In the last podcast, in episode 94, we talked about whether online teachers threaten the authority of leaders in a local church. Pastor John, in this episode, speak to average pastors, those who are fully aware that they cannot compete with you or Tim Keller or Matt Chandler or any number of online preachers when it comes to preaching gift.

What would you say to an ordinary preacher in a local church? I'd like to devote the rest of my life to encouraging him. I taught a preaching class yesterday. I've been teaching preaching for years, and most of these guys are average preachers, I would say. There are a few remarkable ones among them, and I give myself to trying to encourage them.

And here's what I say. When they're done preaching, I think one of the most important things I can say to them is, "You know, if you will do what you did there and just get better and better at that, namely, opening to me a paragraph from the Bible that explains to me what these phrases mean, applies them simply and earnestly and passionately with a heartfelt and prayerful attitude towards my life, I will grow under your ministry." I remember one time years ago, I was called upon to give a teacher recommendation when I was teaching at Bethel to a young seminary student who came to Olivet Baptist Church to preach, and he gave me a form.

He said, "Would you fill this out when I'm done preaching? Because I have to do this for my preaching class." And he preached on Colossians 1. Can you believe that? This is 35 years ago plus, and I remember the text he preached on, Colossians 1, and the prayer of Paul.

And he simply, in a fairly pedestrian way, worked his way through every phrase of that prayer, commented on what it meant, applied it to my life, some illustrations of how he prayed it and how I might pray it. And the next morning, I'm jogging, and that whole sermon was present to my mind.

And it wasn't present to my mind because he was a flashy communicator. It was present to my mind because he was a faithful expositor. He had showed me what the Bible meant. I think people are hungry. "Show me what these words mean. Explain these sentences to me. How are they explosively wonderful, and how do they relate to my life?

How do they change things?" So I think that the best encouragement that I can make is this. Being a flashy communicator, being a great orator doesn't necessarily lead to edification, and it doesn't necessarily lead to the conversion of sinners. It doesn't necessarily lead to the glory of Christ. In fact, it can get in the way of glorifying Christ.

What builds up the church is a clear, heartfelt, faithful explanation of what the word means sentence by sentence, and an exaltation over that word so that you reveal how precious and valuable it is to you. And I think a man who's anointed with the Holy Spirit and has a love for the Word of God and a measure of gifted explanation—that is, a gift of teaching—as pedestrian as he may feel his communication style is, or even his personality, he can take a people deep into the Word of God, and that's what the church desperately needs.

And frankly, Tony, I think what's going to happen is this. The Internet is going to become like the telephone and television, and it won't have the pizazz it once had, and people will begin to settle into real life again, and they will desperately need friends, they will need people in their lives with flesh and bones, and they'll need pastors who show up at the hospital, who show up at the graveside, and all the flesh is just going to be less fleshy someday, I think.

There will never be a replacement for those person-to-person relationships. Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to this podcast. Please email your questions to us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. At desiringgod.org you'll find thousands of other free resources online from John Piper. I'm your host Tony Reinke, thanks for listening.