This was a very interesting morning. We looked at being human, and how as a preacher which should try to remain human. Some preachers change their voice, others change their whole personna. We were encouraged to try and be ourselves with a little polishing needed in delivery by clearer diction. Ian talked about how preaching as a vocation can dehumanise you. While the preacher is stuck in the office preparing a sermon, the rest of the world are slogging their guts out trying to make ends meet.
Another point made was, if you detach preachers form pastoral ministry, they are in danger of not knowing people. Being with people is never wasting time. Which is interesting, as I always thought the dream job would be to be a teaching pastor of a Church, and hacve no other involvement in Chruch affairs. I have always thought each person should do one thing and do it well. So expecting a pastor or minister to be a person with many talents, would not only be unfair but unrealistic.
A quote was read from Graham Johnstons book 'Preaching to a postmodern world', that "we don't preach the Bible but we preach the Bible to people. And we don't teach the Bible, but we teach people the Bible."
So a really obvious but challenging question I found myself asking was, I may love preaching but do I love people?
We also looked at John 3v8 inthe context of preaching. We hear a sermon but the Holy Spirit can take it to many different places and people. There is a mystery in preaching that we cannot predict. There are things that are unseen, like the wind, but we see reactions to the wind(spirit).
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