The Role of the Preacher

This was in this week's issue of Preaching Today under the subject of evangelism but this fits fantastically well with teaching and preaching.  Our goal as preachers should make people fall in love with our subject, Jesus Christ.

Teller from Penn & Teller (yes, he is the silent one), broke his silence for an interview with The Atlantic on the importance of performance in education. He was a Latin Teacher for six years before going into magic. But his tips for teaching could easily apply to how we should interact with other people when talking about our faith. Teller says, "The first job of a teacher is to make the student fall in love with the subject. That doesn't have to be done by waving your arms and prancing around the classroom; there's all sorts of ways to go at it, but no matter what, you are a symbol of the subject in the students' minds." Wow, that sounds like a great job description for a preacher—or for every Christian. Teller also adds, "As that symbol … the teacher has a duty to engage, to create romance that can transform apathy into interest, and, if a teacher does her job well, a sort of transference of enthusiasm from teacher to student takes place." And that sounds like a good plan for evangelism.