If you came from a church where the senior pastor preached 90-95% of the time, you may wonder why I don’t do that. I intentionally, and with the blessing of the Vestry, have set my own preaching at about 65-70% of the time.
As you know (or could guess), I love to preach, and preaching is central to my call. So why would I do that? For these good reasons:
1. It allows our church to hear teaching from our female preachers, prophets, and theologians.
They bring a unique perspective that I cannot. In 2017, we were blessed by sermons from Erin Pacheco, Mtr. Karen, Deacon Sandy, Deb Nickerson, Marilyn Stewart, and Sandy Richter. And in 2018, we’ve already been enriched by a sermon from Mtr. Linda.
2. It allows our church to hear people with other spiritual gifts and backgrounds than I bring.
Anthony Gandy has served as a missionary in Siberia; Al Hsu has thought for a lifetime about the intersection of Christianity and the arts; Moe Pacheco preaches on John the Baptist so that prophet comes to life, as though John were living in Chicago.
3. It allows our younger leaders (well, younger than I am, anyway—wink) to grow in their teaching gifts.
People like Sandy Richter and Josh Steele hope to spend the rest of their lives in serving the church. They need the chance to develop as preachers, and we need to learn from them.
From its beginning, Savior has enjoyed a multiplicity of preachers, and I believe our church is much stronger for it.