ultimately what any biblical text preaches), it turns out that we are participating with the living God in God’s ongoing transformation of the world.”
That’s why I love preaching!
For my preacher friends, Darrell Johnson’s book is THE GLORY OF PREACHING (Participating in God’s Transformation of the World). It’s published by IVP. It’s a must read!
