 A very happy new year to you all from the Lambs! Rich and I are so grateful for your friendship and prayers as we begin a new year and a season of extended travel in Asia. I have been drilling down on the essence of preaching in Paul’s letters to Corinthians, and I am far from grasping the depths of his vision for it! But one nugget I have loved is seeing how Paul relates to a colleague, Apollos, who was almost certainly more eloquent, than he was at the endeavor. I offer this reflection as a reset for us all in our posture in 2026 towards the sermons that we hear. And for those of us who preach, how in the new year should we view our skill or lack thereof, the feedback we receive, and our efforts to improve?
My theory is that this was a consequence of their deep sorrow and frustration with the futility of the idols they worshiped. They came with a fatal factory defect. They could not speak. We were created to be in communion with a God who speaks, who uses words to create and connect and reveal himself. A people who rightly hungered for lifegiving words turned to each other to fill the painful void by speaking endlessly and revelling in eloquence. They exaggerated and distorted the good gift of words, elevating persuasive capacity to a commodity like gold. In part because of this, Paul made a radical decision as he set foot in Corinth. He would not play that game. He would strip his message to its essence, the good news of Jesus Christ, crucified and resurrected. He wanted his proclamation to reveal the glory of Jesus and our invitation into a new covenant. He hoped his words would catalyze deep transformation, not merely the intellectual assent that comes from winning a persuasive argument, as was the goal of the highly trained rhetoricians who were so prized around town. Paul’s austere, almost spartan choice here could lead us to conclude that he held no place for beauty in speech or for the persuasive power of skillfully crafted language. But Paul is more nuanced than that. His letter begins with sincere praise of the Corinthians for being rich in speech (1:5), and he commends them for the same in 2 Cor. 8:7. He himself employs soaringly beautiful rhetoric in his description of love in chapter thirteen, and a carefully argued apology for the resurrection of the body in chapter fifteen. But he also plants a clue in the consistently positive way he speaks of his friend, Apollos. We learn in Acts 18 that Apollos was learned, gifted in speech, and highly effective in persuasion. And Paul never denigrates Apollos’ eloquence. Rather, he comes down hard on the ways the Corinthians viewed and received the gift that Apollos was. They exaggerated and twisted that gift into a source of status as they placed themselves in his camp—a camp he never sought to create. Paul does not blame Apollos for this distortion; he blames the Corinthians for their myopic vision of what leaders are for in their midst. At root, surprisingly, their vision of themselves is too small. They do not belong to Apollos—in fact, Paul makes the startling assertion that Apollos belongs to them! Not as a commodity they can own or consume, but as a gift, for which they can only say, “thank you” to the giver of good gifts. They all belong to Christ and, in him, to one another. Because Paul himself is free of comparing or competing, he is free to view Apollos as his brother and a gift to the body of Christ. Paul does not then reject eloquent speech, or what we might call excellence in preaching. He welcomes it, as long as we remember that the power is in the gospel itself and the One proclaimed, not in human leaders or the words they employ. So, one of my resolutions for 2026, one I invite you to join me in, is to receive the preachers we hear with gratitude. Let’s pray often this year for the leaders who serve our churches—first giving thanks, then asking for their protection, joy, and fruitfulness. This doesn’t mean we can’t at times offer suggestions and feedback to help them grow. Some of us may be called to that work. I am in the odd position of grading the sermons of many students, figuring out where their logical flow went awry, where they let themselves take center stage or let an excess of exegesis cloud the core truth. Because I wear that hat, I can sometimes become too critical when I listen on Sundays. I can fall prey to all the distortions that racked Corinth. So, I resolve to listen with humility and gratitude to every sermon I hear this year. May God grow our churches deep and wide in 2026, and grow our capacity to hear and speak words of life. Where we are headed and how to pray: We intend to send letters a bit more frequently in the first quarter of 2026, since we anticipate having both stories and needs to share with you. So, while the big picture of the next three months is that we will be in Malaysia, India, and Nepal, I will here just share through January.
We always love to hear how we can pray for you, so feel free to hit reply and share a bit about what’s bringing you joy or sorrow this week. We are so grateful for your friendship, prayers, and the generosity that makes this work possible. Rich and Lisa Below: Lisa’s recent Advent Sermon at Triangle Grace Church in Durham  
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