7 Deadly Sins of Preaching
Temptations of the miked.
April 1, 2007
When I first started preaching, I assumed that becoming a preacher/teacher/pastor would confer spiritual maturity because you get to study the Bible, talk about it each week, and get paid for it. In actuality, preaching can make spiritual health much harder. Here are a few of things that ensnare those of us who preach. 1. Being inauthentic. How often have you heard (or said), "I don't watch much TV, but I saw something recently … " Now why do we say, "I don't watch much TV"? Because we don't want people thinking we just sit in the La-Z-Boy every night. It's so tempting to project an image that we want people to see, and it leaks out in our words, our tone of voice, even our posture and gestures. 2. Fear. When I was starting out in ministry, I remember reading a news story about a pastor who was preaching the book of Revelation when somebody in his congregation shot him. That scared me. I've not had that kind of opposition. So far. But I have had the fears of how I am doing, and how people think I'm doing, and how I get a group of people who are resistant to turn in a different direction. It's easy to live in fear. 3. Comparison. The first church where I preached was in Southern California. One Sunday a visitor met me and told me he attended Hollywood Presbyterian Church, where the legendary Lloyd Ogilvie was preaching at that time. Have you ever heard Lloyd Ogilvie's rich, deep, resonant voice? He sounds like what I think God would sound like on a really good day. So this visitor hands me his business card. He's a speech instructor. He said, "Give me a call sometime." All I could think was that to someone who listens to Lloyd Ogilvie, I must sound like Mickey Mouse saying, "Okay now, let's repent." We face this temptation ...
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