The Gospel Ministry is loaded with responsibilities: caring for a flock, running a business, keeping things legal, bringing new people to Christ, performing weddings, burying the dead, a positive community image and most of all preaching and teaching the Word of God. A man of God wears many hats: pastor, preacher, chief theologian, counselor, comforter, peacemaker and the man who has the answers to most everything. On top of other things, he is usually a husband, father, community leader and political expert.

The squeaky wheel usually gets the grease; the urgent often prevails over much more important things. Like study! Good men are prone to neglect study, the goose which lays the golden eggs. All of those pastoral responsibilities take priority over that which will make or break you in the ministry. The good is always the biggest enemy of the best. It’s easy for a man of God to feel pretty pious about how busy and hard-working he is for the Lord while his sermons are growing increasingly shallow and repetitious. 

One of Milton Greggory’s 7 laws of teaching is: You cannot teach that which you do not know. How do people learn and know? Study! Yes! Knowing (including the Bible) is not something mystical. Paul said, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth,” 2 Timothy 2:15. As people give themselves to reading, research, observation, listening to people who have knowledge, working exercises and solving problems for themselves, they learn. Knowing doesn’t come all at once, but little by little. It is not difficult to see why Paul said to young Timothy (and to every gospel minister), “give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine,” 1 Timothy 4:13, and “Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things,” 2 Timothy 2:7. Knowing and having something to say does not come by osmosis or because you have a high IQ. No! It comes by the plain-ole method called study. It requires time and hard work.

Sermons! Oh, they’re tattle-tales. Within the first 3 minutes, you can tell whether a preacher has something to say or is just going to say something. In a sermon, a preacher’s vocabulary is on public display. Right away it becomes clear whether his sermon is well-prepared: exegetical, well-structured, rich with color and appropriate illustrations, full of heart, sermonic and free of pathologies. It’s not hard to see whether or not his sermon has a theme, stays on point and brings people to the bar. Within minutes you can tell whether or not he has been in the Word and with God. Substance and rhetoric are both easy to recognize. Fresh, passionate Bible preaching quickly stands out; it doesn’t look anything like showmanship, slumgullion stew or old hash. People sense when they’re being fed a great Bible meal as opposed to pot-luck leftovers. 

The Achilles Heel for too many preachers is lack of study. Haddon Robinson said a sermon must be born and reborn. It’s born in the study; it’s reborn in the pulpit. Obviously, there can be no rebirth where there has been no birth. To know what the Word of God says, a man of God must get into His Word. He must read it, delve into its depths and meditate on it. He must study its language types, styles and intricacies. He must learn the background information: the historical setting, customs of the day and who is talking to whom and about what. He must get hold of themes and contexts. He must always compare any given text with the whole Bible. 

Learning is hard, exacting work, especially learning the Bible; but a man who doesn’t learn it cannot preach it. Sad to say, that’s not a deterrent to some. 

Success in the pulpit takes lots of time and preparation. The sermon must be prepared, but the heart must also be prepared. Both take serious, quality time with God and in His Word. Every preacher has the same amount of time: 24 hours every day and 7 days every week. How we use the time we’re given is a choice: family, Facebook, TV, on the phone, fellowshipping with the brethren, conferences, fishing, tending the sick, counseling, organize the files, overseeing building and maintenance work, supervising, running a Christian school, soul-winning and this list could go on for a long time. 

You may have noticed that study is not on this list. Sadly, study is an afterthought for too many preachers; a sort of tack-on, lower priority matter, throw something together at the last minute. After all, you can always plagiarize a sermon from one of the big preachers, dress it up a bit and act like it is yours. That doesn’t take nearly as much study. Men do it, and then wonder why there is so little Power in the Pulpit. 
You may have noticed that study is not on this list. Sadly, study is an afterthought for too many preachers; a sort of tack-on, lower priority matter, throw something together at the last minute. After all, you can always plagiarize a sermon from one of the big preachers, dress it up a bit and act like it is yours. That doesn’t take nearly as much study. Men do it, and then wonder why there is so little Power in the Pulpit. 

Study is key to success in the pulpit. Men who are serious about “Preach the Word” will give themselves to the Word. Studying the Word will be a priority, not a tack-on or afterthought. When church things began to eat up the time of the apostles, they set aside deacons to take care of some of those “things” (Acts 6). Every preacher who intends to succeed in the pulpit will have a serious time to study God’s Word. It will be as much a part of his schedule as meals and restroom stops. He will dig and dig, search the Scriptures, study the language, read, pray and meditate. With diligence!

It’s the only way to shew thyself approved unto God.

Dr. Lester Hutson
Staff Writer – Northwest Baptist Church