{"id":760,"date":"2010-06-09T11:54:44","date_gmt":"2010-06-09T11:54:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharefaithblog.wpengine.com\/?p=760"},"modified":"2010-11-18T20:55:10","modified_gmt":"2010-11-18T20:55:10","slug":"pastor-teaching-church-preaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sharefaith.com\/blog\/2010\/06\/pastor-teaching-church-preaching\/","title":{"rendered":"Let the Pastor Do the Teaching and the Church Do the Preaching"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The title of this post might cause you to read it twice. \u201cLet the pastor do the teaching and the church do the preaching.\u201d Okay, so what does that mean? Is it just a clever title meant to nudge people to live better lives, or what? In what way should people do the preaching? <\/p>\n

As with any issue in life, our first recourse for answering questions and understanding issues is the Scripture. The titles statement is a Scriptural one. Here\u2019s why. Ephesians 4:11-12: \u201cAnd he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds\u00a0and teachers, to equip the saints.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a nutshell, God gave pastors to the church to equip us. \u201cEquip\u201d in the verse has with it the idea of preparation. But preparation for what? What are pastors supposed to prepare us to do?<\/p>\n

Gifts Who Equip Us<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ephesians answers the question. The verse tells us: \u201cAnd he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds\u00a0and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.\u201d Did you get it? Pastors are gifts from God for preparing us (us, Christians = saints) to do ministry work, or \u201cthe work of ministry,\u201d as the verse says.<\/p>\n

The Work of the Ministry <\/strong><\/p>\n

And what is \u201cthe work of the ministry?\u201d Just what it says. \u201cMinistry\u201d here could be translated \u201cservice.\u201d We\u2019re not talking about a spiritual service as we commonly think of spiritual service like preaching, exhorting, reading your Bible, etc. All those are great things to do, but \u201cservice\u201d refers to physical activity and maybe even menial tasks. Many times when the Bible refers to a \u201cservant\u201d and uses this word, it is referring to someone who waits on tables. Think busboy. Think waiter. Think serving other people practically, tangibly, and with concrete behavior.<\/p>\n

So, You\u2019re a Minister<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s basically what we mean by letting the pastor do the teaching and the church do the preaching. The pastor\u2019s job, as it were, is preparing you <\/em>to be a good minister. And minister you should\u2014serving the body of Christ with your gifts.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the end result of adequate preparation and active serving? It\u2019s pretty amazing. The rest of the passage explains\u2026<\/p>\n