I’m winding down my semester and am faced with the daunting task of preaching as a requirement for my Intro to Preaching class in a week.
“It’s just like teaching. You’ll be fine,” are the responses that I’ve gotten from most people.
But it’s not like teaching.
My personal faith and my personal beliefs about religion have always been taboo in the context of teaching. There is a boundary as a public school trained teacher that I can’t seem to shake.
What text do you tackle and wrestle and hope comes together into some cohesive sentiment for your class including some of whom have been preaching for years? How do you see and hear what people are going through when you only see them once a week?
How do you stop asking questions and start writing?
Then I read something like this as I procrastinate:
Your voice, your take, your worldview—those are the things that make you memorable. Those are the things that make you stand out in an ocean of blogs.
Granted not about preaching, but still applicable.
I have to be me.
If that means that my exegetical process is flawed or that I trip up on names or I lose my place, it just reinforces the fact that I’m not perfect and I make mistakes.
But it’s in those mistakes and in those imperfections that you’ll meet me.