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Summon the Heroes

May 7, 2026

On a recent episode of the Better Preaching Podcast, my guest Mark Christian said something that’s been rattling in my head ever since: “It takes a whole lot more talent to be at a church of 125 than it does to be at a church of over 3,000.”

Mark pastors one of the largest churches in Missouri, but before that he was the pastor of a small church in central Michigan. So, he isn’t romanticizing small-church ministry from the cheap seats. He’s earned the right to say it. Then he went further. He pictured a line forming at heaven’s gates, and the VIP treatment going not to preachers with podcasts and platforms, but to the faithful pastor who served nineteen years in a farm community nobody noticed.

That image stopped me cold. It looks a lot like my dad.

When I was a junior at Great Lakes Christian College, Dad became a freshman. He sold the family farm in his forties and spent the rest of his life as a bivocational preacher in small churches across North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. He called me once, discouraged, thinking about quitting. I asked how many attended the church when he arrived. Twenty. And now? Sixty. He had tripled the church in five years, doing the counseling, the marrying, the burying. And he thought he was failing.

He wasn’t. He just didn’t have a platform to tell him otherwise.

Here’s what I’ve come to believe: a platform is a terrible feedback mechanism. It rewards what photographs well. It has nothing to say about the hospital visit at 2 a.m., the marriage you prayed back from the brink, the funeral where you were the only clergy anyone in that family had ever known, or the teenager who kept showing up because you learned his name. A platform doesn’t measure faithfulness; it only measures reach.

If you’re preaching this Sunday to forty people in a town of four hundred, hear this: the percentage of your community you’re reaching would embarrass most metropolitan megachurches. You are not waiting to be called into ministry. You are already in it.

Summon the heroes. They look like you.

Patrick Lightfoot, church planter and preacher, sharing insights.

Putting in the Reps

I’ll be honest with you. I’ve been preaching for a while now, and I still walk away from some Sundays thinking, Well, that could have gone better.

There’s no shame in that. In fact, I’d worry about the guy who walks off the platform every week thinking he knocked it clean out of the park. Overconfidence in the pulpit is a little like overconfidence behind the wheel of a tractor — sooner or later, you’re going to end up in a ditch.

I sat down recently with Patrick Lightfoot, lead pastor at Traverse Christian Church in Windsor, Colorado, and something he said stuck with me. He talks about “stage time” — the practice of actually getting up on the platform mid-week and preaching the sermon out loud before Sunday arrives. Not reading it over in your recliner. Not muttering through it in the shower. Actually standing where you stand and speak the words into an empty room.

He calls it “putting in the reps.”

I love that. Because preaching is a craft, and crafts require practice. You don’t sit in the bleachers and become a ball player. You don’t read books about farming and develop a feel for the land. You have to get your hands dirty.

Patrick also talked about watching yourself preach — playing back the recordings and sitting through the awkward “ums” and the rushed transitions and the conclusions that sort of just… trail off. He admits it’s uncomfortable. Of course it is. Nobody enjoys watching themselves on video. I watched one of my sermons once and became briefly convinced that I needed a new career. But that discomfort is where growth hides.

What strikes me most about Patrick’s approach is the discipline underneath the Spirit-dependence. He doesn’t treat those two things as opposites. He plans sermon series a year in advance and still makes room for the Holy Spirit to redirect. He rehearses thoroughly and still steps to the pulpit trusting God, not his notes.

That’s the balance, isn’t it? Preparation isn’t a lack of faith. It’s faithfulness.

Francis Chan puts it in the form of three questions: Am I worried about what God thinks? Do I genuinely love these people? Am I depending on the Holy Spirit?

Patrick has those written on a notecard and tucked in his Bible. They’re a better pre-sermon checklist than anything I could come up with, so I plan to put them in my Bible.

The congregation sitting in front of you every Sunday deserves a preacher who has done the work — and who has also gotten out of the way enough to let God do His.

