Today’s guest blog comes to us in the form of an interview conducted in 1981 by Terry Muck and Paul Robbins for Leadership Magazine. 

Rev. Gardner C Taylor

In a 1979 story, Time magazine described Gardner C. Taylor as one of the seven best preachers in America. Yet Taylor, pastor of the 10,000-member Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Brooklyn, admits preaching has never been an easy task.

“As a young man I didn’t feel entirely comfortable with my calling to preach; as a new pastor here in Brooklyn I felt the tugs to join in the political life that swirled around our community; and even now after thirty-two years here at Concord, I rarely feel fully delivered in my sermons.”

In spite of these difficulties so common to the preaching ministry, Taylor is thankful for the life to which he’s been called. “The Lord does not misfire. I’m thankful more and more every day he made me a preacher.”

Do you think you’re a better preacher today than you were thirty years ago?

I know I am. But I’m not as good a preacher as I want to be. After I preached yesterday afternoon, I said to myself, “I didn’t get at it the way I should have.”

That will probably encourage readers.

I feel that way often. Now and then I get a wonderful sense of having been delivered fully through a sermon, but it doesn’t last long, and by Tuesday or Wednesday that sermon begins to look awfully wooden and stale in retrospect. But I know I’m a better preacher now.

Do you sometimes have let-down Sundays?

Yes, I come to what my wife calls preaching plateaus, in which everything is flat country. I used to go through more of that than I do now, preaching slumps in which the stream didn’t flow, the wheels didn’t turn for three, four, five weeks. I learned to look inward at those times, offer what I was passing through to God. I tried to believe by the promise of the Word that those sermons spoke to somebody who was having in some sense the same kind of experience.

What would be your counsel to young preachers?

To realize that the Lord does not misfire. If he has put a pressure on your life to do this work, he knows what he’s doing.

Any regrets?

With all the doubts and uncertainties I’ve had, I’m thankful more and more every day that the Lord made me a preacher. I remember early in my ministry reading what Wordsworth said, “What will you do when your ministry fades into the light of common day?”

Well, my preaching has long since faded into that light, but whenever I come down from that pulpit so weary that I never want to preach again, the Lord finds some way to revive me, and usually makes my next ministry opportunity one of my most exciting ones.

To read the full interview, click here.

Your partner in ministry,

Nelson

© Nelson Searcy. All Rights Reserved.

About Nelson Searcy

Nelson Searcy is an experienced church growth strategist, pastor, church planter and coach, consulting with churches around the world. As founder of Church Leader Insights and the Renegade Pastors Network, he has personally trained more than 3,500 church leaders in over 45 denominations through live events, seminars and monthly coaching. Nelson is also the Founding and Lead Pastor of The Journey Church, with locations across New York City and in Boca Raton, FL. Nelson and his church routinely appear on lists such as “The 50 Most Influential Churches” and “The 25 Most Innovative Leaders.” He is the author of over 100 church growth resources and 18+ books, including The Renegade Pastor: Abandoning Average in Your Life, Ministry and The Difference Maker: Using Your Everyday Life for Eternal Impact, and At the Cross with the People Who Were There. He and his wife, Kelley, have one son, Alexander.