The Quest for Biblical Ministry

This, then, is the conclusion of the whole matter: fear God and do your homework. But after you’ve done your homework, put your imagination to work by asking yourself: (1) How does this text relate to other passages that involve the same semantic domains (storms, boats, Peter, etc.)? (2) What patterns do I see? (3) What truths emerge from these patterns? (4) What pictures (metaphors) are in the text? (5) What metaphor will best convey the message of this passage?[27] (6) As the people hear the development of the outline, will they see something? (204)

I strongly believe in God’s love for His children, a love partly seen by how He gifts people from birth with natural desires and abilities to be used for His glory. It irks me when pastors say things like, “I told God I would never be a preacher, and look where I am today!” What a terrible testimony! I’m sure they mean well, suggesting how God can change hearts and all, but they unintentionally communicate God’s vindictiveness against His children, which simply doesn’t exist.

That being said, I also believe that God occasionally calls people to ministries for which He hasn’t naturally gifted them, requiring their full dependence upon Spiritual gifting and hard work. The hard work part is where Wiersbe’s Preaching and Teaching with Imagination takes over. I read this book several years ago and recall it containing—as usual for Wiesbe’s book—a number of great insights with a devotional rather than scholarly feel.

I’ll note right away that the book is far longer than it needs to be. Truth be told, I skimmed the central eight chapters where Wiersbe promises “to walk leisurely with you through the Scriptures…Our purpose is simply to get acquainted with and be excited by the imagery in the Bible. During most of this journey, we’ll only be sightseers. However, here and there we’ll pause to become prospectors and dig a little deeper.” (70) Granted he wrote this in 1994, but “to walk leisurely” is a dangerous way to describe the feel of your book in this patience-lacking age of internet and smart phones! As dated as the book feels, I think someone should take the recommendation he gives in his own intro to build upon his work and update it. Warren Weirsbe knows all about Walking with the Giants, so it’s great to see that he helps pave the way for other giants follow in his own steps.

I’ve pasted Wiersbe’s conclusion above so you can get an instant sense as to what to expect from the book, but I also want to share of a few of his insights that I found extremely helpful in my own approach to preaching.

• An outline is no more a message than a menu is a meal or a road map is a journey. (14)
  
• Our preaching must be in the present tense so that we’re not just lecturing to our people about what happened to Noah, David, and Paul. Harry Emerson Fosdick’s wry comment is still true—that nobody ever goes to church to find out what happened to the Hittites. (22)
  
• It’s important to know the Book and books, but it’s also important to know the book of nature and the book of human nature if we hope to penetrate the picture gallery of the human mind with the truth of God’s Word. (30)
  
• If the truth of the Word bypasses the personality of the preacher, then the sermon may become a lecture, and the preacher may become a hypocrite. If the text isn’t real to me, I’ll have a hard time making it real to others… One reason why God allows preachers to suffer is that they might have opportunities to grow spiritually and therefore to preach better. Even our Lord had to go through suffering to prepare Him for His heavenly ministry (Heb. 2:14-18), so why should we escape?  (183)
  
• The problem with most of us is that we were introduced to poetry at a time when we didn’t know how to approach it or appreciate it and, like a vaccination, we got just enough not to be able to “catch” the real thing. (262)

Finally, I must also add that Chapter 3 on the power of knowing nature is worth the price of the book. I think everyone should read it. If I could paste that whole thing, I would—but there are rules. It took me 33 years to finally get a taste for the outdoors, and I haven’t looked back. Getting to know God and the nature He created need not be mutually exclusive activities, I finally discovered. Praise the Lord for that!

I enjoyed much of this book but look forward to some type of update for this generation. I recommend Chapter 3 without reservation and the rest only if you can’t find anything better.

©2018 E.T.

Read More from Warren Wiersbe:

• Be God’s Guest: The Feasts of Leviticus 23 by Warren Wiersbe (1982)
• Preaching and Teaching with Imagination by Warren Wiersbe (1994)
• The Wiersbe Bible Study Series: Romans by Warren Wiersbe (2008)
• Be Free (Galatians) by Warren Wiersbe (2009)