Preacher's Block

This preaching tip was shared by Preacher’s Block co-founder, Hunter Bethea. If you’re interested in joining the most focused preachers in the world, sign up here.

Last week, our preaching tip was about avoiding the Ditch of Expertise. This week, we’ll look at the other ditch: the Ditch of Ignorance.

Whereas sometimes we fall into the Ditch of Expertise—as if we have everything figured out in the Christian life—other times, we can fall into the Ditch of Ignorance. The Ditch of Ignorance is when we either pretend or willfully don’t know something that we probably should as preachers.

Maybe an example will help. Lets say you’re preaching from Habakkuk. As you’re prepping the sermon, maybe you’re not totally sure the proper way to pronounce the book (which is totally fair). But you get up there on Sunday morning and say, “Our Scripture reading this morning comes from Habakkuk, or however you pronounce it.” It’s totally fine to admit that you had to look it up; people like authenticity and honesty. But if you come into your sermon either feigning ignorance or actually being ignorant, you’ll give away some of your authority as a preacher.

In a society where there are many different “authorities” for people to choose from, then when our congregants have a theological question, do you think they’ll be more likely to ask the preacher who doesn’t even know enough to look up how to pronounce Habakkuk before the sermon, or do you think they’ll go to YouTube, Google, and TikTok.

I think well-meaning preachers fall into the Ditch of Ignorance because they want to be relatable. But there are ways to be relatable without giving up your preaching authority. Say that you had to look up how to pronounce a word; admit that it’s hard for you to remember the order of the epistles; tell your congregation that you still struggle to control your tongue. But by the time you get up to preach the Word of God, you should be beyond ignorance regarding what you’re talking about and be able to talk about it with the authority God has given you.