Consistency 10.23.2025

    Do not judge your work as a preacher by the “best sermon” you have ever preached or by the worst, but by the next one. Keep that one and this one in the broader context of the last one you preached, and the next one you will preach.  If you are clear about your responsibility to the text and work far enough ahead that you can be certain of where you are going, the next natural step, taken almost without conscious thought is to strive for consistency. 

    Last week, on Friday, October 18th Ol’ Ohtani had what is already being describe as the greatest game in baseball history. We have yet to see what other exploits will characterize the rest of his 2025 postseason. One thing that we do know is that his career will not hinge on that one night in Chavez Ravine. He has already established himself as a consistent performer both on the mound and at the plate. He is dependable. He will do the job. It must be a special for a manager to know that this is a player who can be penciled in day after day, start when he must, and just do the job. 

    Consistency is the outcome of continual commitment to doing the right things the right way. It requires a willingness to make in private the unseen commitments that result in optimum performance. As a quick aside, this is why extemporaneous preaching will always feel like reaching. It moves much of what should be done in private into the public eye. Because it relies so much on short term memory extemporaneous peaching can rarely rise beyond weekly preparation. It is doable, and sometimes necessary, but like most performances without a net, can become unnecessarily bloody. Most of the time our preaching work will benefit, grow more mature, and have greater consistency through diligent preparation and simple repetition. Doing the same thing every day in our studies. Engaging in the hard work of exegesis. Writing, editing, rewriting, cutting, substituting and revising our work and then presenting clearly the message from the text that God has given us through the process of hard work. 

    I do not know of any craft or profession that flourishes apart from long hours of unseen work. The law is not unlike baseball, not unlike accountancy, and yes, not unlike preaching. When Paul says to “Do you best to present yourself to God as one approved,” He uses a word that indicates an investment of labor and a commitment to excellence. He does not say “Hope for the best” He says, “DO your best”. This is not some kind of pseudo works-salvation issue. This is simple integrity and common courtesy to those who have engaged you in service and who pay your salary. 

    In aiming for consistency, I am not advocating that we aim for the lowest common denominator. Rather I am saying that we need to accurately assess our abilities and mold our preparation to not only fit our skills but to maximize them. Remember another admonition from Paul. 

 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)

    It is easy for false humility to settle for a personal assessment that accepts unthinking mediocrity. That does not honor God, does not reflect Paul’s intent, and treats sloth as a virtue. We are called to accurately, soberly, and clearly assess our abilities and then to make the most of them. That is true humility. 

    The Church needs preachers who are unafraid to accept the calling and act upon it. Willing to make the sacrifices of study and preparation. Individuals who clearly understand the gifts they have been given, the skills they have learned, and the talents that can be grown. These skills lead to the kind of consistency we need that leads to long ministries predicated on long trajectories of lifelong discipleship.

    Much of contemporary leadership “teaching” strives for instant gratification or quick fixes to poorly identified problems. Our task is not just to get people “Saved from their sins”. We are called to make disciples. It can’t be done over the weekend, certainly not on one Sunday. Not even through a quick, four sermon, “Feel-good”, influencer series that gains Social Media notoriety. Successful discipleship creates lifelong disciples. It takes time. It takes commitment. It takes consistency.