“If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.”
2 Corinthians 11:30 (NIV)
Over several years I had the honor to serve several individuals as a mentor and coach as I attempted to help them develop in the art and craft of preaching. To be honest, I’m not sure how effective I was. I honestly think I may have learned more from my protégés and the process than my protégés learned from me.
One of the most simple, yet most profound, lessons that I learned during those years was that people have a desire to hear people who are real about themselves, their lives, and their struggles.
I had one charge who I met with for the first time after I’d listened to him preach the previous Sunday. As we sat down over breakfast he asked me my initial thoughts about his message.
“The thing that came to my mind as I listened to you,” I said honestly, “was that you came across like a lawyer pleading his case to a jury.”
“I am a lawyer,” he said with a shrug.
I had no idea he was an attorney because that’s was not what he did for a living. We had a good laugh together about that.
Over the coming months, we talked about the fact that it is certainly important to know your material and present a strong case. Paul told his protégé Timothy to be one who “correctly handles the word of truth.” At the same time, however, I urged my charge to be willing to share how the iron-clad case he is presenting intersects with his own daily life, his own personal failures, his own personal struggles, his own faith in Jesus, and his own spiritual growth. People want to make an emotional connection as well as much as an intellectual one.
A year or so later, he experienced the unexpected and sudden death of a loved one. He was scheduled to preach just weeks later. To this day, it was the best message I heard him deliver. He didn’t simply deliver well sourced points complete with chapters and verses. He stood there and showed us his raw and broken heart. He talked about how his faith was helping him through the grief. Through his tears he told us what God was teaching him in his pain.
In today’s chapter, Paul continues to address the conflict he’s experiencing with other preachers and teachers who have been going to the local gathering of Jesus’ followers in Corinth and slandering him behind his back. They had been boasting about how great they were and telling the Corinthian believers that Paul was a no-good schlep and they should forget about him.
I found it fascinating that Paul did not present to the believers in Corinth his very impressive resume of credentials. Paul truthfully had a more impressive earthly resume than any of Jesus’ original twelve apostles and likely more impressive than his slanderers. He came from a prominent family of means. As a Roman citizen, Paul had social standing that likely none of the people of Corinth or his critics enjoyed. Only 1-3% of the population in the provinces had Roman citizenship. Paul had been a student and disciple of the most prominent Rabbi and teacher in Jerusalem. Before Jesus called him, Paul was among the most prominent, up-and-coming students of his prominent teacher. Like my friend and preaching protégé, Paul was a lawyer. He knew how to plead a case.
Instead of presenting that resume, however, Paul confesses that he wasn’t the most dynamic preacher in the world and then tells the Corinthians about his sufferings. Paul had been arrested, tried, imprisoned, and brutally punished. He was on the lam, a wanted man who had escaped justice and was wanted in many cities. He’d been shipwrecked three times. He’d found himself homeless, naked, starving, and penniless on multiple occasions. And, he did it all for the sake of sharing Jesus’ love and His message with others. “If I must boast,” Paul writes, “I will boast of the things that show my weakness.”
I know that I personally don’t want to listen to a preacher with a polished persona, an iron-clad case, and a seemingly flawless life. I know in my heart that it’s not real. I want to listen to a preacher who makes mistakes, struggles with their weaknesses, and is honest about striving to make a little slow and continuous spiritual progress rather than projecting perfection. I don’t think that I’m alone in this. I know that I get the most feedback from others when I’m vulnerable in a message. When I share about how God is at work in me despite my own personal struggles, failures, and weaknesses people seem to connect more deeply with the message.
One of the reasons that I struggled being a vocational pastor as a young man was that I felt pressure from people to be perfect, or to at least have the pretense to project that appearance at all times. I became a follower of Jesus, however, because I realized that I am flawed and He loved me anyway – loved me enough to die for me. Being a disciple of Jesus has never been about perfection. It’s been about God’s kindness and forgiveness towards me in spite of my flaws, weaknesses, and struggles which then leads to me to grow in His Spirit and becoming perpetually more loving, kind, and forgiving to those around me in spite of their flaws, weaknesses, and struggles. If I ever lose sight of this simple reality, then I’ve completely lost the thread of what it means to be His disciple.
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
