Ingredients for Preaching: At the Table with Dwayne Millioni

Why do you enjoy Italian cooking?

I love Italian cooking. It is a part of my heritage. I grew up with Italian food spread across the table. It just reminds me of family; it reminds me of sharing. And the beauty of Italian cooking is that you have simple ingredients that you just put together in a very memorable and wonderful way, and it’s just a joy — not just to make — but to share with others.

It might feel like picking a favorite child, but do you have a favorite dish?

I have so many favorite Italian dishes. My favorite is probably a homemade gnocchi with a red sauce or a basil pesto sauce that I might pick from my garden. I have so many, but that might be my favorite.

What’s the best way to break noodles?

Okay, first of all, don’t call them noodles. It’s pasta, and you have to handle the pasta like you would a precious child. You don’t break it. You take your water, you boil your water, you add some salt, and then you take the right amount of pasta, and you simply gently lay it in the middle and let it go. You don’t overcook it. When it gets to be al dente, you take it out. You place it in the sauce. And by the way, don’t buy cheap yellow pasta. Buy the bronze-cut, light-colored pasta. The yellow pasta makes you fat. The light-colored pasta is healthy and wonderful.

How is cooking like preaching?

Cooking a good meal, I think, is very similar to preaching because the shepherd’s responsibility is to feed his flock, and he wants to feed his congregation a nourishing meal. I mean, you could go the cheap route and just quickly open a can of pre-made sauce and throw some things together quickly.

Or you could take your ingredients, make the proper preparation, and layer all of the ingredients together at the appropriate time in appropriate ways. That way you end up with a much more pleasant meal.

Preaching demands patience. It demands preparation. It demands prayer. But also you are providing something for your people: a meal that you’ll share together.

What are the key ingredients for preaching to the heart?

I think preaching to the heart of your congregation is the goal for a pastor. You can offer head knowledge, which I think is fine, but we want our people to do more than understand the text of the Scripture. We want them to be transformed by the text of Scripture.

So, when we’re preaching to the heart, we’re going deeper than the mind. We’re actually getting to that place where people’s values and beliefs and desires reside. We’re going to try to use the text of Scripture, and we’re going to try to change beliefs because from our beliefs come our thoughts, our affections, and our behaviors. And a good sermon is going to bravely suggest that you may not be believing the Scriptures rightly. You may not be understanding God thoroughly. You may have to deal with some sin in your life.

When we’re preaching to the heart, we’re going deeper than the mind. We’re actually getting to that place where people’s values and beliefs and desires reside.

And when we preach to the heart, we get down to that deepest part of a person’s soul, and we contend with the word of God against the lies that Satan has implanted, or from their own sinful self. We confront that with the truth of Scripture, hoping that in believing the Scripture, through the help of the Holy Spirit, beliefs change, which then changes the entire person.

What’s the biggest hurdle for preachers as they’re trying to preach to the heart?

I think the biggest hurdle in preaching to the heart is that you have to know your people. Sometimes it feels like preachers preach at a congregation as opposed to preaching to a congregation. When you preach to a congregation, in a sense, you’re having this dialogue with the word of God to the people of God, and the more you know them and the more you understand them and their struggles, the better you are actually preaching to them and preaching to their heart. It also takes some boldness. If you’re going to preach to the heart, you have to be willing to deal with their sin, deal with their fallenness. You’ve got to be willing to, what Paul says, not just teach but to exhort, which means you’re going to challenge them. Then, hopefully, with the help of God’s Spirit, then there’ll be real transformation that will take place.

What advice would you give to a new preacher trying to learn to be an effective preacher?

My advice to a new preacher, a young preacher, is to consider that preaching is a craft, and if you want to master this craft, you’ve simply got to be willing to put in the time — years! You’ve got to dedicate yourself to it. There is obviously a demand to know the book, to know the Savior of the book, but then again to know the people that the book was written for. And if you will dedicate yourself to those things and you will take the time to know yourself as a preacher and develop the craft according to the giftedness and the personality that the Lord has given you, then over time — and I think it’s years, sometimes decades — like any artist, you’ll be able to take a text of Scripture and craft a message that, as Augustine said, has the ability to instruct our minds, to delight our affections, and to move our souls.

Why should someone study preaching here at Southeastern?

I absolutely love my school because it has always emphasized Bible exposition with a thrust towards the Great Commission and that preaching, at its best, is done in the context of the local church. Speaking of cooking, those ingredients make for a very effective message. And so for us here at Southeastern, we have such a high view of Scripture, but we mesh that with such a desire to live on mission and to fulfill the Great Commission.