IS YOUR PREACHER A BABBLER?

In 1961 John Stott wrote THE PREACHER’S PORTRAIT which looks at some metaphors in the New Testament which describe the Christian preacher. He begins by saying what the preacher is not. 

First, the Christian preacher is not a prophet…..this gift is no longer bestowed upon men in the church. Now that the written Word of God is available to us all, the word of God in prophetic utterance is no longer needed. The word of God does not come to men today. It has come once and for all; and men must now come to it.

Secondly, the Christian preacher is not an apostle…. the designation ‘apostle’ must be reserved for the Twelve and Paul, who were specially commissioned and invested with authority by Jesus…These men were unique. They have no successors.

Thirdly, the Christian preacher is (or should be) neither a false prophet nor a false apostle. …They speak their own words instead of God’s Word. Their message originates in their own mind. These are men who like to ventilate their own opinions on religion, ethics, theology or politics. They may be conventional enough to introduce their sermon with a Scripture text, but the text bears little or no relation to the sermon which follows, nor is any attempt made to interpret the text in its context. It has been truly said that such a text without a context is a pretext.

Fourthly, the Christian preacher is not a ‘babbler’. …The ‘babbler’ trades in ideas like secondhand merchandise, picking up bits and pieces wherever he finds them. His sermons are a veritable rag-bag. As someone has said, ‘If you borrow from one man they call it “plagiarism”; if you borrow from a thousand, they call it “research”’!….The essential characteristic of the babbler is that he has no mind of his own. His present opinion is that of the last person with whom he spoke. He relays other men’s ideas without sifting them, or weighing them or making them his own.