Better Than Revival

Has God called you to preach? If so, why do you doubt that you will succeed in doing it as well as he requires?

What is true of poets is true of preachers. If you have something to say, then say it as well as you can, and leave the rest in God's hands. The best preachers, too, do not preach for the people. They follow the rule: preach "to please God" - "as if not a single hearer existed." You may not be "artistically damned" if you become too conscious of your audience, but you will certainly inhibit your effectiveness in serving the Lord.

The gifted Dutch artist Rembrandt (1606-69), when he was just twenty-one years old, encountered a couple of older and well-established artists in a café in Leyden. They enquired when he would follow the example of other aspiring artists, and travel to Italy to continue his studies. Rembrandt announced that he had no interest in going to Italy. The Italian artists, said he, could teach him nothing. Indeed, since he was a Dutchman, not an Italian, he intended to develop a Dutch style. The older men remonstrated with him. What hope could there be that lowly Holland would produce a Raphael or a Da Vinci? The young Rembrandt retorted that Holland would produce something better: his own work!

If you are called by God to the ministry, that is the kind of confidence you too should have. Along with the divine call came sufficient ability for you to fulfil it. Of course you should apply yourself diligently to your task, honing your skills as a preacher to the finest quality you can achieve; and of course you should use whatever tools and resources are available to you. You must work hard every way you can to build success in ministry. But in the end, you need nothing more than the call of God. Whether or not you possess the kind of skills the world deems essential for a public speaker, if you are chosen by God, and are obedient to God, you can successfully do the work of God.

The church of Jesus Christ has no richer treasure, no more powerful agency, no other essential apparatus, than a pulpit and the men and women who stand behind it. Those preachers do not have to be splendidly endowed with natural abilities (1 Co 1:20,26-28; 3:18-19); they need only be anointed by the Father for their glorious task - and in the local church there is no higher, nor more necessary task (Ac 6:2,4). Let no one in the church ever doubt it: "by the foolishness of preaching those who believe will find salvation."