I’m pleased to be serving on a newly reconstituted steering committee for the Synod’s “Preach The Word” resource, which began about a decade ago in anticipation of the 500th Anniversary of the Ninety-Five Theses. Ten modules were prepared and produced through early 2020, and then the effort was paused (along with many other things in that eventful year). Under the direction of Dr. Carl Fickenscher (CTSFW) and Rev. Jonathan Manor (LCMS Office of National Missions), “Preach The Word” has been rebooted for the sake of providing assistance, encouragements, and support for preachers of the Gospel throughout The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.
While I am pleased to be serving on the steering committee for this effort, and I was chagrined to discover that this resource had appeared and been made available over a period of years, without my being aware of it. I suspect it is because I was up to my eyebrows in other writing projects at the time, but still, it is a shame that I did not even know what I was missing. Thankfully, those first ten modules are still readily available on the Synod’s website, covering a variety of topics pertinent to the office and task of preaching. Especially if you have also been unfamiliar and unaware of this resource in the past, I encourage you to take a look and check it out HERE.
Whereas the “Preach The Word” modules were originally intended to be used, ideally, by triads of pastors working closely together over a series of months, they also lend themselves very well to group discussion and workshopping within Circuit Winkels, and that latter sort of use is likely to be more inviting and feasible for the pastors of the Synod. I’ve already recommended that our Circuit Visitors take a look at this possibility, and I hope that some of our Circuits give it a try.
The new steering committee is just getting started with its work, but we are hoping to prepare and produce some additional modules, in addition to the ten that are already available. Besides that, we are exploring and considering other ways of encouraging and assisting the preachers of the Gospel across our Synod. We will be looking to collaborate with a number of the Church’s seasoned pastors in providing the wisdom of their experience relative to the homiletical task.
Honing our craft as preachers does not add anything to the Word of God, which alone is able to break hearts of stone and recreate them into hearts of flesh that fear, love, and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. But as the Lord in His wisdom and mercy chooses to work through means, among which are those men – those mortal “earthen vessels” – whom He calls, ordains, and sends in His Name and stead as agents and ambassadors of His Gospel, we rightly seek to place all our skills and whatever aptitudes and talents the Lord has given us into the service of this holy vocation. In much the same way did the Lord provide the necessary skills and craftsmanship to those whom He identified for the construction, furnishing, and adornment of the Old Testament Tabernacle. So do we also reverently adorn the Ministry of the Gospel in all that ways that we are able, all by the grace of God, as He so enables and equips us, to the praise and glory of His Holy Name.
Along these very lines, I was particularly struck by some of the introductory comments that Dr. Fickenscher shared with the steering committee as we were convening for the first time to begin this new phase of “Preach The Word.” I suspect that his words would already be familiar to those who have had him for Homiletics at the Seminary, but they were new to me. He noted that every pastor who faithfully declares the Word of God, rightly dividing the Word of Truth, the Law and the Gospel, and pointing the people to Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the dead, is already a good preacher. Christ be praised for every pastor who is doing just that, week in and week out, all year long! Our goal with “Preach The Word,” and no doubt the goal of every LCMS preacher, is to express those good things to the best of our ability, in whatever ways will least intrude upon the Word itself, and in whatever ways will assist God’s people to hear and remember His Word.