Why Preaching Is the Number One Way a Pastor Leads
The Authority of Scripture
Preaching has to be the first way we lead as pastors, in one sense, because it’s inherent within our position, within our role. It’s a qualification that we have to be able to teach. When you look at the pastoral letters to Timothy and Titus, they are full of things like, Exhort the people. Devote yourself to public reading of Scripture, teaching, reproving, exhortation. All of these things have this connotation that the Bible commands us to.
Expositional Leadership
R. Scott Pace, Jim Shaddix
This guide shows pastors how to simplify and strengthen their ministry work by integrating the three core aspects of their roles—leadership, preaching, and pastoring—through expository preaching ministries.
So in one sense, it has to be first and foremost to us because it’s first and foremost to God. But from a practical standpoint, it also has to be first because that’s the broadest aspect of leadership we have. In other words, we’re influencing the most people at one time when we’re leading through preaching. And that’s important because so many times when we think about leading, especially as a pastor, we’re talking about leading individual sheep. How are we nurturing them, caring for them, feeding them?
But we also have to remember the command is broad: shepherd the flock. So how do we collectively or corporately lead? That’s going to be done when they’re corporately together. So when we gather our congregation (our people) together for worship, we need to lead them well, which is why it has to be the first and most important thing for our leadership.
Preaching locates our authority not in our title or position but in God’s word itself.
There are other elements of it too. For instance, when you think about where our authority to lead is grounded, it’s grounded in the Scriptures. Preaching locates our authority not in our title or position but in God’s word itself. Also think when you look at the power to see life change happen, it doesn’t happen just through our words or even through our influence or even good conversations and personal counsel. It happens through the power of God’s word, and preaching centralizes God’s word as the means by which life change will occur.
So everything from our role and responsibility to the collective leading of God’s people to grounding the authority and, really, the source of life-change in the Scriptures is accomplished through our preaching. So for that reason, it has to be the number one way we lead.
R. Scott Pace is coauthor with Jim Shaddix of Expositional Leadership: Shepherding God's People from the Pulpit.
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