Preacher, Keep Yourself from Idols

'Preachers' and 'idolatry'. Surely these two words don't belong together? Or do they?

The apostle John ends his first letter with the plea, 'Dear children, keep yourselves from idols' (1 John 5:21) - an exhortation to believers to keep alert to insidious temptations of all kinds.

What is true of Christian life and ministry in general is true of preaching in particular, and John's warning may be taken as a specific warning to preachers who can easily fall prey to various forms of idolatry associated with their calling.

With insight and wisdom, Derek Tidball reviews a selection of idols to which preachers are particularly vulnerable, under four headings: the self, the age, the task and the ministry. His aim is not to condemn - for the task is perilous enough - but to alert, and thereby help us to avoid those factors which, although good in themselves, become idolatrous, deposing God from the throne which is rightly and exclusively his. Our preaching should be offered up as a worthy sacrifice to the one, true, living God.