Why Do We Have a "Teaching" time?
Each week at Missio, following the Silence & Prayer portion of our gathering, a member of our teaching team (usually Pastor Kurt) gets on stage and speaks for 30-45 minutes. One may begin to wonder why this practice exists and why we dedicate such a large portion of our gathering to it each week. While space is limited here, my aim is simply to introduce you to the liturgical act of teaching and why it plays such a prominent role in our Sunday gathering.
The reason we have a teaching portion of our gathering is fairly simple. We gather to glorify God for who He is, but we can’t do that if we don’t know who He is! Therefore, we teach so people know whom they are to worship.
This means that our teaching time must be centered around the Bible, which we believe is God’s proclaimed word to us. This is also why this time can also be called preaching. There is not simply a transfer of information that happens (as in other types of teaching), but there is a proclamation of what God has declared with the intention of internal heart transformation.
How We Teach
So why don’t we just read a passage then and be done?
It may be helpful to look to Jesus here. When Jesus taught, he used the Old Testament as the basis for his topics, but he didn’t just simply quote a passage and leave it at that. He used the passage to show how it ultimately pointed to him and helped people apply it to their own lives through parables and other contextual illustrations.This is why the teaching portion of our gathering can take so much more time than the other parts. The person speaking must carefully explain what the passage of Scripture meant to the original audience, how it connects to the gospel, and how it connects to our lives right now. That is not easy (impossible?) to do in 15 minutes! Therefore, we take 30-40 minutes each week to unpack a passage of Scripture and trust the Lord to use it for His glory and our good.
Why We Teach
All of that may be helpful, but at the end of the day we are left asking “Does it really make a difference?” For me personally, preaching has been one of the key instruments God has used to shape and form me as a disciple of Jesus. When I started going to church again in college, it was the faithful preaching of God’s Word that challenged my assumptions and pointed me to God and the gospel. Since then, God has used it for the past 15 years to grow me in Biblical literacy, evangelism, service, gospel-centered living, and countless other ways that make me a better disciple of Jesus. This is why I believe the proclamation of God’s Word in a biblical, gospel-centered sermon that aims at the heart and is empowered by the Spirit is a necessary and central aspect of the Sunday gathering.
Teaching as Worship
And this is why pastors love to do it.
Preparing and preaching a sermon is one of the most difficult and enjoyable ways a pastor gets to serve the Lord. He gets to take on the challenge of connecting the meaning of the text to life today, and sharing how the gospel is not just for salvation (being reconciled to God) but also transformation (being formed into God’s image).
Ultimately, it is an act of worship. Not only for those listening, but also for the one teaching. This is why Pastor Kurt and the rest of the teaching team will continue to dedicate so much time and energy each week to preparing a sermon for our Sunday Gathering. We believe it is an act of worship that God can use for His glory and our good.