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Christian Leadership Training Course

By J.C. Choate

Lesson 21

The Preacher’s Talk

In this lesson we will discuss the preacher’s talk, his language, or terminology. In other words, the average preacher is going to use certain phrases and expressions as he talks to people. Like everyone else, he is influenced often by his religious friends and neighbors. Of course, not everything these people do or say is wrong, and certainly it is not wrong in itself for us to use methods of work or expressions in our speech that are used by denominational groups. But there are things that we should guard against, or if we are guilty of doing those things, we should rid ourselves of them.

The preacher must be very careful as he speaks because those who are listening will readily pick up and use whatever he says. He must always strive to be a good example.

Because of carelessness, or unawareness of error, preachers and members of the church in recent times have begun to use statements like: “It’s time to go to church”, “We are going to church”, “Are you going to church?”, and many other similar expressions. I grew up being taught that we don’t “go to church”, but we “go to the meeting place” or we “assemble for worship” or we “go to worship”. I believe these are still the correct ways of saying what we are going. But someone might say, “Everyone understands that when you talk about “going to church” you mean that you are “going to worship”. But such assumption is the way false teaching slips into our speech and lives. The denominational world refers to the meeting house as the church, and that is why they speak of “going to church”. We know that the church is not the meeting house, but rather it is the spiritual body of Christ, made up of the called out or the saved, which has reference to the people who make up the church (Matthew 16:18,19; Ephesians 5:23-27; Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 1:22,23; 1 Corinthians 12:20). So let’s get it right. Let’s quit talking about “going to church” and talk about “going to the meeting house” or “going to worship”.

Then we hear some preachers, as well as those who are not preachers, talking about “my church”, “my members”, “our church”, etc. Now where did we learn such expressions? We certainly didn’t get them from the Bible. If they didn’t come from the Bible, we must have gotten them from our religious friends who are not members of the Lord’s church. Maybe they can honestly talk about “their” church, and use other such expressions, but we cannot do that. The church does not belong to us. It belongs to Christ. He said, “I will build my church”, and He did, but that doesn’t mean that it is ours (Matthew 16:18). We are honored to be members of it, but it is not ours. We didn’t build it. We didn’t shed our blood for it. We are not the saviour of it. But Christ is all of those things to His church (Acts 20:28; Ephesians 5:23). You might think that I am making a big thing out of an unimportant matter. Such wrong wording might seem so innocent. But the fact is, this is how people begin to drift from the Lord and His way. I ask you to watch your language.

Besides these and other denominational expressions, preachers in this part of the world find it difficult to distinguish between telling the truth and lying, or misrepresenting, exaggerating. Of course where there is so much bribery and people come at you from every direction for something, it becomes a way of life to deny things, to offer false explanations, and to simply say “no” when the true answer is “yes”. The world naturally says that is all right, but the Christian must be honest and truthful. Paul said that we should not lie to one another (Revelation 21:8). On the other hand, the Bible teaches that we must be honest in all things (Romans 12:17). Another way of putting it, we should always be truthful in dealing with one another and even with people of the world. If people can’t take our word, and have confidence in us that we are telling the truth, then who can they trust? Actually as Christians we should be the ones who can always be depended on to tell the truth.

Preachers also have the bad habit of talking down to other people, especially a fellow preacher. It is easy to become envious and jealous of preachers, to find fault with them, to discredit them, to make accusations against they, and to gossip about them. All of this is very bad. Of all people who should speak well of others, it should be the preacher. Let me encourage you to begin to say something good about your fellow preachers.

Still another area where preachers have a difficult time with their tongue, or their language, is that they are bad to brag and to boast. To hear them talk, they are the greatest thing going today. Let me urge you to tone it down some. If you are all that great, your brethren will recognize it without any boasting from you. If you are not, bragging will only make matters worse. James says that the tongue is a little member but it boasts great things (James 3:5). Instead of speaking highly about ourselves, we should be humble and meek in spirit and in life. Christ said, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5).

As you can see, preachers are not perfect. They have their problems, too. Because they do have problems, we should not use them as an excuse to continue in sin or to quit the church. The preacher, like everyone else, must work hard to cause those around him to have faith and confidence in him. To do that, he must watch his tongue and always use it in an honest and responsible way.

The preacher is in a unique position. Since he is a preacher, his brethren and others expect him to speak up, as representative of the group. But he must be conscientious in what he says and always speak in a way that would bring honor to Christ instead of bringing reproach to His name.

I would invite you to think seriously about the things that have been said. Try to improve your speech, speaking always “as the oracles of God”, for it is from the heart itself that our words originate.