The First Thing I'd Say...

We live in an amazing age. Signals carrying visual and audio information can be broadcast and released from almost everywhere, even your local church. This has changed the way the Church and more specifically believers receive information not only about the news and events, but also the teachings of teachers and the preaching of preachers all around the country and the world.

There's the Podcast. More and more churches are giving others glimpses into what their preachers, teachers, and visionaries are communicating. I have a hunch that the podcast is becoming one of the most popular devotional tools for many people. Many people who either cannot read or simply don't like reading can hear and even be entertained by the speaking of dynamic preachers and teachers. There's Youtube. This epic compiling of almost every video on the internet gives us, in addition to the messages we hear, visual presentations that we see of these preachers and teachers. Not to mention, a new site called videoteaching.com, which has concise and well-edited entire teachings.

So there you go. Now, I have not written this to recommend or advertise things that you, for the most part, already know about. But I have written these things to provide an introduction for a point that is rather important, if not slightly liberating to me.

There are two things that you should know about me. The first thing is that I am called to, among other things, be a preacher and a teacher. I am not only called to this, but the Good Lord has blessed me with a passion for it. The second thing that you should know about me is that I am a dynamic learner, which means that I value individual creative expression. I am the kind of guy who really enjoys listening or seeing the artistic expression of others, be it paintings or music... I like reading album reviews in magazines, for instance, not to find out if the reviewer thought it was good or not, but rather to investigate what the band or artist is up to artistically. I can spend far too much time on the above-mentioned Youtube listening to music and watching films, enjoying the diverse creativity. As I study theology, this tendency has wandered over into the realm of theologians and likewise those preachers and teachers who teach and preach these things and things having to do with these things. I enjoy listening and watching sermons online and seeing how certain pastors communicate things. The beauty of this is that I can celebrate all of the diverse gifts God has placed inside of people. On a negative side, this gives me a tendency to compare people and compare myself with others, and this brings me very close to my point. Knowing this about myself, I wonder if this would be helpful to anyone but me. I want to make my point in two contexts.

The first context. I remember Dr. Seamands, one class period, frowning at the notion of pastors listening to podcast sermons and plagiarizing them and essentially copying for instance, the latest Rob Bell or Rick Warren sermon. This was in the context of, I believe, a discussion about preaching from your heart and to your own faith community. I remember that this surprised me, I had never heard anyone do this before, copy a sermon that is. But as I think about how easy it is to subscribe to a podcast, click onto Youtube, and to simply have an instant and exhaustive reservoir of interesting and exciting teaching at their disposal, it seems that this might be a legitimate temptation for many pastors. Also, I think that there may be a tendency for many pastors listening to those podcasts and videos to get wrapped up and even sort of fall in love with, not only the message, but the style, imagination, and cleverness of these preachers and teachers. From this may develop a desire to be more like those that they listen to, to emulate these preachers and teachers.

The second context. Personally, as mentioned above, I have the tendency to compare people. As I have had more and more opportunities to see and hear different teachers and preachers online and in person, I continue to struggle against this tendency. What can start with harmless intentions of wanting to, among other things, learn more about the diversity of ways to practice this fantastic thing called preaching can turn into a harmful and prideful and arrogant measuring that ends in fearful insecurity. While I am certainly finding increasing victory in this area of my life, I believe that it is a legitimate danger. And this too ends with the conclusion that I need to be more like these preachers and teachers in my style and method.

Considering both these contexts, if I had the opportunity by some far off chance to speak and teach about preaching to other preachers and teachers, I do believe that the first thing I'd say would be, "Be you...Be who you are...be who God has created you to be." I know this seems a little simple, but I want to say it. Amidst all the charisma, talent, and abilities of many of these widely-listened-to preachers and teachers, the world would be lacking if it was void of the unique characteristics divinely sealed inside of you. The world does not need another John Piper, Francis Chan, Rob Bell, Charles Stanley, Craig Groeschel, Rick Warren, Irwin McManus or insert the name of any other preacher you are fond of. The world needs what God is doing through one of them, not more than one. And the world needs what God is going to do through one of you and your own beautiful, different, and wonderfully odd personality.

Psalm 139 is a passage that heavily implies a great amount of intentionality with which God formed and made each of us. Why do we need to change the things that God has placed intrinsically within us. Don't you think that God meant you to be you, even when he has called you to preach and teach. Or take the gospels for example. Each gospel is a different shade, a different color, a different hue. Each is inspired and called to emphasize something differently about Jesus. Each make critical brushstrokes to the portrait of Jesus. Likewise, when you have set a part Jesus as Lord and are rooted in the Truth, your unique self adds a critical brushstroke to what God is doing in the Church and the world today. And I am certainly not trying to build up your pride or puff you up, but to affirm you and encourage you in who you are, along with myself, and everyone else called to this amazing, creative, artistic, fantastic, terrifying gift of preaching and teaching. And this can be said of everyone desiring to use the gifts that God has given them.

I think that we can admire and desire to grow in the passion and even skill that we see in many of these podcast preachers and teachers, but not at the cost of our own unique personalities.

Be You.