Why I Love Preaching
by Justin Imel
I’ve been out of the pulpit for the past five years, in no small part, due to Dystonia, a genetic neuromuscular disorder which primarily affects my lower limbs. Walking unassisted was impossible. I even needed a walker if I were going to walk a long distance. Climbing stairs was impossible, and pain had become my constant companion. While I’ll never be rid of Dystonia, I’ve spent the past five years getting to a place where I could get back in the pulpit. I swim at least a kilometer a day, ride a bike a few miles a day, take my dog on a mile walk late that evening, and I’ve been watching what I eat. I’ve lost 107 lbs so far. Yeah, it’s a lot, but all that work has improved my walking dramatically, and I’m able to go about normal day-to-day activities.
I’ve worked hard—and I have more hard work ahead of me—for one major goal: To get back in the pulpit and work with a good, solid congregation of God’s people. Why work so hard to get back to preaching?
When I was in high school, my dad, who had spent years preaching part time, gave up a comfortable job with the Coca-Cola company to go into full time ministry. I’ll never forget Dad’s faith and determination to do right. Paul told Timothy: “Now you have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness” (2 Tim 3:10). Because I observed Dad’s teaching, faith, love, steadfastness, and so many other positive qualities, I was drawn to ministry.
Examples say so much; they have the power to convert (cf. 1 Pet 3:1). Not only did the faithful pattern of Christian living on the part of both of my parents lead me to faith in Jesus (cf. 2 Tim 1:5), but my Dad’s love of God and his word led me to love God and his word.
The Corinthian church stands as a prime example of the life-altering power of the gospel. After listing sins which will keep one from the kingdom of heaven, Paul tells them, “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor 6:11). Because the Corinthians had heard the proclamation of the gospel and had responded in faith, they were new creatures in Christ (cf. 2 Cor 5:17). No longer were they homosexuals and adulterers and slanderers and swindlers. Instead, preaching changed the direction of their lives.
I’ve seen the gospel change countless lives. I’ve seen marriages brought back from the brink of disaster. I’ve seen the burden of guilt lifted from heavy souls. I’ve seen immorality abandoned for righteousness. What a joy it is to play even a small role in lives changed through proclaiming truth!
“I am not ashamed of the gospel,” Paul says to the Romans, “because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom 1:16). The only way one can hear that message of salvation and respond to it is to have “someone preaching to them” (Rom 10:14). I wish to spend my life proclaiming the cross of Jesus as the means of salvation so that I, in some small way, may help increase the population of heaven.
Preaching is serious business and nothing to be taken lightly, for heaven and hell hang in the balance. I know of no other way to spend my life on this earth, for I love preaching!
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