An interview with Paul Windsor
1. Why is preaching such an important part of Carey's pastoral leadership training?
The Word of God is what is critical. A pastor’s ministry must be based in the written Word (the Bible) and be focused on the living Word (Jesus). While this ministry does develop in various settings, I believe that the ‘sermon slot’ is the most strategic place for it. It touches so many people at one time. Plus, I find so many people are HALTed today – held back by a Hunger, an Anger, a Loneliness, or a Tiredness – and I am convinced that when pastors give their best energies to preaching, God often opens up a way forward for these people.
2. Are preachers made or born?
A bit of both, I guess. For me the key verb is neither ‘born’, nor ‘made’ - but ‘called’. And for a calling to be confirmed there needs to be both a subjective and an objective assessment, a personal and a communal evaluation. With that confirmation in place, it becomes an act of obedience in which God draws on the talent he gives, together with the skills and convictions that are gathered.
3. How does Carey train people for preaching?
First-up there is a strong classroom foundation. To an Introductory course has been added a Developmental course. That’s a total of 72hrs of class contact time. Then there is the practical side. A PL has about 40 opportunities to preach… Each week of the teaching year they are in small groups evaluating each other. They preach several times in local churches during each of the three years of their training. Then there are the Summer Pastorates where a PL might preach as much as ten times. And as a staff team we do our best to model good preaching in Community Worship.
4. What makes a good sermon?
A lot of openings going on… A good sermon opens up the Text, the believing Listeners, the unbelieving World, and the Preacher – all in 25-30minutes. Four stories get woven together, if you like. While it is not just about the text, it starts and finishes with the text. This biblical passage is not so much the springboard from which the preacher dives as it is the swimming pool into which they dive and swim. As a norm, in a good sermon listeners are drawn back to the same passage again and again.
5. Is there still a place for the sermon in today's church?
Without question – although I am interested in just how much questioning is going on. The essence of biblical spirituality is that there is a God who speaks to whom people listen and obey. There is a diminished confidence today in the transformative power of the spoken (and preached) Word of God. We are too intimidated by sociological trends. When this happens the sermon will always seem an irrelevancy. But up and down this country there are a growing number of people with a robust confidence in the Word of God. If they hold their nerve we will see fruitfulness from their preaching ministries - in God’s good time.
6. Can you give us the name of a couple of good books on preaching you have recently read?
A couple of favourites would be: Calvin Miller, The Sermon Maker: tales of a transformed preacher (Zondervan, 2002) and Christopher Green & David Jackman (ed) When God’s Voice is Heard (IVP, 2003)
