Ken

I don’t want to shock any of you but in a shadowy season of my past I drove what they called a “Roach Coach.” It was actually a squeaky-clean, brand-new catering truck outfitted to service factory workers. I would drive up to a factory at break time. Someone would shout out “Roach Coach” and workers would line up to buy hot coffee, hot chocolate, hot sandwiches, donuts, chips, pretzels and candy bars.

After servicing the workers I would tidy the truck, restock items that were getting low and face things up nicely for my next stop. On the way to the next stop I listened to the radio, WEEC out of Springfield, Ohio.

This was 1979. Back then there were no personal computers. There were no iPods. There were no cell phones. There was no cable TV. It was just me and my truck and the radio. It was the first year I ever remember hearing a gifted Bible preacher named Charles Swindoll. Every day I would listen to John MacArthur and Charles Swindoll while making my rounds.

I was twenty-one years old and just married. I was eager to finish my training so I could be a pastor. For seven years I had known that God was leading me to be a pastor and a preacher. I had been preaching since I was fourteen and I had pastored a small country church from August to August by last year of High School before leaving for Moody in the fall. Now I was married and eager to finish and find a pulpit of my own.

I noticed how Charles Swindoll taught through the Bible a section at a time with accuracy and clear practical application. I hungrily listened to every broadcast. He didn’t sound angry. He wasn’t harsh and gravelly-throated. He was timeless, but not dated. His applications and illustrations were fresh and creative. He was fastidiously faithful to the text. He was appropriately serious, but in every message his sense of humor was evident. He sounded like he preached with a smile in his heart.

Looking back I realize that I learned a lot there in the cab of my truck driving from job to job. God was deepening my thirst for ministry. I was inspired and instructed through the example of Chuck Swindoll. I was probably influenced more than I initially realized by his style.

Later he would leave First Evangelical Free Church in Fullerton, California and become the president of Dallas Theological Seminary where he would influence thousands more.

I thank God for the men who had modeled ministry and preaching and godliness to me through the years. My Dad, John MacArthur, Haddon Robinson, John R. Rice, George Sweeting, Joe Stowell, Bill Thrasher, Del Fehsenfeld, John Piper, and others. May God repay them for their example and faithfulness. (This is a partial list).

There is hope for our broken country as long as there are faithful preachers in the land who will preach the Word of God creatively and passionately and seriously with a smile in their heart.

Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
February 7, 2011

Clay Nuttal has been a pastor for fifty years. In my in-box today was this little nugget I am trying to take to heart when I preach. What are your thoughts?

The cardinal sin of preaching is making any reference to time. You want the listener to be thinking about message content, not the clock. The minute we mention time, their minds are somewhere else; and often it’s hard to get them back. As preachers, we fail to think through how people may respond to disclaimers. If toward the end of a message we say, “This is my last point” or “I am almost done” or “In closing” or any other reference to time, people start zipping up their Bible covers, putting on their coats, and mentally ordering dinner at the restaurant. At this point, we have lost their attention. We might just as well quit and go home because, mentally, they have already left the room.

We should never give our listeners a clue as to when we are going to end. We want to finish while they are still with us, both mentally and spiritually, with faces turned up and Bibles opened. If you begin to pray at that point, hardly anyone will move around. You can quickly thrust home the point of the message and ask for a response. Of course, if the message has no major point, and the sermon was not leading them to make a decision, one might as well pass the restaurant menu around; it was all over before it even began.

At this point, as preachers we tend to shift into our pious mode: “If they were spiritual like me, they wouldn’t be thinking about the clock and their dinners”. You can do that if you are preaching to rocks, but preaching to people is another thing altogether. A well prepared and preached message will cause people to feel as though you have been at it for only a few minutes, even though you may have a clear agreement with them that they can expect sermons to be no more than one hour long.

Here is another consideration about time. People expect integrity and honesty. If it were understood that my messages would be 30 minutes or 60 minutes long, then that is what I should do. A lot of good questions should be asked about us when people don’t know what to expect from the pulpit. Of course, if the blessing of God has fallen on the congregation, and dozens of people are repenting or coming to Christ, then feel free to PREACH ON, BROTHER! I am afraid, however, that many a preacher just doesn’t even realize it when his congregation feels “that there is a dry dust storm in the building” and that “the man up in front just likes the sound of his own voice”.

I don’t know how many pastors read my blog, but I wanted to post this just to remind myself of what he called the “Cardinal Sin of Preaching” –Making any reference to time…