Thankful to preach

Today, July 11, I am thankful that I get to preach.

Maybe a more correct statement would be that in spite of a whole lot of stuff that's come my way in the last decade, I am thankful that I continue to preach anyway.

I speak a great deal in my work with Second Life of Chattanooga. I also do a fair amount of guest-lecturing on college campuses, some of it related to Second Life, some of it not. From time to time I'm also asked to speak to groups on the subject of leadership, team building, etc. I enjoy each of these types of speaking, as I think being able to engage a variety of groups on a variety of topics makes me not only a better communicator, but also a better learner.

But preaching is a completely different matter, not only in terms of its structure and how I approach it, but also because at its core it is an exercise in hope. The preacher hopes that somehow both his or her audience and the preacher him or herself will see, feel, believe something beyond the difficulty of their present circumstances, their present fears, their present disappointments, their present lack of belief. Both the preacher and those listening hope they may somehow touch God. They also hope that God might also return the favor.

Every time I preach I have 2 goals. The first is that those hearing the message will think. Deeply. That they will dare to go beyond their presuppositions and closely-held opinions and instead allow themselves to consider the possibility that the text and the Spirit behind it might actually have something to teach them. Hopefully the one preaching will engage in the same deeper level of thinking.

The second goal is that action will then rise from that thinking. The action may not happen till a week, a month, or even a year later, but if I am able to say something that causes someone to think so deeply on it that they cannot help but then act on that thinking, then hopefully I have been a good steward of what has been given me to say.

Many people don't peg me for a preacher. God knows I never wanted to be one. I grew up in the industry, a preacher's son, a preacher's grandson. As I've said many times before, I wanted nothing to do with that kind of life, mainly because I wanted to be happy. But at the age of 19 "the call" came to me in a simple, quiet, but unmistakeable way. I then did what any reasonable person would do with such a realization...

...I tried to ignore and run from it for the next 17 1/2 years. Eventually though, in the same simple, quiet, unmistakeable way that it first presented itself, the call (and the One issuing it) made itself irresistible to me. The 17 years since then have been filled with some great highs and some crushing lows. There have been times I've thought, "The hell with this. It's just not worth it." But somehow the call remains in me, so I remain in it.

I never treat lightly any opportunity to preach. To do so would mean that I no longer respect the call, the Caller, the audience that's willing to listen, the text, or myself. I know that I have a role to play in the exchange, one that I want to steward well. Unlike so much of the models of ministry I've seen in my life, I do not view myself as indispensable or the most important person in the room. Ultimately I am also part of the audience, needing just as much (maybe sometimes even more) to think deeply, act boldly, to be transformed.

So in spite of plenty reasons to no longer do so, I continue to preach when given the opportunity. I imagine I will do it as long as I have breath. Thanks be to God.