My associate pastor and I fly out today to Louisville (via a four hour layover in Atlanta) to attend a conference called Together for the Gospel (you can take a look at the speakers here).  I joked that this is our “Post-Easter Recharge.” In reality, it’s getting us ready for a busy summer ahead.

Pastors need to hear the Word as badly as they need to preach the Word.  Some preach the Word because it’s like a hobby–something they love to do. When they speak of preaching, they almost speak of it as to how it exclusively benefits them personally.  And to be fair, the privilege of studying God’s Word is as special as it gets.  Yet, I’m always uneasy whenever I hear someone speak of preaching in terms personal benefits.

A long time ago, I heard someone say, “You are not called to preach the Bible, you’re called to preach to people the Bible.” Yes!  We must always have God’s heart, our hearts, our people’s hearts, and our neighbors’ hearts before us.  God’s heart in order to rightly divide His Word (2 Timothy 2:15), our hearts to make sure we lack nothing in and out of the pulpit (2 Timothy 3:16), our people’s hearts so they will move forward in His authority (Matthew 28:18-20) , and our neighbors’ hearts so our world will see that Christ is enough (Matthew 22:37-40).

Pray that God would work in our hearts, connecting us to His heart, so that we can minister to your hearts as you share and go and minister to your neighbors’ hearts. May God align all of us together to His will and way.

My hope is to blog or tweet various morsels that come from the banquet feast that’s ahead.  So check in here each morning or head to my Twitter feed (@drmattperry) throughout the day.