Christine Pitt is the Lead Pastor at the Costa Mesa Seventh-day Adventist Church in Costa Mesa California. She has the joy of sharing life with her husband, William Pitt, and their blended interracial family of four children: Josiah (7), Hadassah (9), Abigail (14), and Lucas (15). They celebrate life together with every home improvement project, chore chart, homework night and family vacation. After seven years of higher education and eight years in the field of ministry she has come to the life-giving conclusion that our purpose comes from journeying hand in hand with God. 
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​Humility. Have you heard of this ethic? Throughout my life, I have been told that as a Christian, I need to be humble. As a Seventh-day Adventist, I need to be humble. As a woman, I need to be humble. In every use of this one word, there are different meanings. Humility as a woman has been taught to me as being quiet, listening more than speaking, not taking up too much space or too much of the conversation, and never being bold or confident about your abilities. But, make sure you are always pretty and eloquent in speech and try to make everyone else look good. Humility as an Adventist, I learned, meant being a good representative of Christ because how the world sees you will determine how they see God. I was told we cannot be aggressive or political about your beliefs. But still, I was told we have the monopoly on truth, and the world will only be saved if we share this particular version of the truth. And as a Christian, humility meant respecting authority and being a law-abiding citizen that does not question the law or our leaders regardless of how they are destructive and discriminatory.
    Humility. In my journey throughout the many seasons of ministry, this word has haunted me. It motivated me to stay in a toxic relationship with a man who ensured I knew he did not love me. I was taught "An Adventist woman doesn't divorce," or "a Christian woman needs to love her husband back to her and overlook all the toxicity," or "if a woman is God-fearing and humble enough, her husband will love her again." I lived in this reality thinking it was love. I believed that loving someone meant enduring every painful moment in order to somehow “make” them happy with your silent tolerance. I remember this pressure from my home life matching the pressure from ministry. I felt the pressure to do bigger programs to attract more people to somehow “make” them happy. Support evangelistic series that taught, “salvation by the spoon” or join in the scorn of a woman fleeing an abusive relationship. Silence as humility is the virtue I was taught. This was the theology I was living in as a family stuck in a fishbowl for all to see and judge everything we did while trying so hard to hide the messy realities of life in hopes our "perfect" family tricked others to believe in the “Adventist Home”.     
    When this “fishbowl” was broken into pieces and I could no longer hide the mess, humility took on a different meaning. I spent two years trying to figure out if I could put together the pieces of our fishbowl and somehow reverse time to what I thought was "perfection." I had to finally realize my definition of humility, my theology, and my faith could not hold water in the face of the imperfect reality of life. As I sat in many moments of pain and uncontrollable crying I would demand God to give me back what I thought I wanted. I would “claim promises” and talk with God as if He owed me for my “holiness”. When I finally stopped demanding God to give me back the perfection I thought I needed, I discovered true humility. 
    Humility isn't silence. Humility is speaking out. Humility isn't endurance. Humility is change. Humility isn't protecting perfection. Humility is admitting the mess of life and seeking authenticity. Humility doesn't know it all. Humility is a willingness to learn just how much you do not know. One night, after a healthy and long cry with God, I finally listened to the only One I should have ever listened to, God. I heard the Lord say the words that cut me like a knife and helped me abandon this futile attempt to rebuild the broken fish tank. The Lord asked me, "Am I not enough?" All this time, I was trying to be enough. I was trying to be enough for my husband, enough for my kids, or enough for my church. All the while, I was saying to God that my Lord was not enough for me. In my attempt to reclaim what I felt I had lost, I was ignoring the growth and depth with God that the Lord had for me. Friends, let me tell you, if I had not allowed myself to change in my understanding of the Bible, the church, my relationships, and God, I would not be a Pastor today. I found a faith that holds water, a belief that said I didn't have to have all the answers, the world wasn't dependent on me to save it, and God is truly enough. 
    We are called to be bold in the faith but humble in our assumptions about God's work. We must live in the humble reality that we are sometimes very wrong and must be willing to grow and change as God grows and changes us. This is the confidence of transformation in Christ. In this journey with God I was able to leave an unhealthy relationship and humbly receive counseling and long hard moments of transparency with God and myself. I have been humbled enough to love myself and be honest about my flaws and toxic attractions. I have engaged in more authentic faith practice and ministry, giving permission for my congregation to be transparent as well. And by God’s grace I was humbled enough to start dating and be ready for the man my heart longed for in the right time and right season. We have four beautiful children and all the beautiful mess that comes with blended families and co-parenting. This journey is the one I know I can walk in, because I am finally being honest and journeying with my Savior who is enough.

