Preaching & Preachers: The Preacher

Chapter 6 of Lloyd-Jones book Preaching & Preachers deals with the preacher himself. We will just examine the first section today, which deals with the call of the preacher. MLJ suggests that the call to the ministry begins with an internal disturbance of spirit when the man desires to preach and then an external suggestion from others that know him and watch him that perhaps God has called him into the ministry. Next there is a concern for the souls of others, that they too know the God of the Bible. He also repeats Spurgeon's advice that if you feel called to be a preacher, try to do something else. Stay out of the ministry, if you can. Only the man that can do nothing else but preach is called to the ministry. Then he should know he must preach, but feel unworthy to the task and almost have to be drug into the ministry.

I'm going to push back a little here because there is really no Scripture for most of this. No where does the Bible say to try not to preach and to try not to serve God in the ministry. Spurgeon's advice sounds very spiritual, but where in the Bible do you find that even hinted? Which preacher (besides Jonah) labors and struggles by telling God, no, I will not preach your word? The Bible tells us that a man will desire the work of the ministry (I Timothy 3:1) and then it is the churches job to confirm this calling by examining the man's life and ministry (I Timothy 3:2-7). If the man is not cut out for preaching and the pastor and the church knows it, then they should stop him.

It seems to me the Biblical pattern is if you desire to preach, go to the church with that desire, go to the pastor and make that desire known. If the church and the pastor believe that you have the knowledge and a sufficient understanding of the gospel, then preach the word and begin to study and prepare, learn how to preach. Find opportunities to preach, in church, out of church, in nursing homes, on the street, etc. If you then see that you were mistaken or the church sees that you don't have those gifts, at least the word of God and the gospel was published. But how else could a church ever decide if a man was fit for pastoral ministry unless he preached? How can you get better at preaching unless you preach? But, to be fair, I'm sure Lloyd-Jones and Spurgeon, because they were great preachers and had much success, had a lot more young men desire to follow them into the ministry than a smaller church would.