By Chris Philbeck
One of the undeniable truths about preaching is that some people are more interesting to listen to than others. Often the reason is personality, but that’s not an absolute truth. I’ve heard sermons from preachers with great personalities that fell flat because they lacked study, structure, and relevance. So, a great personality doesn’t automatically lead to great sermons.
But you can’t deny the power of personality when it comes to preaching. In fact, when researching this column I came across an article by Gary Millar (The Gospel Coalition) containing a lengthy quote from James Stuart Stewart (yes, that’s his name) in his book, Heralds of God that sums up the power of personality in preaching like this: “Be yourself and forget yourself.” He wrote, “God has given to each man his own individuality, and standardization (conformity) is emphatically no part of the divine intention for your ministry. How intolerably dull it would be if every preacher had to cut to the same pattern!” That’s when he wrote, “Be yourself, but also forget yourself.”
One way to understand Stewart’s words on a practical level is to remember that when we preach, we preach as individuals to individuals. When I have a conversation with someone, whether it’s someone I’ve known for years, or someone I’ve just met, I’m just me. I never think about trying to be someone or something else. I’m sure it’s the same for you. At the sake of being too simplistic, that’s what it means to be yourself, but also forget yourself. When God called you to preach, he called, you to preach with your own voice. Let that happen naturally.
When I first started preaching in 1982, it was a struggle. I had my homiletics class in Bible college and an expository preaching class in seminary, but while they taught me about the “academics” of preaching, they didn’t teach me how to preach with my own voice. Fortunately for all of us, the first step to finding your own voice in preaching is simply preaching. When my wife and I planted a new church in 1982, I had the responsibility of preaching every week. And not just on Sunday morning, but Sunday night as well. I still get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I think about what a struggle that was for me and, I’m sure, for the people who had to listen. But the more I did it, the more familiar I became with my own unique preaching voice. It’s the same for all of us. One article I read while writing this column described it like this: Reps, reps, and more reps.
Listening to Others
Another way to find your preaching voice is by listening to other preachers. I know that might sound confusing because the goal isn’t to copy someone else’s preaching voice, but that won’t be the case when you listen to a variety of different preachers. When I first started preaching, I would listen to a gospel radio station in Houston, Texas at least two to three weekday mornings where I would hear 30 minutes of preaching from several well-known preachers. Bear in mind, this was in the early 1980s and most of them are not preaching today. But listening to the different styles helped me find my own preaching voice because it showed me the effectiveness of different styles of preaching and different approaches to preaching. This, by the way, also helped me develop the habit of listening to other preachers throughout my entire time in full-time ministry. In fact, carving out time in my weekly schedule to listen to at least one sermon online became non-negotiable for me.
Compelled to Preach
The best way to find your preaching voice is to have a heart so overwhelmed by the truth of Scripture and the goodness of God, that you are compelled to preach. When that’s the case, the style of your delivery won’t be nearly as important as the passion of your delivery. And your preaching will be effective because your listeners will know that you believe what you’re preaching with all your heart. When that happens, you will preach the truth of God’s Word with your own voice. You will be yourself and forget yourself at the same time.
When you think about it, preaching is a strange thing. First, God calls us in our uniqueness. Not just the uniqueness of our personalities, but our backgrounds, our experiences, our wins, and our losses. I had a painful and often insecure childhood as my mother was married and divorced three times. I never knew my biological father and had no relationship with my adopted father. I battled a life-threatening cancer diagnosis in my 50s with a treatment plan that ravaged my body and left me with months of recovery and limitations I will face throughout the rest of my life. Those experiences shaped the way I preach because they shaped me. But God doesn’t just call us in our uniqueness, he also equips us with his power. And, as Paul learned in 2 Corinthians 12:9, God’s power is made perfect in our weakness.
So at the end of the day, our preaching voice is shaped by our calling from God, our dependence on God, and the personal faith developed from both. I love these words from Alistair Begg: “If people leave worship saying, ‘What an amazing preacher!’ we have failed. Instead we must long for them to say, ‘What a great God, and what a privilege it is to meet him in his Word, as we have just done.” That’s what happens when you preach as yourself and forget yourself at the same time.
We all want to be great preachers. But being a great preacher is not nearly as important as presenting a great God with your own unique voice.
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