When I first started preaching, I had no idea what to do. I had listened to sermons but had no concept of how to prepare one. So I prayed fervently and practiced reverse engineering to figure out biblical exegesis, sermonic structure, sermon content, illustrations, applications, introductions and conclusions.
I remember hearing one preacher humorously say that the key to a good sermon is to give a good introduction and a good conclusion and keep them as close together as possible. I heard another preacher, in the same vein, say that there is no such thing as a bad short sermon. While both pieces of advice provided healthy guardrails on sermon length, they did little to help me with sermon preparation.
After three years of pastoring a Kentucky Baptist church, a friend gave me a copy of Bryan Chapell’s book, Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon. His book provided the instruction I needed to prepare and preach biblical sermons.
I would love to have had access to the type of instruction being provided today by Kentucky Baptist leaders, churches and associations through Practical Preaching Workshops. These leaders are striving to do what I needed to have done for me – equip biblically qualified men to prepare and preach biblical sermons.
Why do Kentucky Baptists need to work together to train men to preach? Here are five reasons:
1. Because the pipeline is empty: At any time, there are 280-300 open pastor positions in Kentucky Baptist churches. Most of these positions are for churches looking for a bivocational pastor. In many places where these churches are located the pipeline for Kentucky Baptist bivocational pastors is empty. In some locations, churches have gone years without finding a qualified man to lead the work of their church. One church where I preached a few weeks ago met on Sundays to read the Bible, sing a song, pray and go home. That church now has a faithful pastor and has grown substantially.
2. Because there are qualified men available: Some of the men who will likely pastor these churches are currently sitting in churches in the same community as the one looking for a pastor. They are deacons, Sunday School teachers and lay leaders in a neighboring church who fit the biblical qualifications of an elder and with a little training could deliver biblical sermons.
3. Because many of our pastors have little formal training: There are plenty of men, just like me when I started preaching, who meet the biblical qualifications of an elder but who have no formal training. I would have benefited from the work being done through Practical Preaching Workshops. I am sure the people I preached to each Sunday would have also appreciated it if I had some training.
4. Because good preaching is needed: Healthy churches are built on faithful preaching. One thing that is central to a healthy Baptist church is that the word of God is being faithfully delivered week after week by a man who is called by God and believes what he is preaching. He applies the message to his own life first and then to the congregation. Churches that are fed a steady diet of biblical preaching week after week have the potential to become healthy, multiplying and growing congregations.
5. Because God has given us an open door: We are experiencing an opportunity here in Kentucky to see God do a great work. We have an invitation to respond to the need for more pastors by equipping biblically qualified men to faithfully preach His word to churches that are without pastors. My prayer is that we will one day look back on this time as a season when Kentucky Baptists prayed and worked together to train men to preach His word, and when we saw God fill pulpits with men who are trained and qualified to lead Kentucky Baptist churches into their best days of gospel ministry.
My desire is to see every Kentucky Baptist church thrive and every pastor cared for. Kentucky Baptists praying for men to answer the call to preach and then training those men are ways we can work together to reach Kentucky and the world for Christ. If you would like to know more about the Practical Preaching Handbook and how you can set up a workshop, visit kybaptist.org/handbook.
Dr. Todd Gray 