Leadership Through Preaching

This past summer marked the beginning of my thirteenth year in pastoral ministry. I know I’m not the most seasoned pastor, but I’m also no longer a novice. A dozen years in ministry brings with it a good deal of reflection. You begin to examine and rethink many things: whether you’re being effective and useful; where you’ve yielded—here and there—to internal or external pressures; and how your own understanding of pastoral ministry may have shifted over time. You start to ask whether your idealistic and well-crafted convictions about the pastorate can truly withstand the realities of ministry life.

As I entered a new year of ministry those were some of the questions that kept me up at night. Providentially, I came across John Currie’s recently published book The Pastor as Leader: Principles and Practices for Connecting Preaching and Leadership.

Ordinarily, this isn’t the kind of book I would pick up and read. I tend to view “leadership” books — Christian or otherwise — as a notch above self-help titles. Easy enough to skim, but largely forgettable. The Pastor as Leader is not one of those. It proved both reorienting and reinvigorating to me and my ministry.

The main goal of the book is to connect leadership with preaching. As Currie summarizes:


Pastoral leadership is the process where, for the glory of God, a man of God, appointed by the Son of God and empowered by the Spirit of God, proclaims the word of God so that the people of God are equipped to move forward into the purposes of God together (p. 31).

This reflects a basic Presbyterian view of the ministry — rooted in the ordinary means of grace, and especially in preaching. The Westminster Larger Catechism teaches:

The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching of the word, an effectual means of enlightening, convincing, and humbling sinners; of driving them out of themselves, and drawing them unto Christ; of conforming them to his image, and subduing them to his will; of strengthening them against temptations and corruptions; of building them up in grace, and establishing their hearts in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation” (Q&A 155).

Yet, daily routines, expectations, and even unbiblical theories of organization can lead to an unhealthy disconnect between leadership and preaching. It happens all the time! “There is a better way,” Currie writes, “to lead Christ’s church on its mission than atheological, pragmatic adoption of corporate culture; self-preserving complacency regarding the status quo; or self-serving, unloving lording over God’s people” (p. 5). He writes not only to convince the unconvinced, but also — to my experience — to again convince the convinced.

The foundation for preaching as pastoral leadership comes from Jesus as King of the church,“This book grows out of the conviction that Christ leads his church through his word preached; therefore, preaching is leadership in Christ’s cause” (p. 12). Drawing from Luke’s Gospel, Currie shows that Christ’s mission of inaugurating his kingdom was carried out by preaching. After all, it was Jesus who said, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose” (Lk. 4:43). That same mission continues in the church today. A pastor has been set apart “to extend the rule of God for God’s glory, by proclaiming Christ in his death and resurrection from all of Scripture” (p. 22).

With this foundation, in the first part of the book (chapters 1-5) Currie develops principles for leaders. Pastors are to be in union with Christ and therefore imitating his character and competencies. In preaching he leads “for the purpose that the body would be built to maturity, evidenced particularly by conformity to Christ’s character, stability in the truth, and properly working together for the body’s continued growth” (p. 49). As he does he must himself be empowered by the Holy Spirit, and have confidence that in preaching the Spirit will cause hearers to respond in faith, transform them by the received word, and mobilize them for service to Christ. Finally, he rightly emphasizes the example and Christlike character a leader must exhibit.

The second part of the book (chapters 6-10), Currie works pastoral leadership out in its practices — beginning with prayer and then the primacy of preaching. He then has two helpful chapters on vision and strategy. While everyone in the church has some idea of what they want the church to do (a vision), Currie rightly says, “Pastoral leadership accepts responsibility in leading the church to define and describe its vision according to the Scriptures” (p. 148). For the preacher-leader, this vision is cast and concretized by communicating and connecting biblical vision through preaching. He’s also a man who will lead with strategy, “Strategy is the intentional definition of and disciplined dedication to biblical priorities in the ministry context Christ has appointed him to serve” (p. 168). Finally, he’s a man who leads in the service of the church, helping members to grow in gifts and grace.

The Pastor as Leader is a book about pastoral basics — but it’s from basic. Through careful biblical reflection, Currie gives a compelling and invigorating picture of leadership through preaching. Obviously, a book like this may be most useful for pastors-in-training. He even says, “This book has been written to train pastors who will lead the church on its mission in the next generation” (p. 1). That’s fitting since Currie has served Westminster Theological Seminary in their Pastoral Theology program. But if you’re not in training, to set the book to the side. I would personally commend it to at least three groups of readers.

First, to pastors — novice and experienced. The routines and demands of ministry can have an eroding effect on the priority of ministry, namely preaching. It happens. And if you’re in a slump or headed there, mentally writhing in waking and sleeping hours about the trajectory and usefulness of your ministry, do yourself a favor and let this book minister to your weary soul.

Second, to elders in the church whose primary work is ruling and not teaching or preaching (1 Tim. 5:17). It will undoubtedly be helpful in bringing the leadership of the church — both pastor and ruling elders — together on Jesus’ mission, vision, and strategy for effectively shepherding the church.

Third, to members of the congregation. It’s always struck me that Paul, at times, goes into great detail about the how-to of his own ministry to those he ministered to (see e.g. 1 Thess. 2:1-12). That serves multiple purposes, not the least, in my opinion, than to shepherd members of the church into right expectations they should have for their pastor’s ministry. Pastors can be burdened by the spoken and unspoken expectations of members that, sometimes, simply aren’t biblical. This book will inform your expectations for his leadership of you and the congregation, and hopefully encourage you to say to him “See that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord” (Col. 4:17).

Recently, I was speaking to a friend about The Pastor as Leader. As I raved about how useful and helpful it was for me, he asked “What criticisms would you give the book?” I said, “None.” That’s not because I don’t have some lingering questions, or that I may not say things in a similar way, and I may even have some (not many) disagreements. Rather, it’s because I found this book so refreshing and helpful that I’m quite content to let any possible criticism or critique fade into the background. Tolle lege!