Ministry of the word by William Taylor (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Lecture I (Nature and design of the Christian ministry).
Today we begin Taylor's work. The first chapter concerns the nature and design of the Christian ministry.
Firstly Taylor desires that we must understand that the ministry is hard work. Success in it results only from continuous and systematic labor.
Thus we are taught that the nature of the ministry is pre-eminently a service and has always been a service.
To conclude the chapter we see that the end of the ministry is to bring hearers to the acceptance of Christ and to the beginning of a new life in Him.
I appreciated the encouragement to preach yourself: 'Again, it must not be forgotten that no one man can merge his individuality into that of another. If one is to do anything effectively in the pulpit, or elsewhere, he must be himself. It is the glory of the Gospel of Christ that it lifts into itself, and transmutes into elements of power, the very personal idiosyncracies of its preachers. No one of the apostles was cast precisely in the mold of another. John, and Peter, and Paul had their distinctive features, each of which was made instrumental in bringing out some new phase of the truth which they all alike proclaimed. And as it was with them, so it is still. No preacher should try to form himself after the model of another. If you make such an attempt, you may depend upon it that what is character in your exemplar, will in you degenerate into caricature. There is something noble in a voice, but however excellent an echo may be as an echo, there is a hollowness and an indistinctness about it which gives it unreality.'
In the days of the internet and mp3 players, it is all too easy to try and imitate truly excellent preachers.
But you must preach in your own way, otherwise you will simply be a poor shadow of the great.
Read Lecture II (The preparation of the preacher).
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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