The Preacher and The Act of Preaching

by Vince Olaer | Preaching | 0 comments

A Preacher is the One Preaching The Word of God

Preaching is the act of discoursing the word of God. When a preacher starts to discourse about God’s word, it is then called preaching.  In history, preaching is most commonly known as “Homily”. Even nowadays, they were recognized as synonymous terms. However, homily is a noun while preaching is a verb. Actually, the direct synonymous term of homily is sermon and not the act of preaching.

A preacher is basically someone who preaches a sermons or someone who give homilies (Wikipedia).  Most often, he is the pastor of a Church, but not limited from being a pastor. There are some people though who still preaches yet not a pastor. There were times that laypersons, deacons, small group leaders, etc preaches. They are the customary substitute for the pastor in the ministry of preaching.

Some churches have “pulpit preachers”. These preachers are mostly pastors by profession, but they do not exactly pastor the church where they are preaching. They are plain preachers who shares the word of God.

In most common usage, Preachers and Pastors were interchangeably used. Most people call the Preachers as Pastors. This is probably due to its main function as a pastor of the church that is to preach the word of God. However for the Chinese, it was said that once you are a preacher, it does not necessarily mean that you are a pastor. Being a preacher is just a start to be a pastor for them until such time that they will be ready to properly handle the church.

Sermon as the Content of Preaching

Sermons are the content of preaching. It is the message being delivered through discoursing the Word of God. The sermons are most commonly known as the “Revelations” of God which was interpreted from the Bible.

A preacher preaches truths from the Bible. Nowadays, with millions of people interpreting God’s word, many of those were false teachers and does not really preach God’s word but from mere personal beliefs and opinions. Some even made their own book and uses it as a proof of their belief. But know that the genuine message of God comes only from the Bible.

There are several kinds of sermons to which I highly recommend that you read my posts on Preaching.

The Difference between the Preacher and Evangelist

Basically both preaches the word of God and both discourses passages from the Bible. The difference however is lies in the purpose where they usually preach. The preacher preaches mainly for the purpose of delivering the weekly sermons and regular services. They preach every Sunday, special events (ex. baptism, love month, Christmas, etc.), and special occasions (ex. Wedding, engagement, house blessings and the like).

On the other hand, Evangelists preaches on Revival Nights and Crusades. There are some Evangelists who are called “Street Evangelists”. You will usually see them corners of busy streets with megaphone and speakers, telling people to repent and accept our Lord Jesus Christ.

Some were authentic street preachers. But beware, for there is more hoaxes in street preaching than genuine preachers. You can test them by observing what they do after preaching. Most hoaxes ask and gather money after preaching, while most of those genuine will not ask even for a penny.

6 Useful Tools For the Preacher and His Preaching

Preach It!– Lecture series on How To Preach!!! I originally wrote this as an e-book with the intention to lecture it to our disciples. But I want to share it to a greater audience, and so I prefer to post it in series.

Sermon Illustrations – Collection of sermon illustrations that can be used effectively in preaching. Illustrations are very important in clarifying things during preaching. Sometimes, they are the one that is being remembered most of the time.

Bible Tools – There are free and paid Bible tools. But this link will lead you to the free ones. Believe me, they are almost equally useful than the paid ones.

Sermon Manuscripts – I already have a fair collection of sermon manuscripts that you can use as a beginner. But I do not, recommend that you exactly copy it. I strongly suggest that you develop it because it’s best to tell the people something that is coming from inside you and not from other’s work.

The Discipler’s Toolbar – Being highly customized for preachers, this very useful toolbar will give you updates on the latest posts about Christian living, devotions, sermon outlines, sermon illustrations etc. Not to mention the links for other useful tools online. So I wish that you will never miss this great toolbar.

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