Over the years, I have put my pastoral sails to the prevailing winds. First, I set out to be a good pastor. Then it was a good preacher I wished to be. As the winds shifted, I got caught up in LEADERSHIP. It was all about being a good leader. In other words, it was senior pastor, CEO. After that wind died down, I looked to the horizon for the new wind that would blow.

It came.

Expository preaching.

The "movers and shakers-" the ones quoted by the "cool" preachers today are saying that "Expository preaching is thing you ought to do." So I loaded up the truck, and...well never mind.

Somewhere along the way I heard about a book by John Piper with the intriguing title, "Brothers, We Are Not Professionals." He was arguing for the model role of a pastor as a shepherd, not a CEO.

Pretty radical. Also very biblical.

Recently, one of the "cool" preachers, Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City wrote on his blog:

I pastor a church with a large staff and so I give 15+ hours a week to preparing the sermon. I would not advise younger ministers to spend so much time, however. When I was a pastor without a staff I put in 6-8 hours on a sermon. If you put in too much time in your study on your sermon you put in too little time being out with people as a shepherd and a leader. Ironically, this will make you a poorer preacher. It is only through doing people-work that you become the preacher you need to be--someone who knows sin, how the heart works, what people's struggles are, and so on. Pastoral care and leadership (along with private prayer) are to a great degree sermon preparation. More accurately, it is preparing the preacher, not just the sermon. Through pastoral care and leadership you grow from being a Bible commentator into a flesh and blood preacher

How about that? Pastoral care as sermon preparation- the pastor IS a shepherd, not the head of Church, Inc. In fact, the last time I checked there was and has been only one head of the church and He is not me.

A new wind is blowing.

Hoist the sails!