Ainsworth Keith Morris is the sixth of seven children and a native of the beautiful parish of St. Andrew, Jamaica. He highly values the social and educational enhancement of the youth and the nurture and stability of the aged. His motto is: When you can't realize the ideal, idealize the real. His greatest desire is to see those to whom he has preached and ministered in Heaven when Jesus comes because he determines to be in that number when the saints go marching in.
"I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry."

Many individuals downplay preaching as an archaic, outdated method of communicating the gospel. They suggest that it should be replaced with dialogue, dramatizations, and other productions that will compete with the so-called advances of society. However, I contend that preaching is significant in pastoral practice to keep the congregation growing and healthy.

The bible is replete with examples of preachers and the injunction to preach. In the Old Testament, prophets were called upon to warn "the people" and give them messages from God. Isaiah’s counsel to the bearer of God's message is: "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet." (Isaiah 58:1) Ezekiel affirms that the message should be presented "whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear." (Ezekiel 2:5). He continues to describe the preacher’s solemn responsibility in Ezekiel 3:17-19.

During his earthly ministry, Jesus emphasized the significance of preaching by word and action. The synoptic gospels describe him as constantly engaged in preaching. He said of himself: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the good news" (Luke 4:18). He also spoke of its significance as a precursor to his second coming. "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." (Matt. 24:14)
Preaching the "good news" was evident in the ministry of the apostles. It was apparent at Pentecost and integral in the establishment of the early church. Paul, arguably the most dominant of all the Apostles in the New Testament era, also emphasized the importance of preaching. He constantly preached during his travels as he raised and nurtured churches.

In the text of focus, Paul shared with his protégé, Timothy, one of the most critical pastoral injunctions concerning preaching. He called upon Timothy to do the type of preaching I classify as “Passionate Pastoral Preaching.” To be sure, passionate pastoral preaching must not be reduced, limited, or seen as synonymous with loud, emotional unrestrained utterances. It is not about the suavely charming smooth inflections of the voice or the roaring up-to-date exciting expression and well-coordinated choreographed gestures. Instead, Paul is counseling the preacher then and every preacher today to model the greatest preacher of history - Jesus Christ. In the words of Ellen White (1988): "The lessons of Christ should be carefully studied, and the subjects, manner, and form of discourses should be modeled after the divine Pattern. Oratorical display, flashy rhetoric, and fine gestures do not constitute a fine discourse . . . He did not sermonize as men do today. Instead, in intensely earnest tones, He assured them of the truths of the life to come, of the way of salvation."
Passionate pastoral preaching, such as Jesus demonstrated, and Paul admonished Timothy, can be viewed as revolving around some important P's and Q's.

P's and Q's of Passionate Pastoral Preaching?

