Preaching Through Pain: What Every Preacher and Person Should Know About Performing Under Pressure

By Arthur J James

The purpose of Preaching through Pain is to come along side of preachers and people
in general to assist them in handling the great challenge of being gifted to do a job
but having the pain of life stand in the way of your performance. We all know that it
is inevitable for pain to show up in life, however too few of us know ho

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: May 29, 2018
• ISBN: 9781640880337

Book preview

What Every Preacher and Person Should Know About

PERFORMING UNDER PRESSURE

ARTHUR J. JAMES

Trilogy Christian Publishers

A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Trinity Broadcasting Network

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Copyright © 2018 by Arthur J. James

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked (KJV) taken from The Holy Bible, King James Version. Cambridge Edition: 1769.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-1-64088-022-1

ISBN 978-1-64088-033-7 (ebook)

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of Preaching Through Pain is to come along side of preachers, and people in general, to assist them in handling the great challenge of being gifted to do a job, but having the pain of life stand in the way of your performance. We all know that it is inevitable for pain to show up in life; however, too few of us know how to preach through pain in the process. According to the Schaeffer Institute research, they suggest that 1,700 pastors quit the ministry each month due to the pain that comes with the position. Preaching Through Pain will equip the reader to withstand the various vicissitudes that come with life. The purpose of this book is to equip ministers, and lay people alike, to effectively preach, teach, write and simply perform in spite of pain.

For many people, public speaking is a great fear. Even when you believe that you are called of God and have a word from the Lord it is challenging to consistently deliver powerful messages because of pain associated with the position. Dealing with boards, committees, family issues and life in general can make getting prepared to preach or present a disheartening experience.

Realizing that pain does not stop but shows up in a variety of ways in which the speaker, or presenter, has not anticipated adds to the challenge of becoming a preacher par excellence. Preachers and presenters have to shift their mindset in order to be a blessing to others over a long period of time especially as things as they sometimes do go from bad to worse.

Having a road map, or template, for success will help to provide structure to any endeavor. What Preaching Through Pain does is provide a framework for preachers and presenters alike to use and repeat over and over again, so that they will have confidence and improve regardless of what happens in and around their lives.

Preaching Through Pain has been a book that I have been writing for more than ten years. As a preacher who encountered pain early in my ministry, I found writing to be very therapeutic. I also found that the longer I preached, the more pain I experienced because as a preacher you get to live the message either before you preach it, after you preach it or right in the middle of your delivery. What started out as therapy, became what I believe is a calling to come along side preachers to assist them with a framework I use to perform under pressure. Throughout this book, preaching will be used as an illustration of the process of communicating the Word of God. It will also be used as a metaphor for those who are not literal preachers, but any individual who is a creator who has ever had to create anything while going through a crisis. For the actual preachers who will read this book, some of you will have varying pain points than I did. I believe this message will fit us all whatever pain path we have travelled. To my female preachers, the principles in this book are transferable to both males and females. Preaching Through Pain is a combination of my story and my strategy of how to remain sustained in ministry for the long haul. I have provided preaching moments in this book to encourage the preacher through the process.

It is my prayer that the contents in this book will help you continue to preach until He comes for us all.

CHAPTER 1

The Call of a Young Preacher

Understanding the Call

When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Lightning strikes like I have never seen it before. Thunder rolls louder than it ever has in my entire life. In spite of the worst storm that I had ever encountered I managed to fall asleep only to be awakened by a dream that I shall never forget. This is how my journey began as a young man who would shortly thereafter begin to preach through pain.

There is nothing more amazing and precious as a call from God. There is no sound like the sound a young man hears from a God who interrupts his life to introduce him to the clarion call that God has for him. God has a way of calling you to do his will whether you feel qualified or not. If you don’t believe me ask Moses who when God called him to shepherd and deliver his people at the tender age of 80 he asked God a question. "Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh and say let my people go? Upon questioning God’s calling Moses went on to give God a list of reasons why He should not call him. The NLT version of the Bible states that on multiple occasions Moses protested." He told God, I’m a nobody, I don’t even know your name, they won’t believe me, they won’t listen to me, they won’t believe this strange story that you appeared to me in a burning bush, and they certainly won’t understand me because I don’t speak dat’ good. Even though God continued to reassure Moses that He would be with him, Moses still didn’t feel qualified.

Or what about the prophet Jeremiah who, when called of God, also questioned God’s calling because he did not feel qualified. Jeremiah said, I can’t speak for you! I’m too young!

We see it again when God calls Gideon to lead His people in Judges 6. Gideon too felt unqualified. Gideon also questioned God. Gideon asked God, "How can I rescue Israel?" He went on to explain to God that he wasn’t qualified because his clan was the weakest in Manasseh, and he was the least in his family.

