Let Them Preach

Written by Rev. Dr. Heather Henson, Director of Quest

 

The 19-year-old young man stood up at the front of a worship room filled with a little over 100 youth and adult youth leaders. This was his first time preaching in worship at camp. He began reading the passage of Scripture that was assigned to him. However, he hadn’t brought his own Bible into the worship room and therefore had snagged a Bible out of the “extra Bible bin” we keep in the office. It’s a collection of left-behind Bibles that we let people use if they forget to bring a Bible with them to camp. (Sometimes students even find the Bible they left the year before in the bin!)

As he began to read, he realized that there were many “Thee(s)” and “Thou(s)” in this passage. I watched as it dawned on him that he had selected a Bible at random and managed to pick up a King James Bible rather than a more modern translation. Mind you, this was a lengthy passage to read. He slowly looked up at me (I’m usually standing in the back by the soundboard), and when we locked eyes, I couldn’t keep from laughing. He lowered his head and continued reading the passage. He closed the Bible and proceeded to preach a very excellent sermon, full of elaborate illustrations that fit his unique personality well, tying the whole thing together like a complicated puzzle that dazzled the students and modeled well his intelligence and playful nature.

For the past 13 years, I’ve been the director of a youth ministry called Quest. One of the most excellent things about this ministry is our dedication to having young adults teach and lead. My young adult staff are invited to preach sermons, teach Bible studies, and design and implement worship services (along with other things). Each and every week, the worship room is filled with youth from 6th to 12th grade and their youth leaders. For many years now, it has been common for members of the Quest staff to preach, which means it has become part of the ethos.

Early on, I would select a couple of individuals who seemed interested and “ready” to preach a sermon for the summer. All the staff would spend time during training working on and writing a testimony that would be shared each week. But with a select few, we actually walked through sermon preparation processes, and they were invited to preach one night each week. Eventually, that blossomed into a practice in which all of our young adult staff preach in some capacity. As a result, the Quest staff will preach more than 40 sermons over the course of the summer, and I cannot overstate how completely excellent it is. Young adults take time to work through a passage of Scripture, think through how to communicate it well, and actually get to preach it with feedback. It has been transformational for them and for the hearers.

Outside of spaces like camp, when it comes to opening up the pulpit and inviting someone else to preach, it seems that fear, or perhaps pride, can be the leader in our decisions. It has surprised me greatly how nervous people are to share the pulpit with an “untrained” preacher.

Too often, we think things like:

• “What if they say something unbiblical?”
• “They aren’t really ready, are they?”
• “They aren’t spiritually mature enough to reach the congregation?”
• Here is what I want to say to all of this: Let them preach.

Perhaps they will say something incorrect. Perhaps they are not as spiritually mature as we would like them to be. Sure, all of that could be true. And yet, I have to ask the same questions of myself. What if I say something unbiblical? What if I say something incorrect? I certainly am not fully spiritually formed, though I pray daily for God to continue to form me. I am not perfect, and no sermon I preach is perfect either. It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that transformation occurs. Over my years of practicing this approach, I have witnessed nothing short of fantastic, transformational, and delightful sermons.

I promise, we have people in our congregations who feel called to preach. And honestly, it is probably not always the people we want it to be. (Somehow, I feel like you may have even had an image of someone pop into your head as you read this. Don’t push that image away.) God has a history of using the most unlikely, most “unqualified,” most unexpected people to do his most magnificent work. I can testify to that. I have learned not to question the Holy Spirit when it prompts me to ask someone if they want to preach. I have often been moved to tears when I see one of my staff preach. Maybe they didn’t even know they could do it. Maybe it was different from what I expected. But it was fantastic.

I have been amazed by how each of them has taken the time to really think and dedicate themselves to the work of sermon writing. How they have humbly wanted to honor God well. They have rarely sat in my office thinking they are great (okay, a few have, but most have not). I have spent time encouraging them, gently guiding them, and sitting with them in the presence of the Spirit (we’ll walk through that process in another blog).

In this work, I have not only been blessed by their sermons but have also learned and enhanced my own craft. I have borne witness to the remarkable work that God has done. There is something within us that changes when we allow ourselves to be immersed in the sermon-writing process. We look at Scripture through a whole new lens. When we invite people to teach and lead within the church, we invite them to enter into God’s creative process. We stop providing a meal for them and usher them into the “kitchen.” Of course, there are many steps and things to consider along the way, but those are for another post as well.

For now, I hope we will prayerfully consider what keeps us from inviting someone else within our congregations to come up to the pulpit and preach. What if this was a habit? What if this were a regular practice? Don’t tell me “The congregation will have none of it.” What would stop you? What would stop the Holy Spirit? You can picture a few now, correct? Can you see them? What if you invested in their formation in this way?

I think we would be amazed by the remarkable work that God will do through the unexpected individual. Consider those in Scripture who were unexpected: Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Rahab, Ruth, Hannah, David, Mary, Saul/Paul, Timothy, and Jesus (the son of a carpenter from the town of Nazareth). There are many more we could list here. Each was unexpected, and yet each, because of the Holy Spirit, was significant in the story God is writing.

Sure, maybe they aren’t “seminary trained” yet. Maybe they are younger or older than we think. Maybe they are imperfect. Maybe they are an unlikely choice.

And yet, what could happen?

Creative, impactful, and transformational sermons cannot happen unless we trust in the compelling work of the Holy Spirit, the grace of Jesus Christ, and the power of God the Father. We must stop guarding the pulpit and let them preach.