For the sake of the Preacher 9.4.2025
Cui Buono? Is a Latin legal maxim which still informs contemporary jurisprudence. To whom the benefit? Who profits? Or even more colloquially, who does this help? My concern is not legal theory but preaching. I do my best to provide guidance and coaching to help preachers become better at the task. If you stick with me, I think you will benefit. If nothing else I try and provide food for thought whether you agree with me or not. That is, after all how we learn. Thinking through the issues during the process of composition is helpful to me. I hope this thought process helps you as well. This is our task and doing it well matters.
During September 2025 I want to drill down and consider the question I invoked at the beginning of this essay. Who benefits? Specifically, who benefits from good preaching? Throughout the month I want to address several “constituencies” that benefit from focused attention on the task of preaching the gospel. Clearly the congregation benefits from good preaching. There is little point in even discussing the inspired authority of Scripture if those tasked with preaching it do not understand it or misapply it, so Scripture itself is a beneficiary. And the Gospel benefits as well. The actual message of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is the ultimate expression of God’s love to us. It is more accessible and engaging when it is preached faithfully, accurately, and powerfully.
That covers the rest of September. Let us begin at the beginning. For the sake of continuity and sanity, good preaching is for the sake of the preacher. What exactly does that mean? Let’s start here:
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15 ESV)
To which we may add:
“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” (2 Timothy 4:1-2 ESV)
These two passages would appear to (at least minimally) encourage Timothy to 1) Be good at his work. 2) Be prepared for doing that work. In a world brimming with seemingly unbounded self-promotion, often masquerading as false modesty it is tempting to be demure and self-deprecating. Avoid that allurement. Paul also writes these words in the Epistle to the Romans:
“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” (Romans 12:3 ESV)
The goal is not false modesty but appropriate self-evaluation. This is necessary for identifying and rectifying weaknesses. This is essential, not only for the sake of your congregation, but for your own sake. It can be catastrophic to a person’s self-image to become complacent at their work and uninterested in improvement. Let’s take a few moments to consider briefly these two motivating statements.
Be Good at Your Work
Obviously, there are differences in temperament, style, and even approach. There is, however, no room for slovenly, purloined, apathetic, or ill-conceived work. There is nothing so encouraging to the preacher as simply doing his or her best work. In fact, I know of no way to improve without doing the work. I know of no way to enrich your learning or expand your palate of expression other than doing the hard work of ministry. Much of that work, as we often discuss, is invisible to your congregation, known only to you. And that’s how it should be, that’s how it must be.
When you are good at your work you will more readily withstand criticism and grow from it. When you are good at your work you will sleep better and deal with stress more adequately. When you are good at your work you will be more aware of your weaknesses and do what you can to improve. When you are good at your work you will not only feel better about yourself, but you will also please the one who called you to this ministry.
Be Prepared for Your Work
Since you can’t preach the Word without doing the work you will need to prepare. Your preparation is your work. Never apologize for spending time in study. What will you possibly preach if you don’t spend high-bandwidth time in preparation? We are called to declaim the Word of God every week. Our weekly journey through the text will provide a variety of messaging strategies. Throughout the typical week there will be other teaching opportunities and many of them will require us to be more agile in our approach and cognizant of the understanding of our audience. The only way to be ready then--is to be ready always. You may not have a specific thing prepared but if you have your mind regularly in the Scripture the partnership between the Spirit-inspired Word, and the Spirit-in-dwelt teacher will result in your readiness to speak for God whenever the time comes.
You have been called to teach which requires you to study. Study takes time. Time is an investment. There is nothing worse for the preacher than routinely finding that time has been misspent, stones have gone unturned, and significant textual information has been neglected due to lack of preparation. There will be occasions when you will be so overwhelmed that you will be at the bottom of the well. Those times should be infrequent. If they are common in your ministry—you are doing something wrong and you need to develop new habits. You are called to preach. A constant arc of improvement and growth will not only give you more confidence it will also encourage your congregation to improve their listening skills and their own habits of study.
Who benefits from good preaching? Everyone. The whole congregation. I think it’s good for your town. Not for the sake of pride or bragging rights but for the sake of the Kingdom. For too long we have mistaken inferiority for humility. No one benefits from that.
Every one of us knows when we do a poor job. Bad lawyering loses cases. Bad farming leads to starvation. Poor driving leads to accidents. Poor preaching leads to depressed preachers and ill-informed congregations. Let’s set the bar high and depend on our faithful God to inhabit our work. He can only do that when we do the work. We can talk about attitude and work-life balance till we are blue in the face. For your own sake, preach the word—preach it well.