"And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also."–II Timothy 2:2

Let’s beware of falling into the trap of thinking that a young man must go away to a preachers’ school and train to preach. There are several dangers with such a practice.

1). We don’t find any such pattern in Scripture.

2). Such schools are outside the context of any particular local church. God established the church as the incubator for nurturing preachers of the Gospel and sending them forth into the world, Acts 13:1-5.

3). The only qualified teacher of preachers is a faithful preacher of the Gospel. What man would dare to establish himself as a teacher of pastors, as school professors do? It is not a degree, or knowledge of biblical history, or the original languages, that qualifies one as a preacher. It is the knowledge of the Gospel, and how God can be just and justify the ungodly by the blood and righteousness of His dear Son, Romans 3:9-26. One must not merely study books about the Scriptures, but the Scriptures themselves. It is not knowing the original languages and parsing all of your verbs correctly, but, knowing the One who is the subject of all the Scriptures, Jesus Christ the Lord, John 5:39. Rightly dividing the Word of God means simply to rightly discern Christ in every word, line, paragraph, chapter and book. The Scriptures are a HIM book!

4). The best place for a young man to learn to preach is sitting under the preaching of a faithful pastor. In the old days, if a father desired his son to learn a trade, he did not send him off to school somewhere to get a degree. He would confide him to a skilled tradesman, who would then tutor that son until he could ably do the trade himself. The pastor is the tutor of those whom the Lord has placed under his oversight. As God blesses His Word, the Lord raises up other men, who are faithful to the Gospel, and able to teach others also.

May our Lord make this congregation such a school of learning. Pray for your pastor that he might faithfully, consistently, and persistently preach Christ to you. Pray for the men of this assembly that He might make each one a faithful husband, father, and minister of Christ in all things.