“listening is one of the primary obligations of a practicing Christian.”
Will Willimon
Christians are a listening people.
That is not all we are, but it is at the bedrock of who we are. This means that the life we must cultivate is a listening life. One does not have to look far for spiritual warfare in an age of noise. It is all around us, calling to us. Inundated with noise, we are generation who needs to “Be silent before the Lord God!” (Zeph. 1:7).
One of Jesus’ critiques of his audience was that they had ears but could not hear. The Old Testament prophets criticized idolatry using the same image, because if you worship a figurine made of wood or stone - that had eyes but could not see and had ears but could not hear - you would become like them. Jesus came as a light and a voice in the darkness and the noise, and the noise could not hear him.
One of my goals in this substack is to consider what it means to do spiritual formation in the church. As an elder and preacher (I preach at least monthly), I am often thinking about what “preaching for formation” entails, but also, as one who is “in the pew” for those remaining Sundays, I wrestle with what it means to be a hearer of the Word. All of us are called to listen, some are called to preach. I think it is important, nonetheless, for us to consider both.
I am a preacher, but when I preach I often call it amateur hour (or half hour!). I might be a “professional” teacher, but nobody is a “professional preacher.” Preachers are not a professionalized class of people. A preacher is one bearing witness to the Word, declaring the Word to call people to draw near to the Lord.
Consider: What are you doing when you listen to a sermon? What do you even think a sermon is? Are you there to simply learn the right way to think? If your heart open to hearing the Word declared? Would you know if you weren’t?
Preaching, and it turns out, listening, are both callings upon Christians to walk down a path of wisdom and love. Neither are mere performative exercises. The preacher is not simply a public speaker. The listener is not simply a good student, able to understanding and pay attention. Rather, both are called in the Spirit to participate in the action of God. If you need wisdom, James tells us, pray (Jas. 1:5). Likewise, it is the Spirit of the Lord who pours forth love into our hearts (Rom. 5:5).
As you consider your calling as a Christian, and more specifically, your vocation in Christ, draw near to the Lord and ask him: “Lord, what would it mean to be a hearer of your Word as a means of presenting my body as a living sacrifice? How is this a renewal of my mind, when my “mind” is not merely my thoughts, but how I am captivated by spiritual things?”
If you are a preacher, consider with the Lord, “Lord, how is my preaching a form of my drawing near to you?” Or has it been? Has your preaching been a time to impress an audience, or to help shepherd them in the presence of their Lord? Preaching is never simply teaching. Preaching is a task of a shepherd who it walking brothers and sisters to Jesus in the Spirit.
Ultimately, preaching for formation is not aiming primarily at the formation of my congregation, but is about leading them to the Lord. True spiritual formation only happens as they abide in him, and not as they abide in our good teaching or ministry. How are you called to point others to Christ? How might you be tempted not to, and point to yourself instead?
I want to get into specifics in this series, that can help both those who preach and those who are called to be hearers of the preached Word. There is something here for both of us, or those, like me, who regularly inhabit both roles. For us all, we have to ask: How is this a means of presenting my body as a living sacrifice for the sake of the renewal of my mind? How is this act a mode of discerning the will of the Lord?
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:1-2