From Reaction to Formation

To my friends who preach and teach,

What do you plan to offer on Sunday? If the answer takes shape on Monday by whatever happened over the weekend, this is worth reading.

My own methodology did not change overnight. It began with something practical. A few short series, just to lower the pressure. That practical move became something deeper. Months of planning became conviction. What started as self-preservation became intentional.

For me, Ephesians 4 forced the issue. Christ gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers to “equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (4.12). The aim is maturity. “Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God” (4.13). That kind of growth does not happen through weekly improvisation.

When we decide what to preach based on what happened last week, we surrender the agenda. The world sets the questions. We scramble to answer. Our people learn to live in reaction. They begin to measure depth by immediacy. But formation is never primarily about the moment. It is about the heart. What a person trusts and loves will shape their life far more than any commentary we offer on the week’s headlines.

Reactive preaching rarely reaches that depth. At best, it addresses behavior. It does not expose the functional saviors people quietly depend on, the false loves that sit beneath the surface and quietly govern the soul. Only sustained, Christ-centered proclamation does that. Only preaching that traces Christ through the whole canon, week after week, text by text, has the cumulative weight to dismantle the unbelief systems people carry into the room.

Paul warns of believers “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine” (4.14). A church fed on weekly reaction may be alert. It may even be loud. It is rarely deep.

Preaching that only counters the culture does not form disciples. It forms opposites. The world moves in outrage and panic. When we follow that pace from the pulpit, we have baptized the rhythm without transforming it.

Christ’s design is different. Scripture is not a collection of disconnected pieces. It is one story, and every thread runs toward Jesus. “Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (4.15). Growth requires a trajectory. Sustained exposure to Judges, Ecclesiastes, the Prophets, and the Epistles. Not because they are timely, but because they are true, and because God’s glory is the aim of it all.

This does not mean we ignore current events. It means they do not govern us. The text governs us. The long arc of redemption governs us.

Formation is not efficient. It is sacred. Our people do not need us to mirror the week. They need us to anchor them in Christ.

Shallow disciples are produced by shallow rhythms.

Deep disciples are formed by steady truth.

Let us preach with the long view in mind.

~PW 🌮🛶