"Striking Out In the Pulpit"

Just this past Lord's Day, I preached at an assisted living home and felt as though I had not been nearly as clear with my statements as I had intended to be. I was preaching on Romans 1:16-17, on the power of the gospel and felt that inadequate to paint the picture as beautifully as it deserved. I was very discouraged, to the point that each word of praise seemed to be adding salt to my wounds.

Later that evening I picked up and continued reading some of James Earl Massey's book entitled, Stewards of the Story: the task of preaching (I'm reading this with the intention of reviewing it for SharperIron) and was greatly encouraged by his comments about the feeling of displeasure with ones own preaching. He says,

Among the many memorable and insightful cartoons Charles Schulz created in his Peanuts series, there is that now-classic one that shows Charlie Brown striking out while at bat. As Charlie walked away from the plate, disgusted with himself, he saw Lucy seated on a nearby bench and lamented to her, "I'll never be a Big-League player! I just don't have it! All my life I've dreamed of playing in the Big Leagues, but I know I'll never make it!"...

How I remember the many Charlie Brown moments when disgust filled me after striking out in the pulpit! What preacher hasn't had such moments? After "striking out" many times early in my ministry, I found encouragement in something Aurelius Augustine (AD 354-430), bishop of Hippo, confessed about his preaching efforts. Intent to help a discouraged friend regain inspiration to continue his work with readiness, Augustine wrote On Teaching the Uninitiated, and in that treatise admitted his own felt limitations as a preacher:

For my part, I am nearly always displeased with my discourse. For I am desirous of something better, which I often inwardly enjoy before I begin to unfold my thought in spoken words; but when I find that my powers of expression come short of my knowledge of the subject, I am sorely disappointed that my tongue has not been able to answer the demands of my mind. For I desire my hearer to understand all that I understand; and I feel that I am not speaking in such a manner as to effect that. This
is so chiefly because intuition floods the mind, as it were, with a sudden flash of light, while the expression of it in speech is a slow, drawn-out, and far different process.

Massey, Stewards of the Story. (Louisville:Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), pp. 8-9.

2 Timothy 2:15 says, "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth." (ESV)

BTW, the cover picture on this book is awesome. It's a picture of the pulpit in Beeson Divinity Chapel featuring wood carvings of John Chystostom, Jan Hus, John Knox, and George Whitefield.

"Striking Out In the Pulpit"