To further understand the call you may also want to consider asking young Samuel, who can’t sleep because he hears this sound that will change his life for the rest of his life. Even though he does not understand it or recognize it, he is able to hear it. All Samuel knows is that every time he tries to go back to sleep he is soon awaken by the Clarion call. I wonder how many of us have tried to go back to sleep, but God would not let us rest until we answered the call and said speak Lord for thy servant heareth.

Many people who have heard the call have a problem responding to the call that they have heard because they believe that they like Moses, Jeremiah, and Gideon were not qualified to preach or lead. It’s funny because we tend to believe that God must not know we are not perfect or capable when he called us even though He made us. Preacher, it is important for you to know that God does not need us, but he chooses to use us to carry out his will in the earth and in the lives of the people we encounter. We tend to think that God can’t use us because we are imperfect. Although scripture shares with us the qualifications to hold the office of an overseer (I, of course, agree with this. Character is a must in order to walk in the calling that God gives.), I also am a firm believer that none of us are perfect when God calls us, neither are we perfect now! But we should all as clergy and laymen alike strive for perfection.

PREACHING MOMENT

Who is the preacher who has not had a rough background, or made so many mistakes in life that they were ashamed to show their face in public let alone in the pulpit? Who is the preacher who has not had problems in his own marriage while teaching others how to have a healthy one? Who is the preacher who has not struggled to embrace his own call while dealing with his humanity while at the same time preaching divinity? Who is the preacher who has not had to preach through pain?

I submit to you my brothers and sisters, it’s not your perfection that will touch lives, it’s your ability to preach through pain! Yes, you should be an example for your audience to follow as you follow Christ, but your greatest sermons are never talked out. They are walked out! They come after you’ve had to pull yourself together while dealing with the loss of a loved one, the confusion in your own house, the lack of funds for your ministry, and the pain of loneliness.

Back to the Call

A major purpose in me writing this book is to let God’s servants know that you do not have to be perfect to be used. I once thought that it was my perfection that qualified me to preach, but now I know it’s my pain. Until we can go through pain and let God minister unto the minister we are not qualified to preach to others. God must first deliver a hurting, confused, rejected, and threatened Moses before He can use him to deliver a people in bondage. Joshua must be comforted that God is with him after mourning over Moses to keep moving towards the promised land. God must show Gideon that he will succeed because God is on his side, and He builds him up with sign after sign confirming that God is able.

In order to minister to the needs of people you’ve got to do like the prophet did and sit where they sit. You won’t be able to move the people from information to inspiration until they see God do it through you. Before I go any further, preacher, I want to encourage you. You may have tears in your eyes because of the hand life has dealt you, yet know He still called you. Please understand that the first person you preach through pain to is yourself. Preacher, know that God has called you for such a time as this, and if you can cry while you still create then it’s a sign you are called. Rest in the fact that although today may seem rough, the best is yet to come.

Back on Track

When I think or talk about the call of God I can’t help but reflect on my own experience. I was born, raised, and grew up in the Greater Mount Hebron Baptist church under the leadership of the late Rev. H.L. Crayton. My father and mother had us in church on a regular basis. I am hard-pressed to remember a Sunday when I was not in church, Sunday school, or BTU, (Baptist Training Union) on Sunday evenings doing Bible drills or learning specific functions within the church. Man, when I was young my siblings and I struggled to get excited about being in church sometimes all day long. The Mount Hebron church was a family church that Pastor Crayton planted with a hand full of people and by the time I was a teen Pastor Crayton with the help of my grandfather Fred Mitchell and others had grown the church that he founded into a multiple hundred person congregation. This was big long before we had all the mega-churches in which we see today.

While at the church growing up I was very shy and if voted on I would have received the quietest child award. Especially being number nine out of my mother’s ten children. I can remember my pastor seeing something in me by telling me after services that I was going to preach and that I would pastor the church once he retired. Not only did the pastor tell me this, but many of the members echoed his sentiments until the day I left for college. My mother even told me that God had revealed to her while I was in her womb that I was special, and I would be used by God to preach His word.

Now all of that was great, but there was just one problem, I did not want to preach. I was ok with being a good deacon like my grandfather, father, and Bro. Roy Reed. I wanted to be just like most boys when I was young, so I aspired of becoming a professional football player. I just knew that I would be the next Drew Pearson for the Dallas Cowboys. As I grew up in the inner city of Dallas I shared the den with my older brother Audie and my younger brother Alfred Joel, and I couldn’t explain it to you, but my life began to make a drastic change as I entered my teenage years.

It happened in 1983 when the associate minister of my home church presented the Sunday school class with a Bible. When Reverend Giles King did that, it changed my life. We had Bibles in my home, but now I had my