In the late 1960s, Martyn Lloyd-Jones gave a series of lectures on preaching to the students at Westminster Seminary. Explaining why he traveled all the way from England to Philadelphia to teach on the subject, he said,
Ultimately, my reason for being very ready to give these lectures is that to me the work of preaching is the highest and the greatest and the most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called. If you want something in addition to that I would say without any hesitation that the most urgent need in the Christian Church today is true preaching; and as it is the greatest and the most urgent need in the Church, it is obviously the greatest need of the world also.1
That’s a staggering statement from a former medical doctor. Lloyd-Jones was formerly the assistant to Lord Horder, physician to the Queen, at St. Bartholomew’s hospital in London. In front of him had been a life of prominence and opportunity. A bright student, he’d quickly risen in the ranks of medicine. But he’d left all of that behind to take a pastorate at a small Calvinistic Methodist chapel. Situated in the rural hills of Wales, Lloyd-Jones fulfilled what he regarded as the highest calling to which any man can be called.
Preaching is a weighty task. It’s no surprise, then, that many ministers find themselves shrinking back rather than pressing forward, asking with Paul, “Who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Cor. 2:16). Indeed, in responding to the call to pulpit ministry, it can be all too easy to slip and slide off the high, narrow path of God’s appointing into the rocky depths below.
The devil laughs at prayerless preaching.
Those entrusted with the task of preaching—and who see it as Lloyd-Jones saw it, as a labor both grave and glorious—stand to benefit from recounting its common pitfalls. Doing so should always provide preachers with a clearer view of God and their responsibility in relation to Him.
Pitfalls in Preaching
While there are surely more, we are going to consider eight pitfalls of pulpit ministry:
Prayerlessness
The devil laughs at prayerless preaching. Aware of the power that accompanies a prayer-soaked pulpit, the Evil One will do everything in his limited power to keep pastors (and their congregations!) from praying—distraction, self-dependence, another hour of study, etc. For this reason, the earliest church leaders resolved to be men of prayer and preaching, refusing to compromise either of these spiritual responsibilities, even as it meant appointing others to meet the growing practical demands of the Jerusalem church (Acts 6:2–4).
A Doctrine–Life Gap
“Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching,” Paul urges his young pastor-protégé in 1 Timothy 4:16. Preaching doctrine does not necessarily correspond to obeying it. If he isn’t careful, the pastor can be like those James describes, hearing the Word and not heeding it (1:22).
Excessive Popularity
Many pastors—especially those who labor in overlooked contexts—would like a dose of renown once in a while. But with accolades comes the risk of pride (Rom. 12:3). In the course of a week, ministers will encounter lofty praise and undue critique. Best they discount the highs and the lows, lest they end up either prideful or crushed.
Crippling Despondency
This danger is the twin to popularity. While the pulpit can lift the minister up to think he is terrific, it can also bring him down to think he is the worst man to have ever lived. He can relate to Elijah in 1 Kings 19: alone, fearful, and paralyzed with dread. Indeed, living under the burden of feeling useless and isolated is part and parcel of preaching.
Laziness
On the one hand, true preaching demands every ounce of a pastor’s fiber. On the other hand, pastoral ministry affords ample opportunity for doing as little as possible—just getting by with the bare minimum. As a rule of thumb, ministers shouldn’t be sitting around in their socks when their church members have had their shoes on for the last four hours. “Work heartily,” Paul reminds the Colossian Christians (3:23). The same goes for pastors too.
Misplaced Affections
It’s possible to stay close to the Word of God but drift from the God of the Word—to become a theoretician or a doctrinaire but to have personal devotion to Christ cool off day by day. Greed, immorality, domineering leadership, and similar vices can all creep in when pastors lose sight of the Lord Jesus. As was the case with much of Solomon’s life, some pastors risk being successful in the world’s eyes but disastrous in God’s sight. Ministers therefore have to be vigilant in directing their affections.
Aimlessness
One minister, so the story goes, had a sign in his study that read, “What in the world are you doing with these people?” It’s a good question for every pastor to ask of his ministry. Paul knew exactly what he was doing: “I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible,” he wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:19 (NIV), and in Philippians 3:10, he declared his desire to “know him and the power of his resurrection.” Pastors need that kind of clarity. If the man behind the pulpit drifts, his congregation will drift with him.
It’s possible to stay close to the Word of God but drift from the God of the Word.
Capitulation
Compromised preaching often means forgetting that the primary purpose of the pulpit is to put men and women in right relationship with God. It is to mistake the central work of preaching for making people happy, seeing their lives integrated, improving their conditions, and so on. The pastor is to teach hearts, not tickle ears. He is to guide sheep, not entertain religious professors and participants. “Knowing the fear of the Lord,” Paul says, “we persuade others” (2 Cor. 5:11). That’s the charge.
Power in Preaching
While these pitfalls will hinder effective preaching, avoiding them is only half of the equation. The key to preaching is to preach Christ and Him crucified. Only in proclaiming the good news of Jesus will the minister find the power to change hearts and transform lives.
Paul understood this. Writing to the Corinthians, he reminded them,
I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. (1 Cor. 2:1–2)
Paul showed up to Corinth empty-handed, in a sense—no eloquent speech, no philosophical musings, just Christ proclaimed “in weakness and in fear and much trembling” (v. 3). Why? “So that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (v. 5).
The primary purpose of the pulpit is to put men and women in right relationship with God.
No doubt, pastors will at some point succumb to one or several of these preaching pitfalls. But it’s when the minister is weak that Christ is shown to be strong (2 Cor. 12:10). The power of the Gospel is found not in the strength of the one preaching but in the one who is being proclaimed: Jesus Himself.
In this way, there is an inherent strength in the pastor’s weakness. Despite the many perils of preaching, the ravines that run along our way, on the high path of obedience is the promise that God’s powerful Word will go forth from those who faithfully, humbly, and unwaveringly preach Christ from the pulpit.
This article was adapted from the sermon “The Pulpit: Its Powers and Pitfalls” by Alistair Begg.
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D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1971), 9. ↩︎
