The Great Need of Reformed Churches: Great Pastors, Not Preachers

The Reformed tradition, or at least the Reformed tradition as it exists today, places a high premium on preaching. For example, we tend to consider preaching the pinnacle of the worship service. As we structure a liturgy, most of the elements coming before the sermon lead into it, while the elements after the sermon flow from it. In this way, the sermon tends to give the entire service its theme. When we think about hiring a pastor or bringing on a church planter, we may consider his ability to preach before most other skills. A seminarian will often take more courses related to preaching than any other discipline. Even when we go to conferences, we tend to go so we can hear our favorite preachers preach. The fact is, we love our preaching, and we love our preachers.

With that in mind, let me ask this: How many great preachers are there? How many preachers would we say have come close to mastering the craft—as close as it is possible to come? How many really rise far above the rest of the field? I think you would agree that there are relatively few. There are lots of able preachers, lots of capable preachers, lots of men who can accurately and faithfully handle the Word. We thank God for that! But there are few great ones—those who are widely acknowledged as supremely talented and whose sermons may still be read and enjoyed two or three generations into the future.

What does it take to become a truly great preacher? It certainly takes a lot of practice. It usually depends upon a fair bit of training, a lot of commitment to the craft, and, of course, the opportunity to preach week after week and year after year, often in a stable church environment. I am convinced it also requires some harder-to-qualify factors: a combination of inborn talent, divine gifting, and Spirit-given unction. When we consider all of that, any of us can aspire to be a great preacher, but few of us will actually become one. We simply don’t have the rare combination of factors that would allow us to become what we may long to be.

One of my favorite old writers is Theodore Cuyler, who pastored in the U.S. toward the end of the 19th century. He wrote a book for pastors titled, aptly, How To Be a Pastor, and it is full of practical counsel.¹ I have often pondered something he wrote there about preaching and pastoring. He said, “While only one man in ten may have the talent to become a very great preacher, the other nine, if they love Christ and love human souls, can become great pastors.”

This highlights something important: God’s plan for his people, the church, does not depend upon a pastor’s greatness in the pulpit or upon the existence of great preachers. Great preaching is not the foremost need of the people in our congregations. How do we know? Because God made so few great preachers. He would hardly make Christians dependent upon great preachers and then make great preachers the rarest of people! Here’s how Cuyler said it: “God never intended that this world should be saved by pulpit geniuses or else He would create more of them.”

“God never intended that this world should be saved by pulpit geniuses or else He would create more of them.”
Theodore Cuyler

It was good of God to create some pulpit geniuses and to bless his church with them. They allow us to praise God for his gifts and give us examples to aspire to. But few of us can do more than aspire. So if our churches don’t need great preachers, what do they need? They need pastors who will care for them. Then here’s the question: What does it take to become a great pastor—or a really good one, anyway? It does not take nearly what it takes to become a great preacher. That’s not to say that it is easy, but simply that it is more accessible. It simply requires a love for God and a love for his people. It simply requires a commitment to developing and maintaining godly character. It simply requires us to serve God’s people lovingly and faithfully, to keep watch over them as humble under-shepherds of the true Shepherd.

The people in our churches—yes, even our Reformed churches—have a deeper need for great pastors than for great preachers. They have a deeper need for great pastoring than for great preaching. And I find that an encouragement. A man of average preaching ability, which by definition describes most of us, can still be a great pastor if he will simply love God and, out of the overflow of that, love the people God has entrusted to him. And that, as it happens, is the very thing Christians need the most.