So one of the reasons I have committed so much time, not only in teaching leadership
but communication, is I think they are so compatible. You show me a great leader
and I'll show you a person that became a great leader because of his or her
ability to communicate effectively. You can be a good preacher and not a good
leader but you cannot be a good leader without being a good preacher or a good
communicator. You have to be able to communicate the vision. What I love about
it is that they all do it differently, there is not a certain style or a certain
method. But they all have the ability to get their heart into the heart of their
people. And that is always done through preaching and through communication.
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__________________________
John
Maxwell is a former Senior Pastor who now leads InJoy in Atlanta, GA.
I
think the first thing a pastor must never do, is lose confidence in the power
of the preaching of the Word of God. So with all due respect, I don’t really
start with felt needs; I start with God’s Word. Because I believe that God’s
Word not only meets felt needs, I believe God’s Word will uncover needs that
people don’t even feel.
I’ll
give you an illustration. I don’t believe that sinfulness and the need to deal
with sinfulness is a felt need in a person’s life. If it was, our churches would
be crowded next Sunday with people who would say, “I’ve got a sin problem and
I want to get rid of it.” The fact of the matter is there is a world out there
that’s sinning, having a great time and enjoying it. So it’s not a felt need.
You have to show them why that needs to be a need in their life.
So
I begin with the understanding that the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged
sword and the truth is still able to cut and penetrate whether a person believes
it’s true or not. The sun rises in the east whether you believe it does or not.
And if you’re facing west tomorrow at nine-o-clock it’s going to shine on your
back — whether you believe it or not makes no difference. I believe the same
thing is true about truth. So I always begin with a foundation that the Bible
is the Word of God and I believe that truth can penetrate even the hardest heart.
__________________________
James
Merritt is Senior Pastor of Cross Pointe — The Church at Gwinnett Center in
Duluth, GA.
I
think there's a great
hunger in our time for biblically-rooted, Christ-centered, Holy-Spirit empowered
preaching. Great preaching comes from exposition. An understanding of the original
languages is very important, so that the messenger has a message that arises
out of a study of the text. Then the whole question is application to the contemporary
scene B the explanation
of the text, the illustration of the text, and the application of the text becomes
the task of the pastor.