Taking Risks

I attended the “Isn’t She Beautiful” conference at Mars Hill Bible Church on January 21-23. I enjoyed so much of the conference and will pass along a few insights and convictions I experienced while there. One quote in particular I could relate to was in Rob’s talk about taking risks in preaching and he quoted someone else I believe who said, “preaching is like learning to play the violin in public”. I came to this church I am currently at as an Associate Pastor at the age of 21 and was given sporadic opportunities to preach.
Without sounding as if I have it all together now, I thought back to my early stages of preaching and how much this quote rings true for me. I had convictions and was given a place to share them but all the while learning what would work best for me. The funny part about this quote is that while I was learning and developing I was also given an audience who had to watch and sit through those experiences. Was that like the screeching sounds of an aspiring violinist? I thought those were tears of pure joy coming from the parishioners? I remember driving to church on days I was going to preach and thinking, “Lord a flat tire would be nice right about now”. In those days it was a risk for me just to step up to the pulpit and give what I had. There was some difficulty along the way but fortunately so many people affirmed me and gave honest feedback along the way that has helped me develop more and more.
The key for me now is not to fall into patterns of comfort but to be assessing my continual willingness to take risks and not just in preaching. The question that this session really left me with was, “how willing am I to take risks?” and step out of my comfort zones. I like Bill Hybels line in Just Walk Across the Room saying that we must “leave our comfort zones and walk into the zone of the unknown”. It is so easy to stay comfortable and do the things I have always done but that is not where I believe God has called me to be. The key is a willingness to take risks.