Three Benefits of Sharing the Pulpit

Chris Priestley

In the past at Crossroads, I’ve shared the pulpit primarily when I was out of town or sick. This past Sunday, I shared the pulpit while I was still around for the Gathering. Here are three practical benefits that were gleaned from sharing the pulpit in no particular order:   

Guards against the Cult of Celebrity

Let’s face it, some people only show up on a Sunday morning when you preach. Maybe they like your personality, maybe they like your style, or maybe they connect with your method of delivery. Whatever the reason, if the viability of a church is built on a personality, it will not outlive that person. More egregious, such a church will not produce passionate disciples of Jesus Christ, but passionate disciples of Pastor X. Sharing the pulpit shoves the pastor’s pride in the backseat and invites humility to take the wheel.

We’ve decided at Crossroads that it will take more than one generation to accomplish the mission of planting the Gospel in Morgantown. In order for that to happen, the taste at Crossroads must be for faithful, Bible-saturated, Jesus-centered, culturally engaging preaching, rather than Pastor X’s preaching. Sharing the pulpit broadens the palate of our church beyond one preaching personality.

Grows New Pastors and Planters

Apostle Paul instructed Timothy to train men who are able to train other men (2 Timothy 2:2). Very simply, we want to see new churches planted. In order to get there, new pastors and planters must be trained. Obviously, the gate to preaching on a Sunday morning should be guarded, but it should not be impenetrable. Practically, we developed an 8-week preaching cohort to prepare men for preaching. Their sermons were constructed in the cohort, presented to the cohort and evaluated by the cohort before ever seeing the Sunday gathering. Finally, after preaching on a Sunday, a feedback session took place for further improvement in the future. Sharing the pulpit can be a great service to your up-and-coming leaders who have been called and coached to preach.

Gives Free Time to Work ON and Not IN Your Church

This is one benefit I did not foresee. With Sunday already covered, the constant burden of “Sunday Cometh” was removed from the back of my mind, freeing me to get to a lot of crucial work ON the church that had taken the back seat to working IN the church weekly. When Sunday comes week after week, the creative juices are drained, and the urgent important (Sunday’s sermon) easily takes precedence over the important (vision for discipleship, writing that position paper). In my week sharing the pulpit, I was able to write several funding proposals, hunt for a larger facility, listen to coaching on an area of leadership, draft a strategy for discipling college students, plan out a preaching series for next summer, develop several leadership coaching posts for our pastors and deacons, and refine our strategy for the fall.

Share the Pulpit to Share the Gospel

Sharing the pulpit can pry your hands off the idol of control, serve your church in smashing the status of celebrity, free up space in your work rhythm for evangelism, counseling, or strategic planning, and cultivate new leaders. What’s keeping you back from sharing the pulpit? What systems can you put in play to identify, train and release new pastors and church planters? What other benefits have you experienced from sharing the pulpit? What other hesitations do you have before making the leap?