Monday, March 21, 2011

Young Preachers - Finding a Place to Preach; Part 1

When I attended college, I was surprised to meet young preachers who had never preached. They had felt God’s call to preach. They had surrendered their lives to the ministry. They were being educated to follow that call. Yet they had never had the opportunity to preach. Others I met had only had the chance to preach once or twice.

Part of the blame goes to their home pastors. Pastor, if you have a young man who surrenders his life to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ - give him the opportunity to preach. Let him bring a devotional in a Sunday School Class or department. Have him preach on Wednesday night or Sunday night. Help him in preparing a sermon or two. It is inexcusable for a pastor to have young preachers in his church and never give them the opportunity to preach.

Now to the young man who has surrendered to preach. What do you do now? Let me mention some basics, then I’ll specifically mention how to get opportunities to preach.

First, be the best member your pastor has. Be in church every week Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. How can you claim to want to be a preacher and not even attend the regular services of your own church? Are you only going to regularly attend church when they pay you to do so?

A young man showed up at my church one Sunday night and sat on the front row. That will impress any pastor. Later he told me he was a preacher and wanted me to be his mentor. That’ll also impress a pastor. He let me know he was ready to preach for me anytime. But he attended sporadically and never showed up on Sunday mornings. I found out the reason; he just couldn’t wake up early enough to make it to Sunday morning Worship, much less Sunday School. I spoke to him of the importance of a preacher being faithful to all church services. He never attended on Sunday morning, I never asked him to preach, and he soon disappeared.

Second, study God’s Word and study good preachers. Learn how to put a sermon together. I’ll get in trouble for this, but steal a good sermon from a good preacher (but don’t try to publish that sermon in your name!). Herschel Ford used to say in his sermon books that his sermons were now yours and to feel free to preach them. Soon you will be putting together your own sermons. But feel free to start out heavily using the sermons of others.

R. G. Lee (pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church, Memphis and SBC president) told of a country preacher he met. The preacher thanked Lee for his ministry and said, “I take your sermons and improve on them.” Take some good sermons and “improve” on them.

Good examples to follow: Adrian Rogers, Jerry Vines, Paige Patterson, David Jeremiah… The list goes on, but get their books and DVDs of their sermons. Don’t mimic them; preach in your own style. But learn from them.

Also, find an older pastor that you respect, and get to know him well. Ask questions. Go to him often for advice.

Prepare two or three good sermons and be ready to preach at any time. Keep your notes in your Bible. You never know when you may get an unexpected opportunity to preach.

When I was a teenager, my family drove across Houston to hear Evangelist Dan Vestal in Revival. We arrived a little late, walked in during the song service, and sat toward the back. Vestal was sitting on the platform. He saw us and walked back. I thought it was a little unusual, but figured he wanted to greet dad; they were great friends. He leaned over them and spoke to me. “David, I have a sore throat and I need you to preach for me tonight.” I was terrified. I had a grand total of about three or four sermons under my belt. I had no sermon notes with me. He refused to take no for an answer. I had a couple more songs to prepare my sermon. I got up and preached. God blessed, I think in spite of me, and several folks were saved. Always be ready!

Subscribe to a good paper or two that deals with Baptist life, theology and preaching. Subscribe to your state Southern Baptist paper. Mine is the Southern Baptist Texan and I highly recommend it. It will keep you up on Baptists, ministry, preachers and preaching. You may benefit from subscribing to your own state paper, and another good state Baptist paper. Subscribe to the Biblical Evangelist. It is filled with sermons, Bible studies, and illustrations. Both of these papers are listed in the right hand margin of Gulf Coast Pastor. Click the link, then click Subscribe at their site, and send them your mailing address. Also see links at GCP for Adrian Rogers, Jerry Vines, David Jeremiah and others.

Go to neighboring churches (when your church is not having their regular services) and hear other preachers. Attend conventions and revivals. You will both learn from them and get to know other preachers.

Next: Young Preachers - Finding a Place to Preach; Part 2
You may also be interested in Commentaries and Bible Study.

-David R. Brumbelow, Gulf Coast Pastor, March 21, AD 2011.

Young Preachers - Finding a Place to Preach; Part 2 of 2

6 comments:

  1. this is some great advice, David. I remember all too well, my husband's first sermon. Oh my word. He's so much better today. these suggestions would have really helped him way back when. He was always faithful to the church...selahV

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, SelahV. I sincerely hope and pray this will be a help and encouragement to a few young preachers.

    I'd love to hear your husband preach.
    David R. Brumbelow

    ReplyDelete
  3. I Have had a burden on my heart to preach the gospel for a long time. I have a good relationship with my LORD, my pastor, and the rest of my church family. I have only preached once. However, nothing has compared to that single experience. this is not a need to be seen, or herd, this is a deep burden to share and teach the good news. However, I cant for the life of me find a spirtual father that would take me up on the discipleship part of it
    I feel sick when I think about it and I am affraid I am just letting the fire die in me. Please help
    my name is Angelo and I would be honored to have a conversation with you about this 734 847 1055

    ReplyDelete
  4. Angelo,
    Thanks for writing. I will be in touch with you this week. Send me your mailing address; mine is listed below. And I'll be praying for you and your ministry.
    David R. Brumbelow
    P.O. Box 300
    Lake Jackson, TX 77566

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you for responding,
    7756 Indian rd
    Temperance, MI 48182

    Blessings

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi my name is Aaron.I want to be a traveling minister. God has given me a very powerful prophetic and teaching gift. But the sad and frustrating part of it is i dont have real oppertunities to use my gifts in the body of Christ. I wrote a book last year, because im so desperate to share Gods word ( here is the link to my book http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/psalm-119-aaron-jason-enous/1030433427 ) I did a youtube page http://www.youtube.com/user/enousa1?feature=mhee

    ReplyDelete

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