A Church Is More Than Its Preacher

This past Lord’s Day, another man stood in our pulpit and opened the Word of God to us. That may seem like a fairly ordinary occurrence in the life of a church, but there is something worth noticing in it.

A healthy church should be thankful for faithful pastors and teachers. Scripture tells us to esteem those who labour among us, and preaching occupies a central place in the life of Christ’s church. But precisely because preaching matters so much, we must remember that the power of preaching does not ultimately lie in the preacher. A church is not built around one man’s personality, gifts, voice, or style. It is built by Christ through his Word.

The Corinthians needed to learn this. They had begun gathering around their preferred teachers. “I follow Paul,” said some. “I follow Apollos,” said others. Paul responded with a question that exposed how badly they had misunderstood the church: “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Corinthians 1:13).

Later he asks, “What then is Apollos? What is Paul?” His answer is instructive: “Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each” (3:5).

That is what every preacher is. A servant.

The Treasure Is Greater Than the Jar

Paul uses another memorable image when he says, “We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Corinthians 4:7).

There is nothing particularly impressive about a clay jar. Its importance lies in what it contains. So it is with gospel ministry. The treasure is glorious precisely because the treasure is Christ.

This is one reason it is healthy for a congregation to hear different faithful men preach. One preacher may be more experienced than another. One may be naturally more eloquent. One may emphasize things another would not have noticed. Personalities, styles, illustrations, and abilities differ. But when Scripture is faithfully opened and Christ is faithfully proclaimed, the same treasure is being set before the church.

That is an important lesson in our personality-driven age. We have unprecedented access to gifted Christian teachers. Within seconds we can listen to our favourite preacher from almost anywhere in the world. That can be a wonderful gift, but it can also subtly train us to become consumers of preaching. We develop preferences. We compare styles. We learn which voices we enjoy and which we do not.

Before long, we can begin evaluating preaching the way we evaluate restaurants.

The New Testament teaches us to ask a better question: Was the Word of God faithfully proclaimed?

If it was, receive it gladly.

The Church Must Raise Up Men

There is another reason Sundays like this matter. The church must think beyond the present generation.

Paul told Timothy, “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2). There are several generations of gospel ministry contained in that sentence. Paul teaches Timothy. Timothy teaches faithful men. Those men will teach still others.

Christian ministry is meant to reproduce itself.

No faithful church should be content merely to have good preaching today. We should pray for good preaching twenty, forty, and sixty years from now. That means identifying, encouraging, training, and giving opportunities to men who may preach long after the present pastors are gone.

And they must be given opportunities.

No preacher begins as a finished preacher. A man can study preaching, read good books, listen to excellent sermons, and receive theological training, but eventually he must stand before God’s people with an open Bible and preach. Some lessons can only be learned there.

That requires something from the congregation too. It requires patience, encouragement, and a willingness to see ourselves not merely as recipients of ministry but as participants in raising up another generation of ministers.

A congregation that gladly encourages developing preachers is investing in churches it may never see.

None of Us Is Indispensable

There is also something wonderfully humbling about all of this for pastors. We are temporary.

Every pastor eventually preaches his last sermon. Some retire. Some are called elsewhere. Some become unable to continue because of illness. And unless the Lord returns first, every pastor eventually dies.

The church does not. Christ promised, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).

Notice the pronouns. I will build my church.

That truth frees pastors from the exhausting illusion that everything depends upon us. It also frees congregations from placing a weight upon pastors that they were never designed to carry.

The church does not finally need a particular preacher. It needs Christ.

And Christ has not entrusted the future of his church to the longevity of any one man.

He raises up servants. He gives gifts. He calls pastors. He trains teachers. He equips another generation. And through weak jars of clay, he continues placing the same priceless treasure before his people.

So we should thank God when he gives us faithful preachers. We should pray for them, encourage them, and receive their ministry with gratitude.

But we should never confuse the servant with the Master.

This past Sunday was a small reminder of something much larger. Christ has been building his church for two thousand years through countless men whose names most Christians have never known. One generation preached the gospel and entrusted it to the next. That generation did the same. And eventually the Word reached us.

Now it is our turn to pass it on.

The voices will change. The servants will come and go. The jars of clay will eventually return to dust.

But the treasure remains.

The Word remains.

And the church belongs to Jesus Christ.