Rant : Preach and teach are not synonyms

I think some of the problem is the muddle we've made between the words preach and teach. In the whole Bible it's clear that the shepherds of the believers, what ever you call them, Rabbi, Pastor, Elder, Overseer, Bishop will teach the believers. It's always teach. The word preach means proclaim and is always used for announcing or proclaiming the good news to people who don't know it yet. It's a word generally used outside the Bible for a Town Crier of sorts announcing something of national importance - a battle won, a royal birth. Teaching is an indoors activity traditionally done by someone sitting down who includes questions to make his trainees think, and open to questions. The two are not synonyms or interchangeable. Paul went about preaching and teaching. So he was both evangelist - goodnews-ist, and teacher.

In my opinion we have compromised into our little holy huddles by doing a "preach" on sunday morning - which effectively means we get neither proper teaching as such nor real proclamation where the public can hear it. I don't necessarily think that preaching has to be just open airs these days, people don't live out doors much in our climate, but anywhere where people go, including the media. I also feel that more people should be properly taught how to be Bible teachers so that teaching can happen much more in smaller formats, 100 people or less, so that there can be question and answer.

I also like what Jo Storie says about teachers being open to discuss with wider sources than just their own narrow stream.

I feel that if teaching within the church could give up it's preachy 6 feet above contradiction attitude then it would model a more reasonable approach to discussion amongst Christians instead of the current shouting at each other, especially through the press which makes me want to cry.