Great preaching and discipleship

John Schroeder at Blogotional continues the ongoing discussion on preaching. Good preaching, John says, involves not only saying the right things but being the right person:

That means that first of all, I need to be able to call the preacher "friend" and see the evidence of the word he expounds in his life. Secondly, it means that preaching that serves to build the church, in the institutional sense, will send me out in a huff.

I like that idea of coming away in a huff. Life-changing preaching has to show us that our lives as they now stand need to change, and most of us don't like to hear that. As John notes, a preacher can sing with the voice of an angel but not really be a man of God. Thus true discipleship is important for both preacher and congregation:

A mediocre preacher will sound like a great preacher if he serves a congregation full of true and committed servants of the Lord. That's why I think a pastor should devote himself first to discipleship because discipleship will make the preaching better.

Amen.