Sermon Central
Great people don’t know that they are great; they just go out and do great things. Dr. Adrian Rogers was the “Golden Throat” of a generation, a modern-day Charles Haddon Spurgeon to preachers worldwide. When we spend time with the right people in the right place, we can become the right person. From knowing Dr. Rogers, I believe he was truly one of the most amazing giants to walk this earth. In the shadow of the fifth anniversary of Dr. Rogers’ homegoing, here are five powerful principles to ponder regarding his life and ministry.
The Preaching Develops the Programs
Dr. Adrian Rogers taught that the programs of the local church flowed out of the preaching from the pulpit. In other words, his preaching became the fountainhead for the ministry programs of the local congregation. The pulpit was the central focus for the church. Praise and worship set the stage for the “word from God” for each week. Today, much is written about “church growth” but little expressed about “pulpit growth.” There are many roles that we can fill as pastors, but our number one assignment is to be ready when we step into the pulpit. Dr. Rogers believed that his number one assignment each week for more than 50 years was to be “ready in season and out of season.” If we fill the pulpit, we can expect Christ to fill the building.
Over the last two decades, I would often purposely fly through Memphis just to go to Bellevue Baptist Church so I could watch and listen to Dr. Rogers preach to his people. I remember once making a distinct effort to sit high in the balcony, so I could feel the impact of this mighty man of God from the furthest possible place from the pulpit. On that particular Sunday morning, he was preaching on the Great White Throne judgment. Dr. Rogers preached with such passion and tears that the entire congregation was moved to make a decision as to where they would spend eternity. Today, it seems that such God-given crescendos are often replaced with man-made chatter. To Dr. Rogers, the preacher’s role developed the local church’s goal and not the reverse. When he walked into the church service, everyone knew who the leader of Bellevue Baptist Church was.
The Process Determines the Progress
Dr. Rogers made this preaching principle more clear to me than anyone else. Three years after his passing, I visited Mrs. Joyce Rogers and her children in the family home in Memphis, Tennessee. During the visit, I was invited into Dr. Rogers’ study. Over the decades, not more than ten people outside of family were ever invited into his study. Dr. Rogers’ study was where he met with God and crafted more than 3,000 sermons from every Bible book.
In his study were three separate desks he used in his process of preparation. One desk was for preparing Sunday mornings. The second desk was for Sunday evenings. The last desk was for Wednesday evenings and various sermon series. Dr. Rogers’ powerful progress was not because he had three separate desks, but because he had personalized a process that directed his progress. I can almost envision some pastors contemplating having multiple desks for their future studying of sermonic messages and still miss the real point. It is not the number of desks that make the difference, but the reality that when a preacher has a process of study, time is redeemed and his sermon quality continues to rise over the years. What made Adrian Rogers the preacher he became over time was that he knew where he was going and had a process to get him there. Whatever looks simple on the outside, the preacher paid a price on the inside.
The Passion Directs the Persuasion
I may have never met another man who loved Jesus as much as Adrian Rogers. When a pastor reads the Adrian Rogers Legacy Collection, they will read thousands of times, “I invite you to come to Jesus!” Jesus was more real to Dr. Rogers than life itself. His passion to serve Christ overflowed into every level of his life, especially in his preaching. When he preached about Jesus, it was not uncommon for him to fight tears from rolling down his cheeks.
In April 2010, Dr. Leonard Sweet and I were co-hosting our annual North American Conference on Biblical Preaching in Houston, Texas. During the conference, we were conversing about Dr. Sweet’s latest book, titled Jesus Manifesto. I asked, “Who will be writing the foreword to your book?”
Dr. Sweet said, “Jesus does not need a foreword!”
Then he went on to say, “It is not the purpose-driven life, but it is the Person-driven life.”
What Dr. Sweet said continues to reverberate in my mind and illustrates Dr. Rogers’ passion for Christ. It was so contagious that it caused his local church to repeatedly fall in love with Jesus. No wonder thousands of people were persuaded to walk the aisle “to come to Jesus” while Dr. Rogers stood on the main floor with open arms. They knew that this pastor really loved Jesus and wanted everyone to know the “Person-driven life” in their hearts!
How much do you love Jesus? Does your love for Christ inspire your audience to respond to your preaching? When one was with Dr. Rogers, it was clear that he had an intimate relationship with the King of the Universe. When one saw how he conducted his life, there was no doubt he was a Christ-follower, both in the private and public arenas of his life.
The Privacy Discerns the Price
Even though Adrian Rogers was a public figure in the Church and an international leader in the world, he was at the same time a private person. It was not until the twilight years of his life that he began to reveal some of the measures and treasures of his life.
Approximately two years before his death, Dr. Rogers began pulling together manageable groups of pastors around him to teach like “Elijah teaching Elisha” for the next generation. During those training sessions, he revealed the treasures that a pastor needs to know about preaching, teaching, money, management, leadership, marriage, and so much more. Dr. Rogers chose to name this dynamic series, “What Every Pastor Ought to Know.” I think he’s named it well.
Yet, Dr. Rogers did not begin to share such insights until he had clearly thought them through and was ready to deliver them. So much of what is often said in ministry today is made up of random thoughts or parroted expressions heard from another preacher, without much serious thought to how these ideas were marinated over a long period of time. We can dress as if we are intelligent, but when we open our mouth, everyone will know! When Dr. Rogers preached to the masses or shared with the few, the people knew they were hearing from a godly man who had truly thought through the subject before sharing it with others.