What does it mean to find your voice in preaching?

Many know the experience of being sent to the grocery store to search for some obscure item we’ve never heard of before. A couple of years ago, my wife and I endeavored to improve our diet, and one recipe called for nutritional yeast as a substitute for cheese. I looked at the grocery list and almost said aloud, “What is nutritional yeast, and where would I find it?” Is it dry? Does it come in a can? Are we sure we want to put this in our food? Before I could locate nutritional yeast in the aisle, I needed to know what it was in the first place. To answer what it means to find our voice in preaching, we must first tackle the question of what our voice is.

In your endeavor to become a better preacher for Christ’s sake, you will eventually come across a definition popularized by nineteenth-century preacher Phillip Brooks. In a series of lectures, Brooks defined preaching as the communication of “truth through personality.”

God’s Word Through Men

Fundamentally, every preacher has the same job description: communicate the never-changing truth of God’s word. As Paul makes clear to Timothy, “Preach the word” (2 Timothy 4:2). Ultimately, brothers, we are never at a loss for what we should say to our people. We are to preach the word. But behind Paul’s charge is a specific application: “Timothy, you preach the word.” In God’s wisdom, he saw fit that his truth would not be mediated through lifeless, impersonal objects. He decided to communicate his word through the manifold personalities of human voices — the diverse voices of Isaiah and Ezekiel, Moses and David, Paul and Peter and Jesus, the Word himself.

Voice refers not only to the sound, pitch, volume, tone, or timbre of your vocal cords. Voice implies the essence of who you are. God’s word finds expression in the distinct personhood of the preacher. Here, then, is my working definition of voice, building from Brook’s description of preaching: your voice is God’s word preached through who you truly are.

To preach in your voice is to preach as one who is increasingly comfortable in his skin. You preach from the abilities and natural resources God has given you: your personality, training, experiences and upbringing, relationships over the years, theological persuasions and passions, trials and tribulations, temperament, stage in life, and ongoing walk with Christ in holiness. As a pastor-preacher, your voice is God’s truth proclaimed authentically through you, not through your imitation of another.

Now that we know what finding one’s voice in preaching is, we can find it in the grocery aisle. But further questions remain.

Your Church Needs You

How important is finding your voice in preaching? Does this journey genuinely matter to God? Finding and knowing your voice matters because God created you uniquely and called you to minister to his church. Psalm 139 reminds us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, not to be carbon copies of others but to reflect God’s glory in our distinct ways (Psalm 139:14). Just as the beauty of stained glass lies in how each panel refracts light, so God’s glory shines uniquely through each of his preachers. Don’t rob God of the unique vision and display of his glory by trying to be another stained-glass panel.

In God’s wisdom, he has called you, not your favorite preacher, to pastor the church you serve. The Holy Spirit has made you an overseer, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood (Acts 20:28) — you with your personality, gifts, training, experiences, and more. So, as a modern-day Jacob wearing the skins of young goats and Esau’s best garments, you would do your people a great disservice if you tried to preach through someone else’s personality.

“As a pastor-preacher, your voice is God’s truth proclaimed authentically through you.”

You are their pastor. You know their stories, struggles, heartaches, victories, failures, joys, pleasures, sins, dreams, and desires. You are intimately aware of the challenges and triumphs that define their lives. In preparation, you pray that the Spirit will give you a word explicitly tailored for them. If the Spirit wanted your favorite pastor to be your people’s pastor, he wouldn’t have called you! In wisdom, God has placed you at your church because he has equipped you to minister to these people in ways only you can. Your congregation needs truth through your unique voice.

How to Find Your Voice

If preaching in our own voice builds up the church and glorifies God, how does a preacher find his voice? In the school of proclamation, we find great advice on how to find one’s voice. Consider the following.

First, strive to move past imitation. To be human is to imitate. We all learn much by imitation (as my two-year-old is currently making clear). So, imitation is an essential ingredient as we learn to find our voice. But at some point, remove the training wheels of imitation and learn to ride on your own. Strive to be yourself. There is no other person you can be.

Second, keep learning the art and science of preaching from a variety of voices. D.A. Carson captures the benefit of continuing education in the school of preaching: “If you listen to only one preacher, you become a clone. If you listen to two, you become confused. If you listen to fifty, you’re on the edge of wisdom and beginning to become yourself.”

Third, keep preaching. Take many opportunities to get preaching reps in, as practice aids in finding your voice. Take any chance you get to preach in any venue — nursing homes, youth groups, conferences, evening services, small or large gatherings. Preaching improves by preaching.

Fourth, grow through feedback. This step might be hard for some, but invite constructive criticism from those who sit under your preaching, both fellow pastors and congregation members. Also review film yourself by listening to or watching your sermons to identify areas for improvement. How can you sharpen your communication skills? What new practices might you implement?

Finally, don’t quit. Brother, make progress as a preacher to present yourself authentically before God as an unashamed worker (1 Timothy 4:13–15; 2 Timothy 2:15). Keep learning and striving to find your voice. Don’t let discouragement sideline you. Keep at it.

Dismantling Babel

We need to ask one more question, however, and it is the most crucial: Why do you want to find your voice in preaching? Oh, my brothers! Take the time to examine the contours of your heart from which this desire arises. You may find an undisclosed disease lurking beneath the surface — a desire to become not just a better preacher but a better-known preacher.

As pastors, the dusty residue of the discarded bricks, bitumen, and mortar from Genesis 11 still clings to our hearts, tempting us toward a misguided ambition. The aim of Project Babel lingers in our pastoral pursuits, especially in preaching: “Come, let us make a name for ourselves” (Genesis 11:4). Even as we strive to lift the name of the One who truly deserves to increase, that old whisper persists.

Like a microscopic parasite, this temptation can infiltrate even the sincerest desire to preach Christ for Christ’s sake. It slithers quietly into the innocent pursuit of finding one’s voice in preaching — an effort meant to grow us as better, more proficient heralds of the gospel for the good of our people and the glory of Christ. Hence why Robert Murray M‘Cheyne remarked, “I see a man cannot be a faithful minister until he preaches Christ for Christ’s sake” (Memoirs and Remains of Robert Murray M‘Cheyne, 45).

John the Baptist serves as an antidote to the disease of desired popularity. He was the voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight” (Matthew 3:3). When investigated, this voice pointed away from himself: “Who are you?” “I am not the Christ” (John 1:19–23). When his own disciples feared the diminishment of his popularity, this voice once again used his voice to preach another: “You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ.’ . . . He must increase, and I must decrease” (John 3:28, 30).

As pastors-preachers, we find our voice as we use our voice to glorify another. Through your voice, may Jesus increase. May God’s voice through his word be glorified through your voice. May the very voice of the Spirit speak through you, his preacher. Then will you have found your voice, for Christ’s sake.