{"id":10280,"date":"2023-06-05T03:20:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T03:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=10280"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:33:10","slug":"greatest-problem-in-preaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=10280","title":{"rendered":"GREATEST PROBLEM IN PREACHING"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The greatest problem in preaching is not the preparation of the sermon but the preparation of the preacher.&#8221; &#8211; Dennis Kinlaw<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now that I am preaching weekly I keep telling people that I have come to the realization that I was not ready to preach even 3 years ago. It was a few weeks into preaching at Sardinia Baptist Church &#8211; where I was called this past March &#8211; when I realized that I was, in fact, finally prepared to preach.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(Admittedly, this means that I was not yet ready when I <i>was<\/i> preaching weekly at the little United Methodist Church in Marietta, Indiana 25 years ago. By God&#8217;s mercy for that congregation, it was a short-term gig.)<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What has changed in the meantime? What has brought me to a point where I feel prepared to examine and proclaim the word of God on a regular basis?<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A few things, off the top of my head and in no particular order:<\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\n<li>My recent doctorate classes through Wesley Biblical Seminary (wonderfully relevant information which has landed more firmly in my mature years)<\/li>\n\n\n<li>Developing a consistent prayer and bible study life apart from sermon preparation (without this, a preacher feels like an imposter &#8211; because he is)<\/li>\n\n\n<li>Maintaining a daily writing habit for 2 and a half years now (clarifying my thinking)<\/li>\n\n\n<li>Getting knocked around pretty hard by life and by professing believers (the greatest growth comes through the toughest times &#8211; and Melissa and I had plenty of fertilizer dumped on us)\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n<li>Learning some things about persuasion and psychology as a result of getting knocked around (this has given insight into fallen human nature and sinfulness &#8211; in my own heart as well as in the hearts of others)<\/li>\n\n\n<li>Paying attention to debates regarding Calvinism (which has clarified what I believe and why)<\/li>\n\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All good stuff &#8211; none of it in place three years ago &#8211; except the beginning of the knocking around!<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To be clear, I am far from claiming to be a great preacher &#8230; yet &#8211; I am only saying the Spirit has been preparing me for the serious duty and privilege of preaching.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;The greatest problem in preaching is not the preparation of the sermon but the preparation of the preacher.&#8221; &#8211; Dennis Kinlaw Now that I am preaching weekly I keep telling people that I have come to the realization that I was not ready to preach even 3 years ago. It was a few weeks into [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10280"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10281,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10280\/revisions\/10281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}