Purpose
The apostle is so concerned about the church that he braces his counsel with the disturbing outlook that the people will resist sound doctrine. Therefore, Paul implores Timothy to preach the Word with purpose. The purpose for which Jesus preached was to announce the arrival of the kingdom and offer divine citizenship to believers. This was evident in every discourse.
Paul declares that we need to "Preach the word." "The Word" (logos) can be understood to be the Divine expression in the person of Jesus Christ (John 1:1 & 14) or the Divine expression of God's will through the Scriptures. (Heb. 4:12; 1 Thess. 2:13) Paul is very clear about the parameters of our preaching. He consistently spoke about what he was called to preach: "the boundless riches of Christ" (Eph. 3:8); "him" (Gal. 1:16); "the Gospel" (Rom. 1:1, 1 Cor 1:17, Col. 1:23); Christ crucified (1 Cor. 1:23); "the mystery of Christ" (Col. 4:3). It is clear then that the word he speaks of is the "good news of salvation."
The example of Jesus commissions us to preach "this gospel of the kingdom." (Matt. 24:14) Therefore, As Seventh-day Adventist preachers, we are called upon to preach the clarity of the unique understanding of biblical prophecy focusing on Jesus. It is incumbent upon the preacher to share that understanding, announce with urgency the imminence of Christ's second coming and the inescapable reality that we are living in the judgment hour.

Preparation
The passage appropriately shows that Timothy is called upon to be "ready in season and out of season." The word epistēthi indicates that he must always be prepared. Preaching is not an occasion, but it is a process. And preaching with passion in this post-modern society demands diligent discipline in preparation.

Personality
One definition of preaching is: communicating through personality. And Paul’s admonition was that Timothy's preaching needed to convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. In a real sense, Paul was suggesting that the Preacher must not be a "turnoff" by an arrogant and overbearing attitude. People are often turned off, not because of the piercing truth but because of the bombastic condescension seen in the preacher. Therefore, at times, it is not the sermon that needs modifying; it is the attitude or personality of the preacher that needs adjusting.

Prayer
It may seem strange to mention that prayer is essential for the preparation and presentation of the word. But it must never be overlooked because many individuals are talented speakers and orators who are able, simply on those abilities, to make powerful presentations. However, for the preacher who desires to communicate the message from God, he or she must continuously listen to what God is saying. I read this from Arrais (2011) some time ago, and it bears noting:
The pastor who depends on his own strength, who preaches and serves from his own resources, will soon find himself weak, discouraged, and ready to quit. No one has the wisdom for all of life's decisions. No one has the patience to overcome all the problems encountered. No one has the time for all the tasks, energy for all the meetings, inspiration for all the messages, and enough compassion for all the people who need him. Being a pastor doesn't change these truths. Pray or quit. That is the choice." p.43)

Qualification
When Paul Admonishes Timothy to Preach the word, he is calling on him to stand with holy boldness and declare the word of God. However, to do so, the preacher must have credibility. The listener has the right to question the authority from which the preacher speaks. People are more comfortable listening when the preacher is credible. Credibility is affected by: 1. Ability – Can they trust your skills? 2. Reliability – Do they have confidence through previous experiences with you? How did you do the last time you preached? 3. Spirituality – Do they see you as a spiritual person?

Quality
The preacher is responsible for being disciplined in preparing messages of the highest quality. The Seventh-day Adventist preacher cannot assume the posture of doctrinal superiority, believing that prophetic insights and eschatological understanding alone will force people to listen. The obstacles faced, plus the fact that we "wrestle not against flesh and blood," must be compelling motivators for the preacher to seek the Lord's strength and wisdom to come forth with messages of the highest quality.
In a busy ministry, it can be challenging to maintain quality consistently. But we must challenge ourselves by learning new methods and new themes. Personal development calls for discipline. Resist the temptation to stay within your comfort zone.

Question
For the passionate preacher to capture the attention of distracted and self-absorbed listeners, he or she must raise questions of eternal significance. Therefore, both in preparation and presentation, asking questions is necessary. Raise questions that the listener may be asking. Raise questions that the listener is forced to confront. Raise questions that elicit the answers for felt needs. Asking questions can be vital in securing the possibilities of challenges and thoughts in the minds of your congregants.
The primary or starting exegetical questions are: Why? What? When? Who? How? Nevertheless, the preacher must dig deeper by asking questions like Why now? Why here? What next? These and many other questions can help to unearth gems overlooked or missed. The depth and scope of the sermon may be determined by the type of questions mined from the text or asked by the preacher to bring the hearts and lives of the congregation in transition and decide for a change.


