Preaching Jesus

One of the blessings of living in Searcy, AR the past 4 years was the opportunity to spend time with Jim Woodroof. For those of you who might not know Jim, he preached in Searcy during the 70s, including the 4 years I was at Harding. He left about 1980, but now is semi-retired there.

I suspect that everyone who tries to characterize Jim would say something similar; his life was and is absolutely wrapped up in Jesus. I have never known anyone whom I perceived to live more closely in the presence of Jesus on a daily basis. And the really good news for those of us who listened to him every week is that his preaching was an overflow of his life. Jim preached Jesus when few within Churches of Christ did.

Occasionally over the past 4 years I would have breakfast with Jim. I don't know if he had any idea how meaningful and enriching those times were for me. We always talked about Jesus, but I remember one conversation in particular. We were discussing some of the challenges of the preaching ministry. As we walked out of the Main Stree Cafe, he looked me in the eye and said, "You just preach Jesus and everything will work out."

To this day, whenever anyone asks me about people who have influenced my life and ministry, Jim is one of the names at the top of that list. I received from him a conviction that the very best I can do from the pulpit is to help people see Jesus. That is one of the foundational principles of what I think preaching ought to do, to help people come face-to-face with Jesus.

All of which makes me even more amazed--frustrated, really--at how little I am doing that these days. Part of it is due to the fact that I am in a new ministry, having moved to Georgetown this past August. Hopefully what we have focused on has been from God--at least from my perspective it has been--and I hope it is making a difference. Looking back over these first few months, though, I am surprised and a little disappointed at the choices I have made about what this church needs to hear from its preacher. I wonder what would have happened if on week 1 I had said something like, "There are a lot of important things I need to tell you about, but none is more important than Jesus, so we're going to spend the first few months just looking at him."

Well, that time is coming soon. There are a few more sermons related to specific ministries or needs, then I am going to what I should have done in the first place, I'm going to preach on Jesus. I can't wait.

Thanks, Jim, for helping me and a lot of other people "fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith."

BTW: In the "Recommended Links" section of this blog, there is a link to a website where you can listen to many of Jim's sermons. If you're not familiar with Jim, for starters I recommend you scroll about half way down and listen to the sermons from "The Four Realities" series.