In a conversation with my wife we were both trying to recall what, if anything, we were taught in elementary or high school education about such things as the Reformation and Renaissance. Neither of us could actually ever recall a teacher talking about this but we both thought this must have been covered. That is the fallacy of education. We think that the grand details of history is what we need to learn about history but reality proves that facts and details are easily forgotten and just as easily looked up. What schools need to teach most of all is not how to use our technology or on the job skills but the simplest of complex tasks -- how to read and how to write. More than anything else, our education provided a solid basis for these essential skills to life and the very marks of our humanity. We have both, but especially my wife, worked to pass on these things and encourage them in our grandchildren. One is hardly learned in any way without them.
The problem is, however, that we are reading at lower and lower grade levels across the span of time and we are writing less and less. The Covid effect upon education is not without its own concern but it was not the cause for this decline, only the reason it has been hastened. We have for a very long time been de-emphasizing these educational arts in favor of many others -- not in the least is the desire for education to fix what parents and society have screwed up in our children. But the school exists for a very important purpose and that is to equip us with the skills basic to our humanity as well as our future -- the ability to read and understand and the write in response to what we have read. God help us when we lose this and cast our confidence on artificial so-called intelligence.
Key to being a pastor are these two skills -- reading and writing. A pastor whose day and week is not filled with reading and writing is failing in his duty. We read Scripture not simply for the professional tasks of preaching and teaching but also devotionally. We write sermons and Bible studies and countless emails (I am not sure text messaging really counts as writing!). If we fail here, we cannot be redeemed by other more noble or essential skills or virtues. It is here we either live or die in our vocation.
It is not the theory of it but the doing of it that marks the gift and blessing of reading and writing. Nowhere is this more true than when it comes to the work of the pastoral office. Writing a sermon is not simply putting words on a page or forming an idea of what you want to say. It is reading the Scriptures, reading the fathers, reading sermons, and reading the people who sit before you in the pew as well. Reading comes before writing always and the pastor would do well to remember this. No one should write sermons without first reading them -- good and bad. No one should preach without hearing the preacher first. Here the internet helps in comparing the manuscripts before you with the sound of the preacher. Do this for a couple of years before you put pen to paper (or key into your device) the beginnings of a sermon. Only then will you discover the joy of preaching and its craft will increase and flourish as you read more and practice writing more. If only this were done, the quality of preaching would surely increase among us. Without this it must only decline. If preaching is ever in trouble, it will not only be because we have emptied the content of God's Word and truth but also because we have become lazy in doing the profound preparation work of reading and writing. Do yourself a favor. Pick up a book and begin reading again. When a line catches your attention, write it down and fill out the thought with a paragraph or two. Do it for no reason except to hone your craft. It will reap great rewards on your preaching and teaching.
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