James Savastio offers a wonderful article for pastors on the Reformed Baptist Fellowship blog — he is focusing on the idea of “preaching to the choir”:
Some years ago I began to have a slightly different and liberating take on that phrase. I learned to preach exclusively to my church, to the people of God under my care, to the people who were sitting under my ministry. I realized that there were times in my ministry when I would be critical of other churches and other ministries who had no representatives in my congregation. They did not hear me and most likely never would hear my criticisms and suggestions at how they needed to change. The end result was not so much faithfulness in exposing false teaching, but rather making ourselves look good. At some point or other I had a bit of an epiphany that I needed to stop preaching to people who weren’t there and start addressing those who were. It probably struck me one day when I was preaching about people who are not committed to the life of the church, when the only people who were there were those who were committed to the life of the church! Those who are not under our ministries are easy targets. They do not listen to me. They’ll probably never hear a word I say. Hence, they do not get offended. I can be seen as faithful and bold in my denunciations of sins which are not prevalent in my congregation (I rarely have homosexuals or pro-abortionists in my congregation). It is not that sins brought up in the text ought not to be addressed; it is that they ought to be addressed with special application to “the choir.” It is this “choir” for whom I will give an account. It is this “choir” who need my encouragements and my exhortations and, when needed, my rebukes. For pastors to preach effectively, we must not only seek to know our culture and the world out there, but those who are actually hearing our voices.
Filed under: Ecclesiology, Leadership, Ministry, Missional, Pastoral, Preaching, quote, worship
