Today is Friday, which should mean your pastor is working on Sunday's sermon. Let's hope your pastor is not like the old joke about the minister who used the hymn right before the sermon to prepare! It is, after all, your sermon...at least in part.
Thomas Long of Candler School of Theology writes, "The picture of the preacher sitting alone in the study, working with a biblical text in preparation for the sermon, is misleading. It is not the preacher who goes to the Scripture; it is the church that goes to the Scripture by means of the preacher." ("The Witness of Preaching," p. 49)
We all have questions about life and about God. Many laypeople work for a living, with little time during the week to study the Bible. Those who are faithful in studying the Bible haven't had the privilege of a seminary education in the Scriptures. So we come to church with legitimate expectations about the sermon. We want our pastor to voice the questions we have for God and...this is why it's partly your sermon and all God's...we want the sermon to give us a good word from the Bible. Could it be that one reason some sermons aren't engaging is because we're not telling our pastors what we need to learn from the Word?
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