“To step into the pulpit is to enter onto holy ground. To stand behind an open Bible demands no trifling with sacred things. To be a spokesman for God requires utmost concern and care in handling and proclaiming the word. Rightly does Scripture warn, “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” [James 3: 1]
But sad to say, we live in a generation that has compromised this sacred calling to preach. Exposition is being replaced with entertainment, preaching with performances, doctrine with drama, and theology with theatrics. Desperately does the modern-day church need to recover its way and return to a pulpit that is Bible-based, Christ-centered, and life-changing.
God has always been pleased to honor His Word– especially His Word preached. The greatest seasons of church history– those eras of widespread reformation and great awakening– have been those epochs in which God-fearing men took the inspired Word and unashamedly preached it in the power of the Holy Spirit. As the pulpit goes, so goes the church.
Thus, only a reformed pulpit will ultimately lead to a reformed church. In this hour, pastors must see their pulpits again marked by sequential exposition, doctrinal quality, and a sense of gravity regarding eternal matters. This, in my estimation, is the need of the hour.”
Excerpted from Steven J. Lawson, The Expository Genius of John Calvin (Reformation Trust Publishing, 2007)
Jojo Agot 