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PREACHING SKILLS
Leading and Feeding: How Preaching and Leadership Intersect
An interview with Jack Hayford
Jack Hayford

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PreachingToday.com: We're in a church culture that places a lot of emphasis on leadership. Pastors think not only in terms of pastoring people, but also in terms of leading the church, the corporate body of Christ. Yet as we try to be strong leaders and pastors, we have to think about the preaching task. How do leading and preaching intersect?

Jack Hayford: The discernment between the pastor's roles of leading and feeding are essential ones, particularly in light of the observation you've just made. We're oriented toward success. So much pastoral " program thinking " today — not all of which is healthy, but a certain amount of which is appropriate — has moved us into needing to distinguish between two things: When am I preaching simply to advance a program, and when am I preaching to advance the Kingdom? It's important to keep those things clearly distinguished.

It's appropriate for pastors to see this in themselves. We are in a time in which the nature of the life of the global church and the nature of the spiritual battle mandate we recognize our task as not simply to gather people together and teach them the Bible. Small groups could do that — without there being any sort of a congregation or a specifically assigned pastor. People could do that in their home with their own family. And those things ought to happen. Those are values in their own right. But a pastor, by definition, means that there's a shepherd who is not only feeding, but is taking the people somewhere.

Shepherds do that. They lead and feed. That's the essence of pastoral work. Any of us who have pastored have discovered that people would far rather be fed than they would be led. Folks who are hungry for the Word, as good sheep of the pasture of Christ are, want to be fed. They like to learn. They like to have freshness, things that warm their soul, encourage them, lift them, give them insight and instruction. But when you start to say, " Folks, it's time for us to move, not just feed, " you'll recognize the flock will begin to grumble and mumble, because the sheep would rather just bed down and eat there for a long time.

We must first draw the line of distinction between feeding and leading. But there is a place where the pastor's preaching ministry must point the direction for the church to go.

Give an example of a time when a particular sermon played a key role in your leadership task at The Church on the Way.

One classic illustration was not a sermon but a series of messages I gave many years ago. The series had to do with a sense of call to the eldership of the church for the acquisition of a large piece of real estate. We bought an entire church campus that was to be in addition to our existing campus. The amount of money involved in the purchase was a big stretch for us.

I had felt the Lord move my heart to purchase this new campus even before anything had been presented to the congregation, and really before we knew for certain we could actually acquire the property. I was moved strongly to bring a series of messages from the Book of Joshua. So I preached a series entitled, " Possess Your Tomorrows. "

I examined the text in which God said to a group of people in ancient times, " I have a place for you and a promised purpose for you in that place. " This purpose was going to require a whole set of steps in order for this to take place. It would not be without struggle. It wouldn't be without vision and faith. It wouldn't be without failures along the way. So the series, " Possess Your Tomorrows " became the calling card for the new campus. When I introduced the series, I did not say, " I'm bringing you this series of messages because we're thinking about buying some property. " I brought the series of messages because every person in my congregation is in some place in his or her life in which God is beckoning toward new life possibilities. The possession of the tomorrows of our lives have their principles set in taking steps forward to realize the hope and the possibilities of those promises. So my first concern was to nurture people, so wherever they were in their life they would find something that would feed them with principles for possessing what God had for them.

There were literal geographic dimensions for Israel in the Book of Joshua. There were literal battles in the practical experiences of people's lives. Yet these same concepts apply. I didn't simply spiritualize the text to adapt it to my mindset and goal. It was a matter of seeing that God put in his Word a case study of people of whom these things were true. God had a specific place for them to go. He held a promise before them, and led them down a pathway in order for them to realize that place and that promise.

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	Average Rating:  by 1 member. (Members, please login to rate this item.) Dwight Duncan   (Guest) Posted: April 13, 2008 I am not supprized. The message is inspiring and challanging to me. I have taken notes and hope to apply them to my life so I may share with others. Thank you.