As I conclude, let me share what Ellen White (1948) says regarding the sacred responsibility that rests upon every minister of the sacred word. "A man (woman) may preach in a spirited manner and please the ear but convey no new idea or real intelligence to the mind. The impressions received through such preaching last no longer than while the speaker's voice is heard. When search is made for the fruit of such labor, there is little to be found." p. 447
Since preachers are often described as men and women who minister between the living and the dead, great is their responsibility to transform lives and secure destinies while probation lingers. Therefore, the heart is the preacher's target for every moment of the sermonic period. Passionate pastoral preaching that is Spirit-empowered is an essential pathway to the heart. By following the Ps and Qs of purpose, presentation, preparation, prayer, qualification, quality, and question, the gateway to a higher level of preaching may be discovered, and the pathway to the listener's heart may be secured.

REFERENCE LIST

Arrais, J. (2011). Wanted, a good pastor: The characteristics, skills, and attitudes every effective church leader needs. Silver Spring, Md., General Conference Ministerial Association.

White, E. G. H. (1948). Testimonies for the church, vol.1. Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Pub. Association.

White, E. G. H. (1988). The voice in speech and song: as outlined in the writings of Ellen G. White. Boise, ID: Pacific Press Pub. Association. p.111



Additional Reading Resources

Adams, J. E. (1986). Preaching with purpose: the urgent task of homiletics. Grand Rapids, MI: Presbyterian and Reformed Pub. Co.

Bailey, E. K. and W. W. Wiersbe (2003). Preaching in Black and White: What We Can Learn from Each Other. Zondervan.

Chapell, B. (2005). Christ-centered preaching: redeeming the expository sermon. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.

Jones, R. C. (2005). Preaching with Power: Black Preachers Share Secrets for Effective Preaching. General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Ministerial Association.

Jones, R. C. (2012). Preaching with Power II: More Black Preachers Share Secrets for Effective Preaching. Spirit Reign Publishing.

Loveless, W. (1998, May) Preaching: The endeavor itself. Ministry Magazine, 10-11

Robinson, H. W. and C. B. Larson (2005). The art and craft of biblical preaching: A comprehensive resource for today's communicators. Grand Rapids, Mich., Zondervan.

Robinson, H. W. (2014). Biblical preaching: the development and delivery of expository messages. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Publishing Group.

Warren, M. A. and E. G. H. White (2010). Ellen White on Preaching: Insights for Sharing God's Word. Review and Herald.

White, E.C. and E.G.H. White (1988). The Voice in Speech and Song: As outlined in the Writings of Ellen G. White. Pacific Press Pub. Association.

Ken Curtis started out in SECC in 1979 as the youth pastor at the Westminister Church, he is currently at the Calimesa where he has served for the last 35 years. He is married to Lael and has two grown children, Brianne and Jordan. Over the course of his Calimesa years he has done a little contract teaching for Andrews, Loma Linda and La Sierra Universities, currently helps with editing for the Growing Together Sabbath School materials and helps direct the Journey in SECC.
“Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim . . .”[1]

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations . . .”[2]

“Therefore go . . . teaching them to obey everything I have command you.”[3]

There certainly does seem to be a lot of talking going on in those passages! Proclaiming, preaching, teaching, and a sense of mission are coded deeply in our Adventist DNA. What higher sense of calling is there than to get to proclaim, preach and teach the good news? Our sense of calling, however, arises out of a context, and context matters.

Context, of course, includes a lot. Certainly, there are lots of dimensions to the context (historical, cultural, religious, political, etc.) which helped to shape our church in the early 19th century, and all the proclaiming, preaching, and that teaching that we’ve been doing ever since! But as significant as those bits of context are (and they are), what I am more and more impressed with lately is another kind of context out of which our mission to proclaim, preach and teach might, or might not, be arising, which Adam McHugh invites us to think about in his book, The Listening Life: Embracing Attentiveness in a World of Distraction.

