Are you sure you want to preach and teach?

I love the book of James. It is such a practical and hard-hitting book of the Bible. James tells you straight-up and doesn’t mince words. I was reading through the book yesterday and I just stopped when I came to chapter 3. For those of you in ministry or thinking about ministry, read and reflect on these words very slowly.

Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

The weight of these words really hit me yesterday. I take very seriously the responsibility of standing before a congregation and teaching. Honestly, it really scares me sometimes. I have heard pastors say before that if you can do anything else besides preach then you need to do it. What they mean is that if you are not sure of your calling, if you don’t have that fire burning inside of you that God has put there, then you don’t need to preach. You don’t preach because you want to, you preach because you have to.

Over the last few weeks, I have spent some time really looking inward, examining my heart and my motives to make sure that I’m staying focused on Christ. There are some things I need to change and there are some things that I think I am doing alright on, but the important thing is that I continue to hold myself to God’s standard. If we are faithful to do what God has called us to do, then we can be assured that we are relying on His strength and not our own.

Mike

I am a former design engineer who now pastors Cornerstone Community Church in Galax, Virginia. I'm passionate about following Jesus and I love technology. I've been married to Jennifer for 28 years, and we have three adult children.

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