What “Preaching Ourselves” Means

The pastor walked to the pulpit, opened his Bible, looked out at the congregation, and said, “After we read today's text, I want to give you something solid to base the Scripture on.” What he gave them that day was his experiences and his opinions. He preached himself.

When we preach Jesus Christ as Lord, becoming the servant of others is a simple process. When we preach ourselves instead of Jesus, serving the people is the last thing on our minds. It has been observed that unhappy families are all unhappy in their own way, but all happy families have a great deal in common.

Likewise with the business of preaching the Word of God—there must be ten thousand ways of getting it wrong, but one big way of getting it right. The right way is to preach Jesus (Acts 8:35). On the other hand, if one is inclined to get it wrong, he could do no better than to “preach ourselves.”

This text, 2 Corinthians 4:5, is so well-known and oft-quoted, one would think all we preachers have this nailed, that living up to its standard would be a simple thing. It’s anything but simple.

Most of the churches I’m familiar with center their worship services around the preaching of the Word. If the service lasts one hour, half of that is consumed by the minister opening the Scriptures and expounding what he finds there. The name on the sign out front is the pastor’s. Even if a dozen others share the leadership burdens, only one name hogs the sign. If the church telecasts its services, his is the face people see, his is the name they call the program, and his is the message they hear.

One pastor said to me, “I can’t afford to miss a Sunday from my pulpit. The people don't want to hear anyone else. And I’m expected to hit a home run every time I come to bat.” That may be the pattern for most churches (not all, thankfully), but it carries a great danger. When everything revolves around you, it’s not much of a stretch for you to decide you're something special.

When everyone looks to you as “the man,” it’s reasonable to think your experiences and wisdom and words carry a special authority. When the church rises or falls based on how you do—and particularly when it rises—unless your spouse and staff keep you grounded, you may be in danger of thinking too highly of yourself. That’s a direct violation of Romans 12:3, incidentally.

When you think too highly of yourself, it’s a small step to decide to proclaim your opinions and preach your convictions from the pulpit. When you think too highly of yourself, it’s a simple thing to bolster every point in the text by your own experiences. When you think too highly of yourself, you should not be surprised to find that before long you are going it alone in the ministry. You gradually quit reading books from others in the ministry, your commentaries gather dust from disuse, and you become a stranger to preaching conferences. You need no one; you’re an island.

Members of our churches frequently cater to this kind of preacher idolatry. Some get a vicarious thrill from being close to the center of the action. They derive a personal affirmation from being on a first-name basis with the minister. Catering to the pastor’s ego works a reciprocal magic on their own self-esteem.

A pastor I know got into trouble and had to leave his prominent church. One of his staff members said to me, “This congregation puts preachers on a pedestal. And [this pastor] sure did enjoy that pedestal.”

Someone has said, “No one can preach ‘I am clever’ and ‘Jesus is Lord’ at the same time.” No one can proclaim himself in the pulpit and step away as the servant of the people.

Here is a list of the top ten ways we pastors preach ourselves instead of Jesus as Lord:

1) Our opinions are given equal weight with Scripture.
2) Our convictions reign supreme in the congregation.
3) Our stories form the heart of our sermons.
4) Our prejudices are treated as revelations from the Almighty.
5) Our language leaves little doubt as to whose church this is.
6) Our experiences form infallible proofs for our messages.
7) Our writings make up the study literature of the church.
8) Our degrees prove the soundness of our theology.
9) Our staff-members are required to be “yes” men or find other employment.
10) Our members' guiding principle gradually becomes “WWPD?” (What would pastor do?)

If even one of these is true of a church, the rest will not be far behind.

“I die daily,” the Apostle Paul said (1 Cor. 15:31). That’s the only way to keep self in its proper place. Put it on the cross and keep it there. The old joke is exactly right: “The trouble with a living sacrifice is that it keeps crawling off the altar” (see Romans 12:1). Every day of our lives, we must crucify self.

“I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and delivered Himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20).

When John the Baptist came preaching in Galilee and Judea, the crowds flocked to him from every direction. In all his preaching, John pointed people to the coming Messiah. They asked John a question which ought to be posed to everyone who walks into a pulpit to proclaim a gospel message: “What do you say about yourself?”

John answered, “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness” (John1:23). He said, “One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals” (Mark 1:7). He said, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). No one who reads of John the Baptist can fail to notice that the Lord in Heaven took him literally on that commitment. In a matter of weeks, Herod had beheaded him. Such statements should never be made lightly.

What do you say about yourself, pastor?

Joe McKeever is a retired Southern Baptist Pastor from New Orleans, Louisiana.
He blogs regularly at www.joemckeever.com.