Commit to Cultural Exegesis

Patrick Lightfoot is a church planter and preacher living in Windsor, Colorado. A graduate of Harding University and Hope International University, Patrick transitioned from a career in sales and marketing to join the church staff at Journey Christian Church in Greeley, Colorado. 

In 2016, Patrick and his wife, Hannah, planted Traverse Christian Church in Windsor, Colorado. In the years since, the congregation has grown to nearly 1,000 people. 

A former College baseball player, Patrick has a “high motor.” He brings energy and intensity to the pulpit each week along with a passion for challenging believers at Traverse to apply what they learn from scripture. Prior to appearing on the Better Preaching Podcast, I asked Patrick three questions.

Q: Who are some preachers you admire and why?

A: Tommy Nelson from Denton Bible Church is my favorite expositor of scripture. He is humorous and loves poetry. I love the way Craig Groeschel presents practical application. Francis Chan and Matt Chandler are both great teachers of the Word. I love the passion with which David Platt teaches. Finally, John Mark Comer and Tyler Staton from Bridgetown Church are both great with historical context and spiritual disciplines

Q: When you think about the future of preaching what excites you and concerns you?

A: What excites me for the future of preaching is that we have a culture that is hungry for truth. This is especially evident in younger men. What concerns me is that some preachers focus more on creative communication than they do teaching God’s Word truthfully. We can’t make it more about delivery than content. His Word is enough.

Q: What’s one piece of preaching advice you would offer to your younger self?

A: Say “yes” to any and all speaking opportunities, no matter how small or big!

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Daniel Overdorf, President of Johnson University and a professor of preaching for more than twenty years. As we talked about homiletics, sermon preparation, and the craft of preaching, I found myself reflecting on a question that every preacher should ask from time to time:

Have we forgotten the hard part of preaching?

Not the public speaking.

Not the illustrations.

Not the PowerPoint slides.

The hard part is immersing ourselves in the biblical text long enough for it to shape us before we ever attempt to shape a sermon.

Daniel described the temptation his students face. They are assigned a text, and almost immediately their minds jump to sermon ideas, outlines, illustrations, and applications. The impulse is understandable. Most of us have done the same thing.

But Daniel tells his students to resist that urge.

First, become an exegete.

Then, become a preacher.

That distinction struck me because I have seen the same tendency in my own preaching. Sometimes we become so focused on preparing a sermon that we neglect to study the Scripture from which the sermon should emerge.

When I taught homiletics, I told students to “roll around in the text like a bee rolls around in a flower until it’s covered with pollen.” The image may sound odd, but the principle is important. Stay in the text. Live in it. Wrestle with it. Let it challenge your assumptions and reshape your thinking.

Only then should you begin constructing a sermon.

The danger is that we develop what Haddon Robinson called the “one big idea” before we truly understand the passage. We decide what we want to say and then search the text for support. Good preaching works in the opposite direction. The text speaks first. The preacher responds.

Daniel emphasized something else I have come to appreciate more with age: clarity matters.

Creative preaching is valuable. Artistic preaching has its place. But if people leave wondering what you were trying to say, creativity has failed its purpose.

The most effective preachers I know can explain profound truths with remarkable clarity.

Finally, we talked about application. Not vague application. Specific application.

Don’t simply tell people to evangelize. Help them picture what faithfulness looks like when they walk into work on Monday morning, attend a family reunion next month, or sit down with a struggling friend.

People remember pictures more than abstractions.

Perhaps that’s why Jesus told so many stories.

I am convinced that the most powerful sermons I’ve heard were never the cleverest. They were the ones that emerged from a preacher who had spent enough time in the text to hear God’s voice before trying to amplify his own — and then applied what the text was saying in vivid pictures.

And maybe that’s the lesson many of us need to revisit.

The hard part of preaching is still the most important part.

One of the verses I’ve preached on repeatedly is 2 Timothy 2:2: “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” The beauty of this verse isn’t just in what it asks us to do, it’s in the posture it demands. We must stand in the middle.

Dave Stone’s journey at Southeast Christian Church perfectly illustrates this principle. For seventeen years, he served as Bob Russell’s associate, learning the craft of preaching, the discipline of pastoral care, the practice of leadership, and the art of sharing the pulpit. Then, for thirteen years, he led as Senior Pastor, embodying everything Bob taught him while adding his own voice and gifts. Now, he’s watching Kyle Idleman live out that same role — a lineage of faithful, long-tenured leadership spanning decades.

What struck me most in our conversation was Dave’s honesty about what he learned from Bob versus what he’s learned from Kyle. “I’ve learned more from Kyle than I ever passed on to him,” Dave admitted. This is the humility that characterizes genuine mentorship. We don’t hand down our way as the final word; we create space for the next generation to stretch us, challenge us, and sometimes do it better.

Bob made space for Dave by doing something unheard of in large churches: he shared the spotlight. He gave Dave tough sermon topics, not easy ones. He let Dave preach Easter. He threw him in the deep end because he believed Dave could handle it. And Dave, in turn, did the same for Kyle. But here’s what moved me most: when I asked Dave what he’d tell his younger self, he didn’t talk about avoiding hard things or playing it safe. He talked about relying on the Holy Spirit rather than the flesh. He acknowledged that he’d been betrayed, that problems would come, but that these experiences drove him — as it should all of us — deeper into dependence on God’s Spirit, not away from ministry.

This is what standing in the middle actually means. It’s not just transferring information from one generation to the next. It’s creating a culture where we expect growth, demand honesty, embrace humility, and ultimately point people toward the Holy Spirit’s power rather than our own competence. At Great Lakes Christian College, we’re trying to build this kind of generational faithfulness. Our students stand in the middle too, between the faith their parents gave them and the faith they’ll pass on to their children. And our job is to help them learn that authentic ministry doesn’t come from mastering technique alone. It comes from learning to stand still and let the Spirit work.

That’s worth passing on.