Every pastor knows the feeling that hits first thing Monday morning. The sermon you spent an entire week preparing for and revising and nursing has come and gone. Perhaps you preached it more than once because you have multiple services. In any case, once Monday rolls along, you start asking yourself those same questions: Was it good enough? How did I do? Did they understand what I was saying? Was Jesus heard in my sermon?
Pastor Press Conference
John Crist’s video touches on this insecurity many pastors feel when it comes to their preaching. We are unsure whether the sermon was “good enough” that we look to other, insignificant things to justify its efficacy. This is precisely what Crist’s video pokes fun at.
Like all good comedy, there is a lesson to be gleaned from Crist’s parody. If preaching becomes more of a performance and is measured by how the audience reacts (an “Amen” here and a “Hands Raised” there or how many responses you get to the altar call or how many decisions were made to follow Christ), then it is a possibility you are attempting to overshadow the one you are preaching about.
Church leader, it is not about YOU when you preach, it is and should only be about Jesus. Every Bible-preaching pastor should measure their sermon by how much Jesus was proclaimed. The rest is up to the Holy Spirit. Don’t let the devil whisper in your ear. Every week, prepare to preach Jesus to a world that desperately needs to hear it. There isn’t power in a performance, there is only power in the name of Jesus.
“My brothers and sisters, not many of you should be teachers. I say this because, as you know, we who teach will be judged more strictly than others.” – James 3:1
As you watch this less than two-minute video, ask yourself, “Do I obsess over these things after I get done preaching?”