Top Scripture Verses for Parish Renewal - Part 2

All Scripture is inspired, or God breathed, but some verses inspire us more than others. For some people, it is John 3:16, others Jeremiah 29:11, and others Psalm 23. If you don’t know those verses, consider looking them up. When it comes to parish renewal and revival, I think there are some verses that are absolutely essential. In my last blog, I shared the primacy of the mission found in Matthew 28. In this one, I want to share the importance of preaching.

The pulpit is the rudder of the church ship. Until the leaders of a parish leverage the power of the pulpit, a parish will struggle to move forward in any consistent direction with any degree of velocity. We are learning at Rebuilt that we must help our partner parishes make preaching a greater priority if they are to see progress and go further, faster.

A key passage pastors, preachers, and the team around them need to embrace comes from Acts 6. Everything is going well in the early Church. At Pentecost, three thousand souls get saved. The Church keeps on growing. The Church joins in fellowship and shares their treasure. Peter heals a cripple. The apostles get arrested for preaching about Jesus but they are quickly let go. Then comes an internal problem: there is grumbling and complaining. (I know, it’s hard to imagine a Church where people grumble and complain, but it happened in Acts of the Apostles.) The complaint is that the Greek widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. While the Jewish Christian widows received food, the Greek Christian widows did not. The apostles are called to solve the problem and here’s what they say that is so important:

“It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table.” (Acts 6:2b)

They don’t deny the problem. They don’t deny something needs to be done about it. They take responsibility for the problem but they don’t take on the actual task. Instead, they determine that they will delegate the task to someone else. That’s another lesson we will look at in another blog. But here’s what preachers and teachers and the team that surround them need to hear:

it is not good to neglect homily or sermon or teaching preparation in order to take care of people’s needs.

This sounds insensitive, I know. But that’s Scripture, not me. Preaching often gets put off to the side because of funeral Masses or visiting the sick or some other urgent call. Sermon and homily preparation and practice need to be guarded. It may feel good to respond to others but listen to what God’s word says: it is not right to neglect the word. It is wrong to neglect the preparation and practice of preaching.

This means preachers must protect their time of practice and preparation. It also means the team around them needs to help. Administrative assistants must help pastors protect their study and preparation time. Other team members must be willing to serve in a way so that homilies and teaching can be given a priority. Until the weekend homily is made a priority, a parish is stunted in its growth.

The apostles delegate the authority and responsibility of caring for the widows to Stephen and the other deacons. They still have their needs met, but not by the apostles. Look what happens as a result:

“The word of God continued to spread, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly; even a large number of priests were becoming obedient to the faith.” (Acts 6:7)

The discipline of the apostles to stay focused on the ministry of the word and delegate the distribution of food meant that the Gospel continued to spread. More people came into a relationship with Jesus Christ. If you want your parish to grow, do not neglect ministry of the word; and delegate to others more of the responsibilities of your parishioners’ day-to-day needs.

If you are a preacher or teacher, what distracts you from preparation and practice? What meetings or activities tempt you away from ministry of the word? Identify them and ask for help from your team.

If you support a person who preaches the word, take the things off their schedule that get in the way of homily or teaching preparation. Ask how you can help.

Preaching and teaching are absolutely vital for parish renewal. Once we give them priority, we will see our parishes grow deeper and wider.

Rooting for you,
Tom