Jesus reserved his most critical condemnation for professional religious people who presumed their "rightness" (Matt. 23:2-4, 13-15). Martin Luther said, I have often been afraid and awed to think that I have to preach before God's face of his great majesty and divine being."5

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a great British preacher, commented that he had preached a good sermon only twice in his life, and both times he had been asleep. "I still remember the awful feeling of disappointment, on both occasions, when I found I was only dreaming. If only I could preach like that in the pulpit when I was awake."6 The most effective preachers rightly remain dissatisfied with their best efforts and feel inadequate to the next occasion. As Thomas Long warns, "Preaching is a wild river, wide and deep," and preachers have to "navigate its currents."7

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The image of preaching as swimming in a river can also be used to describe the cultural context. Streams and rivers have a profound long-term influence on their environments. Sourced in high places by springs, rainfall, and snowfall, they begin to move downward, joining other tributaries, deepening, and widening. They encounter obstacles, fall over sheer rock faces, and tumble through narrow gorges and over massive boulders. A river's power, which allows it to surge, overwhelm, and burst its banks, demands continuing respect. Over time, the imprint rivers leave on the land can be breathtaking. With climatic change or shifts in sea level, they can create spectacular environments. When standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon, it is difficult to imagine that rivers created this landscape, yet they did. Rivers shape environments and bring life to inhabitants living on their banks. When preachers swim in God's news, they belong to the contemporary world with its new, rough terrain of postmodernity. Their swim interacts with culture as they engage Scripture and interpret it for their hearers. Over time the flow of God's truth through preachers should impact the entire environment.

The preaching swim moves from source to destination, providing a model of sermon preparation as a progression of phases. For convenience, the preaching swim process will be described by a number of stages containing various phases. Yet in reality, the process involves being churned backward and forward by surges, crosscurrents, and obstacles. After all, preachers move toward nothing less than fresh encounters with God. And God's Word does not return empty.

One further aspect of the preaching swim should be stressed — its fellowship. Each preacher is responsible for being immersed within the dynamic of God's Word but never as a solo act. Many others swim alongside. William Willimon reminds preachers that they belong to the community of the baptized,8 for many are on the Christian journey. In David Schlafer's language, preachers have "preaching parents" and "enter into a procession of other voices,"9 especially through Bible commentaries and other study aids. And as already noted, preachers can intentionally develop preaching teamwork by inviting others to swim alongside. Preaching support groups, even in the smallest church settings, can benefit preachers immensely.