Good morning Berean,
We, the teachers, and I, the lead pastor, need your active help when we preach/teach.
We preach and teach to make disciples. My goal is to make my time in the pulpit as effective as possible. I want you to learn and grow as a follower of Christ. I don’t want to preach over your head or around your head. I want to preach to your head and heart and when I am not getting to your mind, please ask yourself: Is the problem with me or him? Am I distracted? Am I not putting the effort in to follow the text and see the conclusions being made?
Preaching is unlike anything else you participate in throughout the week. It requires active listening. It requires continuous cognitive function. It necessitates the Spirit of God speaking to you and you hearing the Spirit. This effort I am describing is God-glorifying. It is an act of worship. It is your reasonable service to the God who has spoken to his creation.
Consider the reality that a saved sinner is preaching to saved and unsaved sinners in a group setting. We all have a sin nature and it would be so easy to disconnect. Is that what you do—to your own peril? I hope not. I pray not.
Now, to the part where I need your help. Every person in this church who teaches desires to do this better. Period. All of us, it is a team effort to use preaching and teaching to make disciples. We need your feedback. It is necessary to make this objective more effective. If we don’t hear from you we don’t know if we are connecting. “Great job!” is not the feedback we need. We need to know when we connected and why and, in particular, when we missed the target.
Nearly all teaching in Berean comes from the exegesis of a main text. For example, today the text comes from the end of John 10. Our goal is to explain the text (thinking and being) and draw application (doing and proclaiming). Sometimes, in an effort to do this well, we take you to supporting texts outside of the main text, in my case John 10. Today we are going to Isaiah briefly. When the teacher leaves the main text and goes to a supporting text, listen closely for the WHY. We are committed to explaining the why. When we don’t explain the why, or you don’t see the connection, please give me (us) feedback. I want to do this well. I don’t want you lost. I don’t want you to wonder why are we going to Isaiah or Psalms, etc. I want it to be obvious!
If you don’t think it was obvious why the teacher made a diversion to a specific text please come up front and tell us after the service. We are not going to get better without feedback. It is that simple. We must set our pride aside and recognize we are still learning how to preach effectively.
Will you help us?
