A post for preachers from my Monday column at Engaging Church Blog. It was based on a post I wrote to writers with some advice from Steven King:
A few months ago I read through a delightful book by Steven King. No, not one of his thrillers, but his memoir on writing. Among his many nuggets, King offered a response to a question that confronts us writers, “What are you going to write about?” His response? ”Anything you [darn] well want. Anything at all…as long as you tell the truth.”
I think the same words could be said for preachers and other teachers. Each week we’re confronted with the question, “What am I going to preach about?” King’s response to writers is our own: Preach anything you darn well please…as long as you tell the truth.
Does this principle guide your own preaching and teaching ministry? Is truth-telling the font from which your teaching flows?
John Koessler, author of Folly, Grace, and Power, would agree with King. At several points in his thoughtful book on the mysterious act of preaching he challenges us to uncompromisingly truth-tell, because that’s our prophetic responsibility. Koessler quotes Thomas G. Long to remind us of such responsibility: “If the word comes from God in the biblical text, the preacher remains true to that word, regardless of the reaction or cost.” (59)
As preachers, we are called not to entertain or motivate. We are called by King Jesus to prophetically tell the truth. As Koessler writes, “We are heralds of the Risen King. We do not speak for ourselves. Woe to us if we do not preach the gospel.” Woe to us if we do not truth-tell when we preach, regardless of the reaction or cost, as difficult as that may be.
