Pastor Steven Furtick

Here’s the best way I can describe the current evolution I’m experiencing as a preacher.

My motivation in selecting series, topics, passages, and applications seems to be morphing fundamentally. In my first 2 years as a pastor, I may have given too much weight to what I thought people needed to hear about. I was (and still am) heavily influenced by the consideration of felt needs when deciding what to preach about.
I am charged to apply the Word of God to contemporary cultural concerns in a relevant way, to discern the times, yada yada, you know the drill.

But lately, the focus of my message prep is shifting.
I’m giving more attention to what I believe God wants to say
than what I think people need to hear.

And you know what? If my primary question in preparing a message is:
What does God want to say to Elevation Church this week?
we’ll kill both birds with one stone. What God wants to say will always be exactly what people need to hear. I’ll always bat 1000!
If I approach it the other way around, it’s hit and miss. What I think people need to hear is much too subjective. What God wants to say is always on point.

This is elementary-so basic that I’m almost embarrassed to blog about it. Kind of a which came first the chicken or the egg sort of discussion.
But you’d be surprised how much this subtle shift in my approach changes the process of preparing to preach the Word of God.
Because what God wants to say is what people need to hear. Every single time.