Speaking from years of ministerial experience, Reed names the tests that will try the pastor’s heart and he knows the means by which a pastor’s heart can be strengthened.
Isolation and the constant sense of feeling alone are constant plagues in the pastoral office. As preachers, I am sure we all know the statistics that bear this out. More to the point, I am certain we have all experienced that loneliness that seems to accompany the call into ministry. Such a position leaves us vulnerable to all kinds of problems: laziness, self-loathing, sin. The solution is clear: Pastors need friends, mentors, yes, even their own pastor. But, too often, we find these lacking in our lives and so we pursue the ministry alone.
Into this pastoral struggle comes Rick Reed’s book The Heart of the Preacher: Preparing Your Soul to Proclaim the Word[1] with wonderful wisdom for pastors whose hearts are vulnerable because of their call. Reed’s book is utterly pastoral. With keen precision, he sees the trials that every pastor will face. Speaking from years of ministerial experience, Reed names the tests that will try the pastor’s heart and he knows the means by which a pastor’s heart can be strengthened.
As one who writes like a pastor for pastors, Reed is concerned with the heart of those who proclaim God’s heart to God’s people. He writes,
My big surprise came when I realized the hardest work a preachers must do happens within the preacher’s own heart. Over time, I’ve found the most challenging part of a sustained preaching ministry is not the rigor required to exegete a text, the thinking needed to discern the main message, the skill involved in crafting a clear and compelling outline, or even the energy necessary to communicate with authentic passion. My biggest challenge is keeping my heart in good order week in and week out. Preaching is not just hard work; it’s heart work. (xvi)
With this in mind, Reed sets out to address the preacher’s heart so that they are strengthened to carry out their ministries. In the first section, he examines fifteen tests or temptation that a preacher must face. These tests range from pride, laziness, the temptation to quit, and so on. He says, “The way we handle these tests of the heart will affect how we hold up in ministry.” (xvii) But, these tests are of benefit to the preacher as God will use them to strengthen us, “God’s agenda in testing our hearts is not just to expose what is in them….His larger purpose goes beyond revealing to refining.” (2)
Pastors need friends, mentors, yes, even their own pastor. But, too often, we find these lacking in our lives and so we pursue the ministry alone.
In the second section, Reed takes us from defense to offense. He offers ten practices that preachers can take up to strengthen their heart to prepare them for the trials when they come our way.
“[K]eeping our hearts requires more than being reactive; we must also become proactive. We must not only play defense; we need to go on the offense. We must intentionally fortify our hearts, strengthening our souls for the tests that most certainly will come our way.” (124)
Reed guides us to a variety of practices and disciplines that will strengthen the pastor’s heart. He guides us to practice personal soul care wherein the preacher preaches to himself. (131-134) He encourages us to pray diligently as we prepare to preach, to listen to our wives and their feedback, watch our health, guard our Saturdays, and so forth. The advice offered here is incredibly useful.
I found myself nodding along with much of this book. More than once I thought, “This guy really gets pastors!” I was convicted and encouraged by much of what Reed had to say. Here we sit at the feet of a pastor who gets pastors and has graciously shared his wisdom with us. I was convicted and challenged by number of sections. His encouragement in chapter 17 to “Devote Yourself to Prayer and the Word” (134-141) is a marvelous chapter and is worth the price of the book.
My only pushback with the book is the encouragement for the preacher to preach to himself. Reed writes,
Speaking with a sullied soul leaves you feeling like poseurs, not preachers. That’s why preachers must not only preach the gospel to others; we must begin by preaching the gospel to our own souls…We must not presume upon God’s grace, but we still must preach the good news to our own hearts.
Such advice is good as far as it goes. But, it is easier said than done. And, if I am feeling like a poseur in the pulpit, it is because my own inner voice is accusing my conscience. Though perhaps I should, I cannot find it within myself to trust that inner voice. I need someone to preach to me. As a pastor, I need a pastor, a confessor, a brother in the ministry who will hear my confession and give me absolution from outside of me. Dietrich Bonheoffer in Life Together when he writes, “The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother; his own heart is uncertain, his brother’s is sure.”[2]
Preachers need fellow preachers to come alongside of the for times of what Luther calls in the Smalcald Articles, “the mutual conversation and consolation of brothers and sisters.”[3] We need someone to come alongside of us to help us face the tests and trials, to preach the gospel to us after hearing our confession of sins, to have our backs when it feels like everything else is against us. We cannot just preach to ourselves. We need someone to put Christ in our ears for the sake of our hearts.
To that end, I would recommend picking up a few copies of The Heart of the Preacher for yourself and for a few other fellow pastors. Commit to working through this one chapter at a time, discussing the challenges you are facing, and praying for one another as you proclaim the gospel of Christ to each other. This book is an exceptional guide to such necessary conversation and consolation.
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[1] Rick Reed, The Heart of the Preacher: Preparing Your Soul to Proclaim the Word (Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2019).
[2] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1954), 22.
[3] Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert, eds., The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evagelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000), 319.
