Friday night, I took my family to see the Atlanta Braves beat the pants off of the Cubs. On that night, Dan Uggla extended his hitting streak to 32 games breaking an Atalanta franchise record and hit two home runs. Three other braves hit the long ball that night as well. It was a great experience. We all love seeing big home runs and I’m sure that hitting home runs at the Major League level is a huge rush. However, I’ve noticed over the years that baseball players tend to hit more singles than home runs, and guys who always swing for the fence end up with really low batting averages.
I think there is a comparison to be drawn here regarding preaching as well. Everyone loves to preach home run sermons. It’s exciting when you find a great angle on a text and really bring the heat with your sermon. Pastors love to hear people leave on Sundays saying, “I’ve never realized that from that passage,” or, “You know, I’ve always struggled with that parable, thanks for giving me some clarity.” Even greater is the experience of seeing people stream down the aisle in brokenness for prayer and for salvation. However, much like home runs, home run sermons do not come every time you walk into the pulpit and just like baseball players are not expected to hit a home run at every at bat, pastor, you are not expected to preach your best sermon every time you stand up to preach.
You should always give your best effort, but your best effort will not always translate into your best sermon.
Why? You have no new insight to give in a sermon on John 3:16 unless you are preaching heresy, but if you are to be true to preaching the whole counsel of God, you should still preach on that familiar passage of scripture occasionally. Further, preaching sermons through Leviticus may not have the same effect as the Song of Solomon or the book of Romans, but you are not called to always preach the home run sermon, you are called to preach God’s word.
Your calling as a pastor is to be faithful to the Word of God preaching the message that the text gives. Rather than swinging for the fence, we need to hit the ball where it’s pitched. Faithfulness does not usually produce fame and it will certainly not always result in your best sermon, but faithfully preaching the word of God will result in lives changed in your local church.
Trevin Wax wrote a great article in Februrary about the effect preaching on a person over 10 years of church attendance. Most baseball games are won on singles, doubles, and even walks…not on home runs. In the church, most lives will be changed because the pastor puts together series of faithful “good” sermons, not because he occasionally preaches a great sermon. Pastors, be faithful to preach the word of God always, celebrate when a sermon makes a significant impact on your church, but never doubt that the collected sermons of a faithful preacher will push many people across home plate.
