Ep. 29 - Public Preaching and Private Shepherding

Well, it's absolutely critical for the life of the church, not just because there's one man standing in a pulpit who's declaring God's Word, though that, of course, is what it is by definition.

But I would say that the New Testament gives us a very, very beautifully balanced dynamic with regard to both the public proclamation of the Word, but also the private admonitions and encouragements.

All you have to do is comb through the New Testament, uh, especially as it relates to the one another's, the so-called one another's of the New Testament, and you will find that those particular one another's that speak loudest of the care for one another, that's not happening from a pulpit other than the teaching that we should do those things, but it's not being demonstrated as the preaching is going on.

That can only be demonstrated in the life of the church.

If you think about it, if, if there is, particularly in our, uh, context in the United States and perhaps even, you know, most of the other countries of the world, the time for preaching compared to all of the days of a week in the life of a church is very scant.

If you just do simple, you know, mathematics, if you're preaching a sermon, let's say, uh, the, the worship of the saints on the Lord's Day with a couple of hours, you will be dwarfed with all of the other hours of a week in a local church with all kinds of other ministry that's going on in that church.

So mathematically, if somebody says, "Preaching is the number one level of importance.

Everything else is of lower importance," they wouldn't say it's not important, but they would say it's of lower importance.

Preaching is central.

Preaching is, uh, the highest and the greatest, and nobody's arguing about the gathered saints and their hearing from God's appointed shepherd, and no one is gonna say that's out of bounds.

But the way we structure things, and maybe particularly in the US, uh, maybe other places, uh, also, when there is a challenge to the concept that preaching is so central, everything else should fall in line from that.

I wouldn't say that.

I would say they're all of equal importance.

But when you're talking about sheer amounts of time with saints being together with each other and being counseled or being shepherded or being discipled or being mentored, those hours stack up in legion force.

And all of the, the public instruction, as important as it is, the sheer number of hours that you're spending, uh, with the saints, uh, with God's people, it begins to be very apparent that the one another's, the understanding of life-on-life relationships, those are the things that eat up hours and hours and hours of being together.

Could be house to house, could be in the gathered Lord's Day of God's people.

But when we're just talking about how people relate to each other, how they minister to each other, how they talk to each other, how they spend time together, uh, when families get together, uh, when individuals meet together and talk about their Christian lives respectively, then you're talking about the ideas and concepts of people being together in the same room, and people are talking among each other And that's a very different dynamic than what is happening with the preached word by a man in a pulpit, which is incredibly important, and it's commanded, and we must do it.

But if we're talking about sheer influence and impact, you're really, really talking about what the preached word does almost as a, a launching point, and then everything else comes into perspective when all of that preaching in, you know, 52 weeks of a year is fleshed out in the local church.

So that's, that's how I would start off in answering that question.

Well, and that's, that's important groundwork to lay on both fronts.

I mean, obviously we're articulating here the, the conviction we would have about a pastor's role as a shepherd, which we could even talk about that metaphor, you know, as we progress here.

But, but we're all-- We're, we're not in that in any way diminishing this absolute necessity, responsibility, command, mandate to preach the Word in the local church.

And obviously, I mean, you guys in your ministry, I mean, both you guys have been in ministry for 40, 40 years.

I mean, how many thousands of sermons have you preached and continued to preach week after week after week and poured yourself out for hours into the study? You don't look back on that time and diminish that in any way.

Absolutely vital, necessary, essential, commanded for the life of, of any local church.

Well, it's absolutely critical for the life of the church, not just because there's one man standing in a pulpit who's declaring God's Word, though that, of course, is what it is by definition.

But I would say that the New Testament gives us a very, very beautifully balanced dynamic with regard to both the public proclamation of the Word, but also the private admonitions and encouragements.

All you have to do is comb through the New Testament, uh, especially as it relates to the one another's, the so-called one another's of the New Testament, and you will find that those particular one another's that speak loudest of the care for one another, that's not happening from a pulpit other than the teaching that we should do those things, but it's not being demonstrated as the preaching is going on.

That can only be demonstrated in the life of the church.

If you think about it, if, if there is, particularly in our, uh, context in the United States and perhaps even, you know, most of the other countries of the world, the time for preaching compared to all of the days of a week in the life of a church is very scant.

If you just do simple, you know, mathematics, if you're preaching a sermon, let's say, uh, the, the worship of the saints on the Lord's Day with a couple of hours, you will be dwarfed with all of the other hours of a week in a local church with all kinds of other ministry that's going on in that church.

So mathematically, if somebody says, "Preaching is the number one level of importance.

Everything else is of lower importance," they wouldn't say it's not important, but they would say it's of lower importance.

Preaching is central.

Preaching is, uh, the highest and the greatest, and nobody's arguing about the gathered saints and their hearing from God's appointed shepherd, and no one is gonna say that's out of bounds.

But the way we structure things, and maybe particularly in the US, uh, maybe other places, uh, also, when there is a challenge to the concept that preaching is so central, everything else should fall in line from that.

I wouldn't say that.

I would say they're all of equal importance.

But when you're talking about sheer amounts of time with saints being together with each other and being counseled or being shepherded or being discipled or being mentored, those hours stack up in legion force.

And all of the, the public instruction, as important as it is, the sheer number of hours that you're spending, uh, with the saints, uh, with God's people, it begins to be very apparent that the one another's, the understanding of life-on-life relationships, those are the things that eat up hours and hours and hours of being together.

Could be house to house, could be in the gathered Lord's Day of God's people.

But when we're just talking about how people relate to each other, how they minister to each other, how they talk to each other, how they spend time together, uh, when families get together, uh, when individuals meet together and talk about their Christian lives respectively, then you're talking about the ideas and concepts of people being together in the same room, and people are talking among each other And that's a very different dynamic than what is happening with the preached word by a man in a pulpit, which is incredibly important, and it's commanded, and we must do it.

But if we're talking about sheer influence and impact, you're really, really talking about what the preached word does almost as a, a launching point, and then everything else comes into perspective when all of that preaching in, you know, 52 weeks of a year is fleshed out in the local church.

So that's, that's how I would start off in answering that question.

Well, and that's, that's important groundwork to lay on both fronts.

I mean, obviously we're articulating here the, the conviction we would have about a pastor's role as a shepherd, which we could even talk about that metaphor, you know, as we progress here.

But, but we're all-- We're, we're not in that in any way diminishing this absolute necessity, responsibility, command, mandate to preach the Word in the local church.

And obviously, I mean, you guys in your ministry, I mean, both you guys have been in ministry for 40, 40 years.

I mean, how many thousands of sermons have you preached and continued to preach week after week after week and poured yourself out for hours into the study? You don't look back on that time and diminish that in any way.

Absolutely vital, necessary, essential, commanded for the life of, of any local church.