Preachers need preaching too!

3 Ways Preachers can sit under preaching. 

I remember years ago going to hear Thomas Long preach. His homiletical approach did not render him to raise his voice, jump up and down or attempt any praise break. Instead, he stood flat-footed and preached. I remember crying like a baby throughout his message because the reality was that his sermon touched me in a place where none of my sermons ever touched me. I understood at that moment what my soul needed to survive, even as a preacher—I needed to sit under preaching.

What does it mean for the preacher to sit under preaching? It means to sit and listen to a sermon for nourishment, not nuggets to preach later. Sitting under preaching means retracting one’s homiletical antenna and raising the white flag of one’s soul. It is a moment where the preacher gets preached to for the benefit of their soul, sanity, and personal salvation. Sitting under preaching is essential to the wellbeing of the preacher; however, all too often, preachers neglect themselves (soul) from sitting under preaching, resulting in spiritual burnout.

Spiritual burnout is a direct result of pouring without refilling. Each time you stand to preach, you pour more of yourself out. Be it as it may, it is your calling to preach, but a calling fulfilled as an empty vessel is sounding brass or a clanging cymbal—noise without a name (purpose). Additionally, listening to preaching and sitting under preaching are not synonymous. One must not get caught in the routine of visiting a pulpit each Sunday to preach a word without sitting near a pulpit to get a word. Preachers have to be intentional about sitting under preaching to grow in their faith.

Reading commentaries, going to conferences, reading books, and or giving lectures will never be a suitable substitute for sitting under preaching. There is no encounter in this world that the soul recognizes as supple salvific supply like the moment you sit under preaching; it allows your soul to graze in a pasture of your realities and vulnerabilities that brings a balance back to your life like nothing else.  Here are my three recommendations for sitting under preaching.

If you go in person, do not go to the pulpit.
Sitting under preaching is not the time for you to be acknowledged by the preacher/pastor. If you plan to go somewhere where you know the preacher, let them know you will be in the audience and ask them not to recognize you—tell them you just came for a Word. Also, if you can, avoid talking to the preacher/pastor. Let this be a time of reflection on the Word.

Listen with your soul, not your ears.
Sitting under preaching is not the time to critique the homiletical acuity of the preacher or mechanics of the sermon. Listen with your soul to hear a Word from the Lord. Grab what the Holy Spirit is pouring all over your soul to soak up and be renewed. Be fueled by the Word of God for you personally. Concentrate on hearing from God about your life.

Go regularly, not just when you are empty.
I have an aunt who goes to the gas station when her gas tank gets to half full. I once asked, “Auntie, why are you going to a gas station when you have half a tank of gas?” She replied, “Nephew, I go when it is half full because I don’t know where I will be when it gets to empty!”  Take my aunt’s advice, do not let yourself get empty, for you never know where you will be when that happens. Sit under preaching with regularity to stay full.

Preachers of all people in this world know the importance of sitting under preaching—we just at times forget to incorporate its importance into our lives. If a preacher is going to survive their calling, sitting under preaching will be paramount to their success. A soul needs what a soul needs, and when we do not give our soul what it needs, it fails to function as it should. Sitting under preaching provides the preaching the preacher needs for their soul.

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