All preaching requires skill in rhetoric and oratory, but perhaps the best and most influential preacher in biblical times was reputed to lack them. Indeed, by his own admission, Paul tells the Corinthians he did not come with the kind of speaking gifts and philosophical panache that was so admired in their day (1Co 2.1-5). Elsewhere he attributes the effectiveness of his preaching entirely to the Holy Spirit’s work through him and in the lives of his hearers (1Th 1.4-5). The lack of professional rhetoric and oratory in no way hindered God’s working through his word. (Though this should not be turned into an excuse for preachers not bothering to cultivate these abilities as best they can for God.)

Preaching is often described (and derided) as ‘monological discourse’. At one level this is true; but scratch beneath the surface and we quickly realise that nothing could be less true. There is something about Christian preaching that is altogether unique.

Although we encounter ‘preaching’ in other settings – from that of Islam and other religions to the ‘preaching’ of political orators – many things place the preaching of the Old Testament prophets, that of their New Testament successors and also that of the entire history of the church in a class of its own.

Whereas there are elements of overlap between the ‘preaching’ we encounter in a wide range of contexts, to authentically preach the Bible involves a unique dynamic.

All preaching requires skill in rhetoric and oratory, but perhaps the best and most influential preacher in biblical times was reputed to lack them. Indeed, by his own admission, Paul tells the Corinthians he did not come with the kind of speaking gifts and philosophical panache that was so admired in their day (1Co 2.1-5). Elsewhere he attributes the effectiveness of his preaching entirely to the Holy Spirit’s work through him and in the lives of his hearers (1Th 1.4-5). The lack of professional rhetoric and oratory in no way hindered God’s working through his word. (Though this should not be turned into an excuse for preachers not bothering to cultivate these abilities as best they can for God.)

What, then, lay at the heart of the apostolic understanding of preaching that set it apart from other forms of discourse and which made it uniquely effective in God’s hands to extend his kingdom and build his church?

The answer lies in what it is the preacher is to preach. At the heart of Paul’s charge to Timothy as a minister of Christ and servant of the gospel, he is to ‘preach the word’ (2Ti 4.2). It is to be the substance of his proclamation. This did not mean Timothy was simply to read the word of God aloud to his congregants in a proclamatory style; but, rather, to allow his own choice of words and manner of delivery to be shaped and controlled by the word of God. In doing so, his preaching would in effect be a 3-way engagement.

In the first instance, as preacher wrestling with the text of Scripture, it was an engagement between the man and God’s message. His calling was to be a servant of the word. As a ‘faithful minister of the new covenant’ (2Co 3.6), he was to serve that New Covenant in its written form. (Interestingly, although in the New Covenant world the New Covenant Scriptures were not yet fully in the church’s possession, this did not hinder the preachers of that age proclaiming New Testament fulfilment from the pages of the Old Testament.) Everything about the sacred revelation was designed to bring its servant to his knees before it in his efforts to faithfully proclaim it.

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