No good preacher likes making his audience uncomfortable, upset or ashamed. If we could, we’d only preach sermons that put smiles on faces. Having said that, preachers understand that part of the job is to preach the Word even when the subject “steps on toes.”

A brother or sister might complain that preachers never get their toes stepped on, but that’s not true at all! Our toes are stepped on first, while we’re writing the sermon!

But sometimes preachers—like all Christians from time to time—can be a little hard-headed, and can miss the fact that they are preaching against something they often do.

In that case, God bless those members who lovingly(!) remind the preacher of his own mistakes. A gentle “now you know, you sometimes…” or a kind-spirited “well now what about when you…” is a good thing. It makes us blush, it makes is frown and sometimes it makes us have to say “you’re right, I should work on that” but we need our toes stepped on too!

God bless the ones who volunteer!