The Need For Personal Preaching

I love being a seminary student because I get to read all the great pastoral books. My recent favorite is Richard Baxter’s The Reformed Pastor. I am told Baxter wrote like he preached, with great zeal and candor. He did not shy away from giving a timely rebuke to his fellow pastors, especially those who neglected shepherding the flock of God. Yet, he did so with an encouraging and loving tone (at least in his writing).

The Reformed Pastor was intended to be a lecture on Acts 20:28, “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.” (ESV) Baxter focuses on the need for pastors to understand the nature of shepherding so they might have the right motivation for the job. He used Acts 20:28 as a powerful springboard to convince ministers to give up more of their lives in service to God. He lambasted ministers who were more concerned with their own welfare than those of the lost (92). He compared the lazy minister to a physician who only spends times reading books when the plague is killing hundreds around him (213; 220). Baxter understood the importance of studies, but he did not understand pastors who studied so much they could not have personal interaction with the congregation. He viewed this as gross negligence on the part of the pastor.

The Reformed Pastor is best known for Baxter’s philosophy of personal catechism or personal preaching. He recognized that one hour of personal preaching could be more effective than ten years of public preaching (196).He writes,

I have found by experience, that some ignorant persons, who have been so long unprofitable hearers, have got more knowledge and remorse of conscience in half and hour’s close discourse, than they did from then years’ public preaching.

He argued that every pastor should give two days (or at least two half-days) of the week to home visitation. In his experience this resulted in a keen awareness of his congregation, which actually led to more effective public preaching.

I appreciate Baxter’s philosophy of ministry because I have found that personal preaching and counseling can be just as effective as public preaching. We live in the “Age of Entertainment” where people have been taught to be unaffected by what they see or hear. This is also true of sermons. I have noticed the students in junior high need to be asked specific questions after hearing a sermon in order to 1) make sure they understand what they heard and 2) apply what they heard to their lives. And I believe there are many in our congregations who listen like junior highers.

I especially liked Baxter’s idea of personally delivering the catechism to his congregation’s homes and then giving them several months to learn it. Once this foundation has been laid he returned to their home and asked them intentional questions in order to know how best to shepherd their souls. In this way he was be able to personally minister to every family in the congregation.

Personal preaching and counseling is much more difficult than public preaching. I believe this is one reason it has been largely ignored in the church today. But, Lord willing I hope to have a healthy balance of both in the ministry God provides. I would like to look into the modern use of catechisms. I believe John Piper has adapted and updated the Baptist catechism for use at Bethlehem Baptist. I will report back on this later.