Preaching and the Externally-Focused Church: An Interview with Rick Rusaw...Continued from page 7

Then we’re going through the book of James the first nine weeks of the year. So we try not to be one of those churches that just bounces around ? where we are just picking up a passage that we need for the week. In fact, we try to route a lot of our series in a book or maybe the parables, Matthew 5 & 6 ? we try to tie those two things together. The power is in God’s Word and not our word, so we are trying not to do that “jump-around thing” all the time. It does happen some though.

Preaching: Have you found that your preaching has perhaps changed during the 15 years that you have been at LifeBridge? Have you learned some things about preaching and communication that you didn’t know when went there?

Rusaw: A couple of things really. One of those is that I hope that I’m not in as much of a hurry for people to have to grab it immediately. I’ve gotten a little more patient. This is the long haul deal. It’s been true for a while, but you can get away with saying a lot of the hard stuff because you’ve journeyed with these people for a long time.

Two, I started hosting a program that airs overnight on the PAX Network, Worship. It’s kind of boring actually, but they get a lot of people watching it and that was one thing that really helped. Here we are in front of a camera and they would tell us we are talking to a couple of million people, one at a time. I really try to think in terms of my message on the weekend in that way. How am I having a conversation with somebody?

They recently did this little 15th anniversary thing for me ? it was just an in-house thing, mainly staff and elders. And one of them said, “You know, you have a way of making me feel like you’re having a conversation with me when you are speaking.” I think there some power in that. So you talk to one person ? a lot of people, one at a time.

Preaching: How long do you typically spend in preparing a message?

Rusaw: Probably somewhere between 10 and 15 hours a week.

Preaching: How many different times do you have to speak typically during a week?

Rusaw: I have a men’s thing I do on Tuesday mornings. I’m usually speaking at something in the community once a week and as much as I hate to admit it, I travel and speak on average once a week. Then it’s the weekend and we have five services.

The other part of speaking is a little easier because I’m not necessarily writing new stuff.

Preaching: What’s the most challenging thing about preaching for you?

Rusaw: I think it is having something to say that you feel like is going to honor God and be true to his Word and relevant to the people who need to hear that. I always have a sense of heavy responsibility, these folks are wanting to hear something from God and you’re in the spot this morning to communicate that and don’t blow that. So my prayer as I walk to the front is: “God help me do what I know I can’t do.”

I think one of the challenges for us in preaching is not to get in the way too much and not to assume that somehow it happens through us. I think we have to do our very best in preparing in being as good as communicators as we can, growing in our communication abilities, but not assuming that it’s about us.

Preaching: What’s the most fun thing for you about preaching?

Rusaw: The actual getting to preach because on Friday I pretty much think I should quit and let somebody do this that knows what they are doing. So the actual getting to preach, I enjoy. Some guys love the prep stuff and all the work that goes into it. I hate all of that!