A preacher should listen to preaching. He does this not to help him preach better (although that is a possible byproduct) but to listen to the preached Word. Most preachers can make a biblical argument for the power of preaching, God's intention for the sufficiency of the proclaimed Word, and how that proclamation changes lives. In some circles, preaching is understood as a part of the ordinary means of grace. So if the preacher believes this for those who hear his preaching, he should also seek out and listen to good preaching weekly for himself.
Imagine my concern when I asked a young professor with a doctorate in homiletics who he regularly listens to for his edification, and he said he didn't. Instead, he listens to a podcast of various biblical scholars discussing Scripture. Another pastor once said he goes to an annual pastor's conference where he can hear four or five sermons. "This is great," I remarked, "but what would you say to a church member if the only time she listened to preaching was at a weekend conference?" Both of these preacher's views demonstrate a low opinion of preaching.
Inevitably, I'll go to conferences or annual meetings within my denomination, and there will be as many people chatting in the lobby as in the main room during the preaching. Typically, the younger church planters and their network leaders are in the foyer while the seasoned pastors sit under the preached sermons. How telling! Sadly, I've spent too much time in the lobby when God could have significantly blessed me through preaching of his Word. As a church planter, I needed God's Word preached by a faithful pastor in the trenches far more than I needed what little I got in the lobby from other church planters.
Recently, I watched a national pastors' conference packed full of preaching. When it came time to elect the Pastor's Conference President for the following year, pastors poured in with their favorite preacher-guy to get him elected. Even on the live stream, you could see them taking selfies with their hero-preacher. They were talking and cutting up in the back of the room while a brother was preaching. Yet, the hero and his fanboys all claim they are serious about the preached Word of God. Their actions spoke otherwise.
Here are some tips for preachers that I've found helpful. And I believe they'd be beneficial for non-preachers too!
1. Develop a habit of listening to preaching every week. We know it's better to be at worship services than not, but it's different for the regular preacher. It's also better to have a steady diet of sermons than not. Therefore, the preacher needs to find ways to get a steady diet of preaching. The diet may not be the best (because it's recorded, for example), but a weekly habit will prove valuable over the long haul.
2. Seek opportunities to sit under live preaching. It's much easier for a preacher in a church with a plurality of preaching Elders to sit under live preaching, but not every preacher has that, and it is rare to have that every week. Make an effort to attend conferences where the Word of God is preached. Try setting up a monthly meeting of preachers where one of the group preaches to the others and trade-off. Or even find a mid-week or afternoon, or morning service elsewhere you can attend to sit under live preaching.
3. Leverage Technology. While it's always better to be in the room with other brothers and sisters sitting under live preaching, that can't always happen for the preacher. But we live in a beautiful time of technology. Install apps or subscribe to podcasts of sermons. Since the recordings are missing aspects of the live preaching, listen to two or three sermons per week. It won't ultimately make up for the lack, but it will help.
I hit a point while church planting when I felt empty and malnourished. I didn't feel this way while on staff at another church. What happened? Many were telling me, "church planting is hard work." The hard work is actual, but it's no excuse for spiritual malnutrition. Rather than be encouraged to sit under preaching, I was given more books about hard work and sent to conferences where they gave me "best practices" for doing the hard work. I was invited to lunches with other church planters, where inevitably, we'd all compare ourselves to one another and then hear more tips for doing the work. Oh, how I could have used a faithful, biblical sermon from the Word of God at those lunches!
I eventually realized that I needed to sit under preaching. So I determined to seek opportunities to sit under live preaching and found some here and there. I downloaded some apps and subscribed to some church sermon podcasts nationally and locally. I went back and watched all the T4G sermons on Youtube. It was great, but then a week passed when I didn't listen to a sermon. Then two. Then a few.
Early in my Christian walk, I learned that the best way to read the Bible and develop Bible reading habits is to have a plan. Thanks to read-through-in-a-year plans, I've read the Bible many times, sometimes even two or three times a year. Habits were formed and kept. I started tracking my progress. It's not legalism but a way to help me stay accountable. If I miss a day, I notice and get back to it. I'm also highly encouraged to see the fruit of faithful plodding.
Shortly after COVID hit, I decided I needed a plan to sit under the preached Word. I needed a way to track my regular progress. At the time of this writing, I'm reflecting on the 3rd anniversary of the start of my tracking. I've listened to 408 sermons preached by 87 different preachers. I know thirty-two of those men and call them friends, most of whom pastor (or pastored) locally. Some preachers are more well-known, and some are obscure. Some men are dead, or if not, the sermons I heard were preached long ago. Some sermons were preached only days earlier or live-streamed. Some were heard in person, in the room. I've listened to some great and some less-than-great preaching, but most of it was faithful. It works out to 2-3 sermons per week, but in reality, it was typically only one sermon per week when I sat under live preaching and four or five on the weeks when I didn't. And through all of it, my soul has been incredibly blessed by the preaching of God's Word.
The bottom line is that if Christians should listen to weekly preaching, the preacher must too. He should listen to others preach the Word every week. And today, that's not too tough to do, even for the preacher. Faith comes by hearing (Romans 10:17). Christians should listen to their pastors every week. The preacher should be wise enough to find good preaching to sit under every week. It can start today.
