Proclaimer Blog
Chewing the cud
As you may have seen from last week's blog posts, I was very moved by Bruce Ware's sessions at New Word Alive on the humanity of Christ. They got me thinking things over in terms of my own understanding, response and also, of course, how and what I preach. But what really has helped has been the coffee machine chats with colleagues here in the office and with friends at church.
I should point out at this stage that the office has a very smart coffee machine. This is nothing to do with the fact that we are all coffee snobs and like good Americanos. By no means! It has everything to do with the fact that it takes a long time to make a coffee with our machine and therefore you are thrown into unavoidable conversations with colleagues. These are the moments (as the beans are grinding and you are setting up the next espresso shot) that you can chew the cud over things you've been challenged by. In the last few weeks in the office I've had good conversations about the humanity of Christ, his impeccability and also the nature of indwelling sin (specifically my own) and how we fight it.
Preachers need this kind of sharpening, as iron sharpens iron. Ideally you want to get it in church where the primary purposes of God are worked out and where a preachers primary friendships should surely lie. But that won't work for everyone and it may well be that you need to be deliberate about setting up places which serve the same purpose as our coffee room here. But the point is this: you do need such places. It's a strong New Testament theme that we need each other to keep going. It's a means of grace.
It's why our ministers conferences allow time for sitting around and drinking coffee. It's why ministers 'fraternals' (great concept, often poorly executed) are so valuable. It's why time in the weekly diary spent with others (and not just pastoral basket cases) is so critical.
Who are you chewing the cud with? How often? How deeply? How honestly?
And to make it really worthwhile, just add (decent) coffee.