Preaching Teams: Shared Ministry and Message
Preaching as a team of servants who share ministry in a local church multiplies the impact of both ministry and message. The ministries of all shape the message of each.
Preaching Teams: Accountability & Excellence
If we work and preach in isolation, we may slowly grow as preachers over time. But on a healthy preaching team, iron sharpens iron and each preacher grows exponentially. The result is greater benefit for the people of God, and more effective preachers for the glory of God.
Preaching Teams: Variety
A preaching team made up of complementary strengths and personalities frees every preacher to preach from their own strengths with greatest benefit to the hearers.
Preaching Teams: A Community Message
When a group of preachers with differing personalities and styles feed a flock with a consistent gospel message, the focus naturally shifts from the preacher to the gospel. The messenger becomes secondary, and the message becomes primary. We decrease. Jesus increases.
Preaching Teams: Multiplication vs. Addition
If you are a preacher who wants to pursue kingdom multiplication in your ministry, the thing you most need to reproduce is other preachers. A preaching team provides a great way to do this.
Preaching Teams Free Up Time
A preaching team frees the preacher to take the time necessary to deliver not just a good talk, but a message from God’s heart.
Preaching Teams Share the Load
The most obvious benefit for a preaching team is that it relieives the pressure on the senior pastor to carry the entire load of a church’s ministry of proclamation.
A Biblical Rationale for Preaching Teams
Although the New Testament never says, “Thou shalt preach in teams,” life in the early church certainly seems to have included multiple preachers in a congregation. Preaching teams may not be prescribed as a norm, but I believe they are at least described as a possibility – and a good one!