In a panel discussion on preaching at the LCMS Institute on Liturgy, Preaching, and Church Music this past week, we were asked to describe what we want our children and grandchildren to hear and receive from their pastors. As there were a couple of us district presidents on the panel, the question was also then rephrased for us, asking what we look and listen for in the preaching of our district pastors. Various answers were given by the panelists, all of them in one way or another pointing to the need for a faithful preaching of God’s Word as the “main thing.”
One brother talked about the desire for preaching that demonstrates a trust and confidence that all things in heaven and on earth, even in the midst of apparent chaos, are actually in the Lord’s providential care and under the sway of His Word as given and revealed to us in the Holy Bible. I appreciated that response and resonated with that desire, especially in the face of temptations to become anxious or even to despair because of what we see and experience in this fallen world. Let us take heart and preach and pray at all times in the certainty of our Lord’s Word and promises.
For my part, I indicated that, both for the sake of my children and my children’s children and for the sake of our Indiana District congregations and all their members, I’m not looking for humor, stories, or politics, but for the preaching of repentance and forgiveness of sins in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ (St. Luke 24:46-47). Not every pastor is going to be rhetorically eloquent, and none of us is going to be at the top of his game for every sermon he preaches, but we should by all means be intentionally Scriptural, Christocentric, and clearly aimed at the forgiveness of sins.
The best answer to the question was given by my friend and colleague, Dien Taylor, the Atlantic District President. He cut to the chase right out of the blocks in saying, “Give them Jesus.” That is finally what matters, what every person in every pew really needs, whether they even know it or not. “Google the rest,” Pr. Taylor said, but “give them Jesus.” Now, lest one suppose that he was being too simplistic in his answer, I should say that he very eloquently unpacked his point, not only in making an impassioned plea to the pastors present, but in preaching the very Gospel that he was extolling to each and all of us who were there.
In the course of his remarks, Pr. Taylor also observed that among our hearers, likely in every pew on any given occasion, there are brokenhearted people dealing with guilt and shame, hurt and sadness, pain and loss, and all manner of suffering, anxiety, doubts, and fears. Which is all the more reason to bear in mind that what they need is “Jesus,” not for condemnation, but for the forgiveness of sins and the sure and certain hope and promise of the Resurrection on the basis of His perfect and all-sufficient righteousness. Pr. Taylor offered examples of what those in the pew are perhaps dealing with, such as the family mourning the loved one killed in a traffic accident, or grieving for the expectant mother who was doing fine, until suddenly she wasn’t. And as it so happened, that very evening another colleague shared with me the devastating news of three newly-confirmed young people who were struck down and killed in a tragic accident.
One of the other panelists, Rev. Joshua Hayes, in a sermon he preached at one of the prayer offices during the Institute, beautifully demonstrated the very sort of preaching that Pr. Taylor was describing. He preached to the hurts and frustrations of the pastors and musicians who were there gathered, calling them gently to repentance for their anxiety and anger, but then also giving them Jesus in and with the Gospel of forgiveness. He preached peace to the brokenhearted. And the poignancy of that preaching was all but tangible in that congregation, because the truth is that we who are called to serve the Lord’s people – and in particular, we who are called to preach and teach the Word of the Lord to His people – are also subject to broken-heartedness in more ways than we can count or name, and so also in need of “Jesus” in His Word and in His very Flesh and Blood. Brothers in Christ, please know and take to heart that He is with you and for you in love!