Don’t Miss What’s Invaluable
By Pastor Chuck Swindoll
Fight the Giants Seeking to Destroy Your Ministry
“When you step into ministry, you will face giants and you will have to confront them. You will have to fight them, and you will have to defeat them. Because if you don’t, they’ll wipe you out. They’ve been studying you a lot longer than you’ve been aware of them because the enemy knows you better than you know yourself.”
Be 100 Percent You
“I urge you to begin now cultivating authenticity. You need to be fully human, absolutely authentic. As gifted and helpful as these professors are, you’re not one of them. You never will be. Thank goodness the Lord is not creating clones. You can learn from them, of course. You can pick up things from them, I hope. That’s what education is about, but it is perfectly okay to be 100 percent you.”
Keeping the Scriptures Fresh
“I think it’s good that we reread things we’re familiar with, as if for the first time. I’ll tell you that’s one of the secrets of my study. Every time I go to a passage, I go to it as if for the first time. I don’t go back to previous notes. I don’t listen to something I said in some recording. I can’t stand to listen to my own recordings and so I don’t go there. I go into it sometimes with a fresh text of the Scriptures using a translation that I may not normally use to keep it fresh.”
Learning how to say “I don’t know”
“Don’t pose. Don’t try to be someone you’re not. Learn the words, ‘I don’t know’ and don’t be afraid to use them. People will love you for that, even when they come thinking you will have an answer and you say, ‘You know that’s a great question. I’m not sure I know the answer. I’ll do my best to think on it and come back to you with an answer, but right now I don’t know that I can answer that.’ Don’t be afraid to say that. Why would you be afraid to say that? It’s the truth.”
Let Your Private Life Match Your Public Life
“What you do behind closed doors is the most important thing you do. Can I give you a challenge? How about being a better daddy than you are a minister? How about being a better mama than you are a counselor?”
Additional Resources
First, sign up for our Chuck’s Insights on Ministry email where we bring you his best thoughts on preaching, leadership, and ministry each week. By signing up, you’ll instantly receive a one-page checklist with 20 preaching insights from Chuck. See this page’s sidebar.
Second, check out our new Preach The Word articles and video series on YouTube where we’re teaching Chuck’s best insights on this important calling.
Third, listen to Chuck’s messages to those in ministry through our Seminary Chapels page. For decades, he offered students at Dallas Theological Seminary his best thoughts on church leadership and ministry. Now, we have put them at your finger tips. Also, you can find them through this YouTube playlist we created for you.
Fourth, if you don’t own a copy of Chuck’s book on preaching, Saying It Well, we highly recommend you add it to your library. It’s his preaching memoir that is also like a practical preaching manual. You won’t be able to put it down.
About the author
Pastor Chuck Swindoll
Pastor Charles R. Swindoll has devoted his life to the accurate, practical teaching and application of God’s Word. He is the founding pastor of Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas, but Chuck’s listening audience extends far beyond a local church body. As a leading program in Christian broadcasting since 1979, Insight for Living airs around the world. Chuck’s leadership as president and now chancellor emeritus at Dallas Theological Seminary has helped prepare and equip a new generation of men and women for ministry.
