I just finished reading an article by Albert Mohler, the president of SBTS Knoxville, Tenn., among several caps that he wears. The article was entitled Why Do We Preach [1]and it’s a good one but this is not a critique of the article; it’s more of a reflection. I am two days short of my first Daniel fast, I have done ok, but right now I really want a steak or a triple cheese burger from Five Guys. I don’t think I have spent enough time in prayer and meditation during the fast, but it seems to me that I never spend enough time talking to and listening to my Savior, most especially the listening. I have been asked several times why I chose to become a preacher. My reply has usually been because God wants me to, He has called me to preach and be a pastor. After reading the article I am pondering more what my response should be; more so I am asking the question of myself, why do I preach? I don’t doubt my calling; God has affirmed it to me time and time again through several congregations and individuals.
However, the question does remain: Why do I preach? My father was a preacher, and many times growing up I hated that fact. Now I treasure the time I did have with my dad and the legacy he gave me as a Christian father and pastor, especially every time I pull down a book from his library and find that one point that I needed for a paper or sermon, but that isn’t why I preach. When I am preparing for a sermon or journaling, jotting down a sermon idea or studying the Scriptures, He talks to me through His Word. God gives me ideas and ways to relate His Word in Biblical and relevant ways to those that I come into contact with in the church or on the street. He communicates His love, truth, and desire for an intimate and personal transformational relationship to me to the point that if I don’t re-communicate it to others, I feel like I will explode. Sometimes it almost feels like clinical depression if I don’t do it enough. I have a good pastor friend that has said on more than one occasion when his church was small and he was bi-vocational that he would work three jobs to feed his preaching habit. And while most of what I have stated are parts and parcels of why I preach none of them are the full reason why I preach. I am still not sure why I preach when I can or why I share with people what Christ has done for me, for the world, and what He wants to do for every person in it. At least I don’t know why to the depth that I should know, so this is going to be my quest for the rest of this semester and however long it takes. What I do know for now is that I preach because, as the article pointed out, I preach because God has spoken. In 2 Timothy 4:2 (which by the way is now my life verse) it says, "preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching."[2] In its context Paul is charging Timothy with the duty and honor of being a shepherd, a pastor. 2 Timothy 4:1-5 says " I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry"(ESV). I preach; I am a pastor, an under shepherd of Jesus Christ, because I have been commanded to be. I am called; and because of that calling I am compelled in my very soul to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ living and dying on a cross, every bit a man as me and every bit God Almighty resurrected in the flesh and mediating for me every minute of every day. I preach because my body is grieved to my bones when I don’t, my soul aches in a way that is hard to describe. Some might want to compare it to a drug but that cheapens it—drugs destroy the man. Christ does not destroy the man; He regenerates him every moment that He is allowed to move in an individual’s life. I need to and want to preach and be the pastor that God wants me to be because it is who I am. I was created in the image of God and recreated to proclaim His Gospel to any and all who will listen. It is a compulsion that is impossible to ignore for the growing Christian when he sees someone whose life can be transformed by meeting the Man who walked on water (Romans 1:16).
I am actually called to several things: I am called to be a Husband but that is because I made a choice to ask Terri to be my wife and she made the choice to grace me with a yes. I am called to be a father because we wanted kids and God graced us three times. Because of my choices God has called me to be a Godly husband and father. My calling as a pastor is much different though, being a pastor was not my choice; to be honest I fought it for over a year, but I was never happy until I accepted it. Everyone is called to share the gospel. Mark 16:15 wasn’t just for pastors; it was for every Christian. But not everyone is called to be a pastor and those that are, as the article says, carry a heavy burden. For those that are called, it cannot be ignored any more than Jonah could ignore his command. For those of us today the chastisement for ignoring our call is just as grave as Jonah’s was. I preach for the same reason that I breathe: I have to if I want to live.
