Two weeks ago, I had the honor of being part of The Electronic Gospel conference at DTS, where Shane Hipps was featured as the keynote speaker. When someone in the audience asked Shane about preaching, he gave an interesting answer. He said (and I’m paraphrasing here) one of the greatest things a preacher has to offer his audience is himself — body, presence, actions, being. One of the best ways to become a better preacher, he concluded, was to become a better being — to become more mature in the faith, more spiritually formed, more like Christ. Even though I’m not a preacher, that idea stuck with me.
It occurs to me that in whatever capacity we serve our church (designer, communication director, media producer, student minister, teacher, volunteer, musician, etc.), some of us tend to focus on direct means of growth such as practice, tutorials, workshops, collaboration, and research. (For my part, I’ve done a lot of reading on the art of writing.) However, Shane provides us with an indirect — and perhaps more important — means of improving at what we do.
Each of us (and I’m looking directly at myself when I say this) needs to put our spiritual formation above our professional development. We need to strive for an appropriate balance in developing our skills and deepening our souls. We need to remember to follow Christ as we communicate to other about following Him.
I want COLLIDE to be a better resource, and I want to be better at my job as a writer and editor. Thanks to Shane Hipps, I’m reminded that the most important way I can pursue those ends is to pursue God.