To be frank, this post is embarrassing. I write it primarily to say to preachers, “Be careful what you say . . . but trust that God can still use you after you say something you wish you hadn’t said.”
I preached for the first time when I was sixteen years old. I’ve been in full-time ministry now for over 42 years. When you preach that much, you say some unfortunate stuff. I’m glad that all of these listed here are from the early years of my ministry, but I’m sure I’m not immune to making the same mistakes in the future:
- “I’m convinced Jesus is coming back before I graduate from high school.” I preached this message when I was a junior in high school in 1978. I was wrong. Seriously wrong.
- “I’m sure all of you already know this story.” That story was a well-known Bible story, but I was wrong to think everyone in my congregation knew it. I assumed too much about my hearers.
- “I don’t need to be married to understand marriage.” I was a single pastor, and I wanted to convince my church that I could do marriage counseling. I still argue that a single can do that counseling, but I really didn’t understand marriage back then. Actually, I’m still learning . . . .
- “All video games are of the devil.” It was the early 1980s. ATARI was popular. I was convinced that all games were distracting and demonic. Somewhere in the midst of my legalism, I had lost the gospel.
- “The only thing left to do is pray.” That sounds good, but it relegates prayer to a last resort. If you know me at all today, you know how strongly I now stress proactive rather than reactive praying.
- “The Christian life is not a bunch of ‘don’t do’s.’ It’s a bunch of ‘do do’s.” My attempt to move out of my legalism and stress positive obedience led to an embarrassing expression . . . .
- “I’m not going anywhere.” It was easy to tell my church these words then, as I was genuinely convinced I would never leave them. I’d apparently forgotten that God makes that call.
- “Please pray for me. I didn’t have as much time as I needed to prepare this week.” Most of us really don’t need to tell our congregation this information; they’ll figure it out on their own when we start preaching.
- “Can I get an ‘Amen’?” I’m not at all opposed to folks affirming the Word of God with an honest “amen.” What I regret is asking for “amens” as if I needed them for affirmation. If you have to ask for an amen, I’m not sure you deserve one!
- “There are no gray areas in the Bible.” At the time, EVERYTHING was black and white for me. I took me a while to learn to deal with non-essential issues over which strong Christians might disagree.
- “God said it. I believe it. That settles it.” Many of us preachers were saying something similar back then. What I now know is that God’s saying it settles it–whether or not I believe it.
- “I heard this joke once.” How I regret saying this one not only because the joke didn’t fit well into the sermon, but also because I’m not good at telling jokes. It took only one attempt that fell flat to teach me not to go in that direction again.
What have you said from the pulpit that you wish you’d never said?
Editor’s note: This article was originally published at chucklawless.com.
MDiv Preaching and Pastoral Ministry
The Preaching and Pastoral Ministry track prepares students for pastoral ministry in the local church with a special emphasis on expository preaching.
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