Mark Driscoll, pastor at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, reminded me of something that I often overlook in the preaching/teaching event as I listened to the audio from the Acts 29 Network Church Planting Conference. He made the point, and I am paraphrasing, that there are many doctrines that the preacher struggles with as he is in the study. We don't grasp Divine truth overnight but many times our understanding comes after much prayer, hours of wrestling with key texts, and sometimes months or years of meditation on the subject. Then, when we come to a text and we finally have a handle on the doctrine, we stand and preach and expect our congregation to get it the first time.
Many times I forget some of the questions that I have asked along the way while trying to understand God's truth. How helpful might it be to raise some of those questions in the pulpit that we as students of the Word have dealt with and attempt to give an answer? We need to think through some of our own questions that we have struggled with because these may be the same questions that are in the bubble over our hearers heads.
Driscoll also pointed out that this was the practice of the Puritans. They preached with objections in mind and made an effort to refute those objections and make the truth as clear as possible. Of course, it is always to be remembered that God alone is the revealer of His truth and how we need to pray that those who hear us will be taught of God.
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