Preaching as Art

Preaching is more an art form than a calling.

I say that now but I would not have said that nor would I have believed that 10 years ago.  I have many reasons to believe that and I won't really go into all of them, it's not prudent but I will say that we have too many churches and not enough good churches and too many preachers and not enough pastors.

We've all had our share of doctors, lawyers, preachers and other professionals who work somewhere but are not necessarily very good at their chosen profession.  And lets be honest, preachers/pastors, ministers or whatever you want to call someone who works at a church, priest, clergy, etc....is a chosen profession, in other words, it's a job.  The only way you can really say it's a calling is if it's volunteer and you don't get paid.  Otherwise you are doing a job and you get paid, like the rest of us, no better no worse.  As the old saying goes, you get paid to be good and the rest of us are good for nothing.

Baylor University has put out the most effective preachers in the English language again and it's an interesting list.  While I certainly don't endorse every speaker on the list, I do enjoy and listen regularly to quite a few.  I would particularly encourage a careful listen to Joel Gregory and Thomas Long, 2 very different approaches to preaching but both fantastic craftsman of the gospel message.

With that in mind perhaps a quick word of preachers I used to listen to when I was in the ministry before I branched out more.  John MacArthur.  I used to listen to his tapes all the time and actually learned a lot from him.  But John MacArthur is not anyone I listen to anymore because if I want to listen to a lecture I listen to someone actually qualified to give it and John is not such a one with the academic credentials nor is he particularly known to be receptive to anyone else's opinion or criticism, he sits in his own ivory tower.  He's not on the list but he's well known.

I don't listen to John Piper anymore either, he was someone I used to listen to on occasion but he's just needlessly confusing and tries to be too dense for his own good.  He's passionate but he's often said things that are blatantly stupid and I can't, in good conscience, listen to someone like that.  He's on the list and quite well known in reformed circles, his books are quite good but not an easy read.

All the others I've listened to, some are better than others but I would still encourage you to give them a try and branch out some.  Baylor also did a survey many years prior with similar results with a few different names, check out that list as well.

2018 list of most effective english preachers

1996 list from Baylor of the most effective english preachers