My friend and colleague Dan Bouchelle will remain, in my estimation, a preacher’s preacher. I first became acquainted with Dan when both us began a doctoral program together ten years ago almost to the day. When I began the program, I was concerned that the cohort would be comprised of stuffy, humorless and whiny ministers. My fears were unjustified. Dan has a sense of humor that no one will ever replicate and our fellow students were as twisted as I am.

Dan made the choice recently to leave a traditional ministry setting serving one church to pursue new adventures that will have an impact on multiple churches.  I am excited for him, but sad too. In terms of the actual weekly preaching role, he is one of the most capable and talented people I have ever known. I have always marveled at his remarkable analytical ability coupled with a genuine concern for those he is serving. He can speak with the tone and content of a prophet without being totally offensive.

In one of Dan’s recent blog posts, he shared the following thoughts about serving a local church.

Even though I anticipate I’ll still do some preaching and teaching in churches for the rest of my life, it won’t be the same. What is really great about preaching is that it requires getting to know real people really well. What is great about preaching is knowing you are speaking to people’s real hurts, needs, fears, and hopes because you know them and you know their stories. How do you replace being able to see faces as you read the Bible in preparation to preach and thinking, this will be helpful to so and so? Being able to shape your message around the specific history of a church and know you are being heard on a heart level because you and the church know each other is a feeling like few others in this world. Feeling like God’s servant, his instrument, to shape and bless a church is a humbling and exhilarating feeling. Seeing tears in the eyes of people as you preach and knowing why they are there reminds you how blessed you have been to be given privileged access into the lives of people who have told you things they have never told anyone. What an amazing honor!

It is a burden, in a way, to carry the hurts and needs of people who have trusted you with their lives, but it is a blessed burden that gives life rich meaning. While I’m ready to lay that burden down for a while, I can’t imagine what could take its place or add so much significance. How do you replace the experience of someone looking you in the eye and telling you “Thank you!” for being there for them at a crucial moment in their lives? When you have walked with people through the worst that life and death can dish out, you form a bond like no other.

I could not agree more with Dan’s reflections. The preaching role is intensely personal. The stressors that accompany it are unique. His observations have caused me to do some reflecting too. Perhaps I can post those reflections in the next few days.