Practice and Reflection

On the last post,  James commented that for preachers to grow there is sometimes a need to “preach less and reflect more.” In many cases that is very good advice. Truly: growing preachers need to practice and reflect.

Just doing lots of preaching (practice) in isolation seldom produces significant growth in a person’s preaching. In and of itself it readily produces ruts and bad habits. Like James, one of the reasons I went to seminary was because I needed to do more biblical and theological study (reflection).

On the other hand, the act of preaching regularly is just as crucial to growth as reflection is. To use a silly illustration:  although I will be a better car-driver by doing my theory test, I will never be much of driver if I don’t spend time behind the wheel of an actual car!

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