Sometimes it's just better to let someone else say it in his own words. I got this post this morning and for some reason it really got me thinking. I love how it is written and the lesson behind it. Please take the time to read it and let it sink in and if you are interested here is the link to his blog:
http://evotional.com/
Study and Teach vs. Teach to Study from The Batterson Blog - Thoughts on Life and Leadership by Mark Batterson
I think my preaching paradigm is shifting. I've always believed that as a preacher I'm called to study the word and teach the word, but that is changing as our congregation reads through the Bible together. My job is NOT to just study and teach the Bible. My job is to teach our congregation to study the Bible. That is a subtle yet huge difference. The prior approach leads to spiritual codependency. The latter leads to spiritual maturity.
Our journey through the Bible is called From Garden to City. And the genesis was really my rediscovery of the Bible. I read through a one-year Bible in 2009 and it changed my life. I fell in love with the word all over again. And that is our prayer for National Community Church. We want our people to love the word, delight in the word, study the word, and hunger for the word.
The longer I preach the more I realize that people don't need to hear what I have to say but they do need a word from the Lord. Sometimes that happens in a sermon via the anointing. Somewhere between words leaving my lips and hitting the ear drums of listeners, the Holy Spirit will do what the Holy Spirit does. But we also want our people to have a first-hand experience with God via His Word. I try to remind our congregation all the time: don't take my word for it, take God's Word for it. I'd rather have people hear one word from the Lord than a thousand of my sermons.
My point? Let's not just study and teach. Let's teach to study.
