ArticleBlog | Preaching Research The relationship between God, the people and the preacher
Preaching Research The relationship between God, the people and the preacher
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 02.03.19
In one of the churches where I have preached regularly, an elderly church-goer often prayed with me before a service, asking God to equip and strengthen me for the preaching task. He regularly used the expression, ‘We place Tim at the foot of the cross.’. Although I found this expression quaintly unusual, I never asked what precisely was meant by it. My perception was that the cross, or more precisely Jesus’ death on a cross, is the centre of all preaching. While I greatly appreciated the prayer, as I do any prayer made for me as a preacher, I have often wondered why nobody ever prays for the listeners. Shouldn’t they also be ‘placed at the foot of the cross’? All the responsibility of the preaching task seems to be on the preacher. I would like to rethink that.
A s I prepare to preach I am constantly aware that God is profoundly important to what I preach, especially in Jesus’ saving work on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. God is the author of salvation and the primary authority in preaching. That needs no rethink. Yet without the congregation, preaching cannot function. I recall an evangelist (wholly committed to preaching the saving work of Jesus on the cross), who preached in the declining era of ‘tent ministries’.