Put in the reps. Then trust the One who makes them count.

BONUS CONTENT: Here are Francis Chan’s seven questions Patrick Lightfoot mentioned in his recent podcast appearance. Print them off and tuck them in your Bible and see if they don’t shape your preaching.

  1. Am I worried about what people think of my message or what God thinks?—Teach with Fear.
  1. Do I genuinely love these people? — Teach with Love 
  1. Am I accurately presenting this passage? — Teach with Accuracy
  1. Am I depending on the Holy Spirit’s power or my own cleverness? — Teach with Power
  1. Have I applied this message to my own life? — Teach with Integrity 
  1. Will this message draw attention to me or to God? — Teach with Humility 
  1. Do the people really need this message? — Teach with Urgency
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Preaching Still Matters

Preachers have beautiful feet. You read that correctly. Before your thoughts turn to hammer toes and plantar warts, consider this: Scripture agrees with me. Paul quoted Isaiah to the church in Rome, “As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Romans 10:15)

He was talking about preachers. In the verse just before his podiatric metaphor Paul wrote, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent?” (Romans 10:14–15)

Paul was thinking specifically of his Jewish brothers and sisters in this text. Despite his calling as the Apostle to the Gentiles, Paul began the chapter declaring “my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.”

The Evangelical Imperative for Preaching

God’s heart still breaks for the lost. Even though some think preaching is foolish business (1 Corinthians 1:18–21), God still wants everyone to be saved and understand the truth (1 Timothy 2:4). How does God do that? Through preaching.

Charles Spurgeon, one of England’s greatest preachers, credited a sermon he heard on Isaiah 45:22—“Young man, look to Jesus Christ”—for becoming a Christian when he was 15 years old.

Louis Zamperini was a hero and World War II prisoner of war. In 1949 he attended a Billy Graham crusade in Los Angeles where Graham’s sermon on forgiveness and salvation led him to surrender his life to Christ. He went on to forgive and reconcile with his former captors and became an evangelist himself.

Johnny Cash was addicted to pills and booze and even though he grew up in a Christian family had walked away from God. It was gospel preaching that led him to rededicate his life and shape his public witness as a Christian artist.

Introducing the Better Preaching Podcast

God loves the lost—and preaching leads them home. That’s why we began the Better Preaching Podcast. Better preaching helps more people find the God who loves them.

The Better Preaching Podcast is founded on four assumptions:

  • Preaching matters – God uses preaching to change lives. (Romans 10:14–15)
  • Better preaching – One can become a better preacher. (2 Timothy 2:15; 4:1–3)
  • We’re better together – Learning from the past leads to the future. (Jeremiah 6:16)
  • Great sermons are timeless. (Psalm 119:1–5)

My Story

It was a long list of preachers who changed my life. I learned about Jesus from my father, Larry Weller. He became a Christian because of the preaching and witness of a minister named Jim Platner. Jim became a Christian through the influence of preachers like Hank McAdams.

I’m not only a preacher because of this spiritual ancestry, but I am a better preacher because of the example of preachers like Dr. Gary Carpenter, Bob Russell, and many others.

Lost people matter. So preach like it.

The Better Preaching Podcast can help.

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Goodness in Action: How to Make a Difference Today

In today’s world, where personal gain often outweighs compassion, the challenge of being a good man is real. But goodness is not about perfection—it’s about action.

Start by identifying ways you can help others daily. Small deeds—sharing knowledge, listening without judgment, assisting those in need—accumulate into significant change. Practice honesty in all interactions, and stand up for fairness even when it’s uncomfortable. Good works aren’t limited to people you know; even strangers can benefit from your kindness.

Surround yourself with positivity, and learn from others who inspire goodness. Remember, integrity is contagious. When you act with humility, empathy, and courage, you become a beacon in a world often clouded by selfishness. Each act of goodness strengthens the social fabric, proving that even one person’s consistent efforts can shape a better world.

Fresh preaching insights await.

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