He starts in the introduction with this three-word sentence, “LISTENING COMES FIRST.” He then goes on in the remainder of the book to unpack the significance of that short but profound three-word sentence. Here are a few excerpts from the introduction that give us some glimpses of what is to follow. Beginning with the experience of a newborn baby, he writes:

After her birth, she will spend the next months hearing the words [her parents] speak, whisper, and sing to her, until one day she will start echoing those words, one imperfect syllable at a time . . . [the primeval universe] has an ear, because its first action is to listen to the Voice that pierces the darkness. God commands light and the cosmos hears and obeys . . . The centerpiece of Israel’s prayer life, the Shema, begins with the word hear: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4 (NIV). . . You become a disciple by hearing. Listening is the first act of discipleship . . . The apostle James famously counsels his hearers to be quick to listen, slow to speak (James 1:19) . . . This is the pattern that life commands.”[4]

This got me to wondering about what would it be like if, this being the natural order of things, we thought about what primarily defines us, as being less about our ability to proclaim well, and more about our ability to listen well? He then goes on to say this:

But somewhere along the way, we start to violate the natural order of things. Speaking our minds and asserting ourselves take priority over listening. We interrupt someone else because we are convinced we already know what he or she is going to say. . . We consider ourselves experts on topics without anything more to learn. . . We participate by speaking and sharing, and we assert our identities by taking verbal stands. . . We view others as projects rather than people with unique stories to be heard. We consider our great Christian task to be preaching, rather than assuming the listening posture of a servant. We speak in volumes, but we listen in snippets. [5]

There is much more to reflect on here. In the pages that follow, he does a masterful job of offering some glimpses of what it might look like, personally and as a community if we were to take seriously the primacy of listening. He begins by describing the overall contours of a listening life, particularly in contrast to a way of being that uses words to acquire power, rather than assuming a stance that seeks to serve by being attentive. He then follows by describing how this is lived out in the picture of God that is revealed to us in scripture, and most clearly in the life of Jesus - that of a God who listens. How we live in response to that God by assuming the stance of a listener when engaging in prayer, reading scripture, and being attentive to the created world and those others we share it with, are what you find in the next several chapters. What it means to genuinely listen to those in pain, and how we can listen well to ourselves and perhaps better discern the work that God is doing in us, is where he turns his focus as he moves toward the end of the book. Then, in the last chapter, he invites us to reflect on what a community that takes all this seriously might be like. Finally, in the Epilogue, he reminds us that “Listening is the first thing we do in life, and it is the last thing we do in death. We don’t have a choice then, but we do have a choice for all the points in between.”[6]

One might say that one of the characteristics of a good book, is not only the way it makes us wonder how this author was able to get inside our heads and say things that we hadn’t quite been able to find the words for yet, but also in the way it can provide a vision of how things can be different if we are willing to embrace what it says. This is one of those books. It is a book that left me with questions to ponder.

What might it be like to be part of a community that found its primary sense of identity and calling, less in its ability to speak well, and more in its ability to hear well?

What we have to say matters, but what if it is only really heard well, in ways that are genuinely transformative rather than merely informative, when it comes out of a context that takes listening first seriously?

What if the first things that came to people’s minds when they thought about us, was not how passionately we spoke, but how amazingly well we listened and responded to what we heard?

What if we were less concerned about finding ourselves at a loss for words, and more about placing ourselves in a posture where others felt they could be heard?

What if who we are when we are with people spoke as loudly as what we say to people?

Could this be some of what Jesus was getting at when He said, “But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say,”[7]?

What if the amazing message we have to proclaim, preach and teach always arose out of a context of careful and genuine listening?

I wonder why Jesus so often says, “Whoever has ears, let them hear”[8]



[1]Revelation 14:6 (NIV)
[2]Matthew 24:14 (NIV)
[3]Matt 28:19-20 (NIV)
[4]Adam McHugh, The Listening Life: Embracing Attentiveness in a World of Distraction. (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 2015) [Kindle Edition] Locations 28-46.
[5]Ibid.
[6]Ibid., Location 2847
[7]Matthew 10:19
​[8]Matthew 11:15