This continues our series on preaching, which is based on the fourth article of the Together for the Gospel Statement. The previous two posts in this series provided outlines for good sermon preparation from John Stott and Alistair Begg.

While Expository Thoughts is certainly committed to preaching that is well prepared, they have a great post which points out a trap we can all too easily fall into — even those of us who haven't been to seminary!

“. . . It is easy for us as preachers to slip into ‘seminary mode’ and preach with the shotgun of exegetical insight rather than articulating the Word with pastoral care. There will even be times where you go to great lengths to be pastoral and folks will still complain that the message is too heady. The solution is to strive for balance where the grind of hard exegesis is hidden from sight, yet the fruit is laid bare for all to see. One exercise helps me tremendously in this area: fellowship. The more I intertwine my life with those in the congregation the more I see opportunities for the Word of God to be richly applied in their lives. A pastor must spend an appropriate amount of time understanding the Word and preparing for Sunday, but he should never use that as an excuse to ignore God's people. Every pastor needs to find that balance in his life. This is at least part of what Peter meant when he said, ‘Shepherd the flock of God among you’ (1 Peter 5:2).”

(Emphasis mine.)