by Hugh DeLong<\/p>\n
Having preached now for over 50 years, one of my favorite instructions on preaching is II Timothy 2:2: “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also<\/em>.”<\/p>\n I think this may have been the most productive aspect of my work, as it has allowed ‘my work’ to spread far beyond what I could ever do on my own. Years ago, brother Pete Wilson told me that after years of working in England, and then back in the USA, when he began implementing this verse as one of the main aspects of his preaching, the amount of evangelism and teaching that then got done was far greater than all those years of his personal work of teaching. When he began doing this, the men he trained could all be teaching, almost every day, and that was around 10 men.<\/p>\n Of course, Pete has died, and I am afraid that I am ‘next’ in line. But <\/b>these men I worked with have been at it for many years and, in turn, have taught and worked with yet other men. This ‘one-on-one’ work has proven effective. God knew what He was doing when He gave this instruction.<\/p>\n The caveat, if there is one, is what <\/b>one passes on to these other faithful men! It has to be what God revealed through Paul and the other apostles and prophets. Such is timeless and universal. Such is the power of God to create faith in others. Such is a great and enduring part of a preacher’s work.<\/p>\n Here we are, 2000+ years later, in a faraway land, speaking a then-unknown language, yet the same message is being propagated. May God bless all those involved in such work.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Hugh DeLong Having preached now for over 50 years, one of my favorite instructions on preaching is II Timothy 2:2: “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” I think this may have been the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[536,451],"class_list":["post-96491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-preaching","tag-teaching"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":29544,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-there-a-conflict-of-interest-if-a-man-is-both-a-preacher-and-an-elder-or-deacon\/","url_meta":{"origin":96491,"position":0},"title":"Is there a conflict of interest if a man is both a preacher and an elder or deacon?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 5, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question that I am struggling with. I can't find any scriptural reasons against what has been done at our local church but still have an uneasiness about it. We have a smaller church whose membership has been trending down the past several years since our minister\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92351,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/changing-preaching-content\/","url_meta":{"origin":96491,"position":1},"title":"Changing Preaching Content","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 26, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Gardner Hall In his book Reviving the Ancient Faith, historian Richard Hughes documents a noticeable shift in the content of preaching among \"mainstream\" churches of Christ in the 1960s and 1970s. The early 1950s featured speakers on the nationwide \"church\" program, \"Herald of Truth,\" who emphasized compliance with \"the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46245,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/passing-the-torch\/","url_meta":{"origin":96491,"position":2},"title":"Passing the Torch","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ethan R. Longhenry Almost two thousand years ago the Gospel of Jesus Christ began to be proclaimed: God became Incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth, went about doing good, was crucified and buried, but God raised Him from the dead; He ascended to the Father, received all authority and everlasting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40788,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/dangerous-preaching\/","url_meta":{"origin":96491,"position":3},"title":"Dangerous Preaching","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"by Sewell Hall A man who accepts the task of preaching the gospel accepts a dreadful responsibility. \"My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment\" (James 3:1). Application of these words may not be limited to what we commonly term local\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Firecracker_And_Mouse.png-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":20733,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-questions-should-brethren-ask-of-a-man-wanting-to-preach-for-them\/","url_meta":{"origin":96491,"position":4},"title":"What questions should brethren ask of a man wanting to preach for them?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We have a couple of other men here who fill in with the preaching service\u00a0occasionally and have asked me for suggestions that might help them improve.\u00a0 One of them has expressed an interest in possibly looking for a preaching job.\u00a0 So, I believe a \"preacher training class\" would be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":58794,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/preach-and-teach\/","url_meta":{"origin":96491,"position":5},"title":"Preach and Teach","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 7, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"by T. Pierce Brown The following statements are made in a bulletin by one who claims to be a part of the body of Christ: \"There is no biblical evidence that anyone ever preached the Gospel to those who had already received it. Preaching is always associated with evangelism in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96491\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}