At a 2009 Baptist World Alliance Conference in Holland, David Coffey delivered a paper called ‘Truth on Fire’ and offered 7 dimensions that any budding preacher must integrate; serving also as a reminder to experienced preachers of what is important.
The warning he offers, serves as the rubric for seeing what the 7 dimensions are trying to accomplish, and it comes from Bishop Quayle, who said, “It is no trouble to preach, but a vast trouble to construct a preacher.” Indeed.
I was inspired to write this partly in response to the oft repeated calls that preaching has had its day. I disagree. Bad, shallow, weak, irrelevant preaching has had its day! But preaching proper is Gospel food for the starving soul. Even those who didn’t know they were hungry realise they were starving when they hear good preaching! Or to change the metaphor, you may be able to take the horse to water, but apparently, according to the proverb, you can’t make it drink! I disagree. Good preaching is not only the food we need, but the salt. If you put salt into the horses food, it will drink!
Preaching should feed the willing hungry, and drive the hesitant or unwilling to the water of life – which is Jesus himself.
Dimension 1: The preacher must be secure in their identity in Christ. Everyone has a worth before God even before the do anything for God. Coffey offers the ABCD of church life: A for Attendance figures; B for Building and Maintenance; C for Cash flow which sustains ministry; D for Discipleship. It is the preacher/minister who must, first and foremost, who is the prime practitioner in the congregation for what it means to be a life-long learner in the school of discipleship. In this sense, D comes way before ABC. Thus the main task of the preaching is to conform to God’s purposes in producing Christ-like disciples in the congregation, which he describes as painstaking and agonising.
