{"id":650,"date":"2019-10-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-11T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/church-replanting\/resource\/4-tips-for-preaching-in-a-rural-church\/"},"modified":"2020-06-21T21:47:32","modified_gmt":"2020-06-22T01:47:32","slug":"4-tips-for-preaching-in-a-rural-church","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/church-replanting\/resource\/4-tips-for-preaching-in-a-rural-church\/","title":{"rendered":"4 tips for preaching in a rural church"},"content":{"rendered":"

Excerpted from <\/em>Replanting Rural Churches<\/a>\u00a0by Matt Henslee and Kyle Bueermann. Used by permission.<\/em><\/p>\n

When you accept a call to pastor an existing church, you\u2019re entering ministry in a church that has a history. The pulpit you stand behind each Sunday has been a launching point for the proclamation of the Word of God, week in and week out.<\/p>\n

In my current church, different people had preached close to 12,000 sermons before I got there. Now let\u2019s be honest. Some of those were great sermons and some were not so great (and let\u2019s be even more honest: That\u2019s\u00a0still<\/em>\u00a0the case).<\/p>\n

Maybe your church has suffered through a dry spell in the pulpit for a few years and is in the spot it\u2019s currently in because the preaching of the Word has been neglected for a season.<\/p>\n

That stops now!<\/strong><\/p>\n

The future health and vitality of your church depends wholly on a move of the Holy Spirit. And a large part of that depends on your faithfulness to preach the Word.<\/p>\n

Paul charged Timothy, \u201cPreach the word; be ready in season and out of season; rebuke, correct, and encourage with great patience and teaching\u201d (2 Tim. 4:2).The future health and vitality of your church depend wholly on a move of the Holy Spirit. A large part of that will depend on your faithfulness to preach the Word.<\/p>\n

Trust us, there\u2019ll be seasons when you don\u2019t want to preach, and you\u2019d rather call in sick than suffer from another sermon where it feels like you\u2019re talking to a brick wall.<\/p>\n

In fact, because of those dog days of preaching, you\u2019ll be tempted to reheat an old message or focus on the felt needs of your church.<\/p>\n

Resist this temptation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stake your ministry on the inerrant, infallible, and inspired Word of God.<\/p>\n

Listen: You\u2019re not inerrant. Your sermon is not infallible.<\/p>\n

But you\u2019re entering the pulpit with the Word that\u2019s not only inerrant and infallible but\u00a0inspired<\/em>\u00a0by God (2 Tim. 3:16-17).<\/p>\n

Preach the Word, preacher!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Biblical preaching may not always be popular. In fact, it may even cause you to lose some folks. The point, however, is to be faithful.<\/p>\n

Biblical preaching takes time. You may have to look for it in every nook and cranny of your schedule, but it\u2019s absolutely necessary. After all, when Jesus said, \u201cFeed my sheep,\u201d it wasn\u2019t a suggestion \u2014 it was a\u00a0command<\/em>.<\/p>\n

There are countless ways to \u201cgrow\u201d the church you serve. You can build a full-size basketball court in the sanctuary or give away a car. You can chase after whatever the latest gimmick is.<\/p>\n

Jesus doesn\u2019t expect you to hit a home run each Sunday; He expects you to preach the Word. Your people don\u2019t need you to be the next Adrian Rogers; they need (insert your name here) to preach the Word.<\/p>\n

Fads will come and go. Trends will shift by the seasons. But there\u2019s only one \u201cchurch-growth strategy\u201d that\u2019ll last: a church built on an everlasting foundation: the Lord and His Word.<\/p>\n

It’s Jesus’ job to build His church.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019ll put your fruitfulness on the altar \u2014 along with your desire to grow a platform or build a name for yourself \u2014 and follow Paul\u2019s encouragement to Timothy to \u201cpreach the Word \u2026 with great patience,\u201d Jesus will take care of the rest.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it\u2019ll be fast. Maybe it will be slow. Perhaps it won’t even be that noticeable. Over time, however, as you continue to preach the Word, they will come.<\/p>\n

Stay faithful, stay patient, and preach the Word.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Make a firm commitment to preach the Word faithfully. There\u2019ll be times you don\u2019t want to, but we beg you to keep your hand to the plow.<\/p>\n

Stick to the Bible, preach the unchanging Word, and watch the Spirit do His work. As you do, here are four tips for preaching in rural churches:<\/p>\n

1. Get up early<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a rural church, it\u2019s likely you may have to jump in the car at a moment\u2019s notice to go to the hospital that\u2019s an hour or more away.<\/p>\n

While you\u2019re there, your wife may need you to grab some milk on the way home, because you\u2019ll pass by that beacon of hope known as Walmart.<\/p>\n

While such trips are worth it, they\u2019ll make deep cuts into your sermon prep time. Get up early, grab your Bible, and get to work.<\/p>\n

2. Read your passage a million times<\/strong><\/p>\n

Okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but you might be reading this as a bi-vocational pastor. If so, you may not have time to write out a 4,000-word manuscript, nor even need to.<\/p>\n

Read your text, know your text frontward and backward, and sketch out a healthy outline.<\/p>\n

If the week gets away from you, you\u2019ll at least enter the pulpit and lean far more heavily on His Word and a simple, easy-to-follow outline than your ideas and pontifications. Come to think of it,\u00a0that\u2019s the point!<\/em><\/p>\n

3. Know your context and your people<\/strong><\/p>\n

I (Matt) preached a revival in Kentucky during their undefeated run to the Final Four in 2015. I\u2019d been in Texas most of my life and had what I thought was a money illustration involving football.<\/p>\n

As people started entering the sanctuary, however, I noticed several Kentucky basketball shirts. I didn\u2019t know much about basketball, but I knew enough to shift my illustration on the fly to connect even more with the congregation.<\/p>\n

It was \u2014 forgive me, I\u2019m gonna say it \u2014\u00a0a slam dunk!<\/em><\/p>\n

If you know your context and people well, you can be a city boy and still connect with people who think a traffic jam is their cows coming in to feed.<\/p>\n

4. Books are your friend, and so is the Internet<\/strong><\/p>\n

Your church likely won\u2019t provide you with a book budget, and money might be tight. When you\u2019re able, however, grab a book on preaching and read it when you have some downtime.<\/p>\n

Also, many seminaries have blogs like Southwestern\u2019s\u00a0Preaching Source<\/a>, which offer sermon outlines and articles to help you in (and out of) the pulpit.,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Excerpted from Replanting Rural Churches\u00a0by Matt Henslee and Kyle Bueermann. Used by permission. When you accept …<\/p>\n

4 tips for preaching in a rural church<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":651,"template":"","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"tags":[],"channels":[],"topics":[53],"languages":[],"class_list":["post-650","resource","type-resource","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","resource_type-article","topics-replanting"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n4 tips for preaching in a rural church - Church Replanting<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/church-replanting\/resource\/4-tips-for-preaching-in-a-rural-church\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"4 tips for preaching in a rural church\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Excerpted from Replanting Rural Churches\u00a0by Matt Henslee and Kyle Bueermann. 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