What makes a “good” preacher?

Carl Trueman weighs in on what makes a good preacher according to Martin Luther, with some editorial comments thrown in. The post appears at the Reformation 21 blog, Luther on the Marks of a Good Preacher I

While there has been an understandable reaction in parts of the Reformed world against the kind of radical downgrading of ordained ministry which has come to mark much of the evangelical world, this has itself created problems. Perhaps most obvious is the priestly culture it can generate, where the result is that some come to think that, if they are not ordained, they cannot be of real use to the church.

Sounds great, that is a problem in the church (the part about men think that they cannot be useful in the church unless they are ordained)! I am with you brother. Until the next two sentences….

This then leads individuals who simply are not called to the ministry nonetheless to pursue it, often at great cost -- financial and emotional -- to themselves and frequently to their loved ones. Indeed, this probably accounts for part of the high rate of ministerial drop-outs.

Oh.

So the problem is not that the system of ordained professional clergy that we inherited from Roman Catholicism, it is that we have Christians who are not qualified for “the ministry” trying to play at being preachers.

See, I think the problem is that we exalt vocational, professional ministry and restrict so much of the ministry of the church to those who are members of the priestly caste that men who want to serve God understandably are trying to do what the church culture tells them, i.e. go to seminary, get ordained and get hired as a preacher. For many men sitting in a pew and putting a check in the plate is not really getting it done so they want to do more and in our church culture the only way for a man to feel like he is really serving God is to be a minister, church planter or missionary. The culture of the church essentially prohibits men from exercising the “priesthood of all believers” outside of a very limited scope unless they have the proper credentials, skills and ecclesiastical approval in the form of ordination.

Clearly we cannot have “bad” preachers running around preaching Christ, it gives the whole profession a bad name. To avoid this, Mr. Trueman helpfully lists the first five marks that qualify a man as a good preacher according to Martin Luther (apparently there are four more)…

The first five are: ability to teach; possession of a good head; eloquence; clarity of speech; and a good memory. The list is interesting because it focuses first on practicalities, things often lost in the romantic spiritual notions of ministry we often have. In short, the person should be able to think and speak clearly, two traits which are often intimately connected. It seems like common sense, but this basic elements are often neglected by churches, seminaries, sessions, elder boards, presbyteries and classes. To put it bluntly: if you cannot put a decent, clear sentence into English and speak it in a way that others can understand, you are not called to the ministry, no matter how much that inner voice tells you that God is calling you to preach, or your mum tells you you'd make a wonderful pastor.

Amen to that! We never see God using anyone to preach except the best speakers. That is why Jesus held auditions for being an apostle, making sure that those men selected as the Twelve had a sharp memory, eloquence and the ability to speak English coherently. Paul made very clear when writing to the Corinthians that eloquence was a must-have qualification to preaching the Gospel:

For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. (1 Cor 1:17)

Oh.

Each time I read those five supposed qualifications of a “good preacher” I become more flabbergasted at not only how they don’t appear in Scripture but actually run contrary to Scripture. I guess if you are simply observing a performance and paying for it to boot, you have a right to expect a high quality presentation but when it comes to Biblical preaching, eloquence doesn't count for anything. In fact it actually detracts from Gospel preaching and removes the power of the cross!

The culture we have cultivated in the church says to men: “Unless you are a pastor, your purpose in the church is to bring your family to hear someone else teach for the rest of your life. You might be called on to teach Sunday school if you are a "good" teacher and if you stick around long enough you might be called to be a deacon or elder and get to attend lots of meetings, but the week in and week out reality of your life in the church is showing up, attending and funding. Little wonder so many men seek vocational ministry on the one hand or have no use for “church” on the other. The message I take from this essay is that if you are a Christian man you better not bother to be a preacher of the Gospel unless you meet these qualifications, otherwise you are wasting your time and money. Leave preaching to the professionals, those who are “qualified” by virtue of a good head and eloquence!

I am morbidly curious to see if the other four marks of qualified “good preacher” have any Scriptural basis at all.