Long-Haul Preaching
by Steve Mathewson
David Jackman, veteran preacher and President of The Proclamation Trust in London, England, made this statement last week in a preaching lecture in Chicago: “Life transformation takes time. So preach over the long haul. You are a long distance runner.”
I needed to hear this statement because I’m prone to impatience! I can get impatient with the people to whom I preach. Why don’t they get it?! Why are they still the same old bunch that they were last week or last month or last year? But this line of thinking doesn’t stop with my congregation. It invariably leads to impatience with myself! What’s wrong with my preaching? What must I do differently? The lack of response must be my fault!
Now I’m not suggesting that preachers avoid rigorous self-evaluation. I’m on a life-long quest to improve my preaching for the glory of God and the good of His people. But I cross the line from healthy critique to unhealthy blame when I forget that life-transformation takes time.
Why don’t I get this? Perhaps it’s because God sometimes bring dramatic, instantaneous change in listeners’ lives. Sometimes. But these “sometimes” raise my expectations that God will do this almost every time. Yet that is not God’s usual way of working. As Richard Mouw claimed in a sermon a couple decades ago, we need to hear more about the slowness of God. God has the power create and change things instantly. But from our vantage point in the unfolding drama of redemption, it appears that God takes his time. Sanctification is a slow process. It happens over the long-haul. So behind my impatience with my listeners, myself, and the process of preaching is impatience with God. Lord, have mercy on this impatient preacher!
I still pray that this Sunday will be the moment in someone’s life – or in a number of lives – when striking transformation occurs. But whether it happens or not, or whether I see it or not, I need to stay the course and do my best to proclaim God’s word over the long haul. May God grant you the grace and perseverance to do the same.
