How do preaching and leadership intersect?
Pastoral work is feeding and leading. Of course, people would rather be fed than led. They like to hear things that warm their soul, encourage them, and give them insight.
When you say, “It’s time for us to move, not just feed,” the flock will mumble. But a pastor, by definition, is a shepherd who is not only feeding, but also is taking people somewhere.
My goal in preaching is to help people capture God’s vision and align themselves with it. I never see my teaching as simply educational. It’s always prophetic, pointing forward, calling to advance. It’s leading them to stretch.
How do you stretch people and nurture their souls at the same time?
I want to lead people with fresh understandings. First, God made you with a purpose and destiny. Second, God’s love has embraced you and is going to get you there. As you move toward that goal, God is beside you, supporting you. Third, whatever the apparent struggle or reversal, there is going to be ultimate triumph.
Tell us about a time when you preached specifically to lead.
I felt the Lord move my heart toward purchasing property before anything had been presented to the congregation. I brought a series of messages from Joshua entitled, “Possess Your Tomorrows.”
This was not manipulative. I wasn’t thinking, I’ll preach this so I can use it on them later. Even if the acquisition never happened, I had fed my flock something practical. I was conditioning them to stretch, to expand their sense of God’s readiness to act, and to help them recognize there would be a price to pay.
I preached the texts in which God said, “I have a place for you and a promised purpose for you in that place.” This would not be without vision, faith, struggles, and failures. That series never once discussed the acquisition of property. I brought the series because God is beckoning every person in my congregation toward new possibilities. My first concern was to feed them with principles for possessing what God had for them.
Is leadership infused into every message?
Yes. The target is to nurture the benevolent purpose of God for his people. It’s not to get them to meet ethical requirements or congregational goals. It’s to help each person become what he or she was meant to be.
Jack Hayford is founding pastor of Church on the Way in Los Angeles.
—from PreachingToday.com, our online journal and illustration service.
Copyright © 2002 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
