I received a welcome comment on an earlier post about the hard work involved in preaching, which essentially said that preaching requires passion just as much as it requires preparation. I would like to take a moment to reflect on that.
First of all, what does passion mean? Passion is all about intense emotions, and in the context of preaching I think passion is having your heart yearn for what you are speaking about. As I have said previously, preaching is an emotional activity which should engage the heart, so I dont think for a moment that passion is a bad thing. However is passion really as important as preparation, as good as hard work?
If you have passion for the topic, but a poor work ethic then you will end up with a sermon that is highly emotional but probably thin on the ground in terms of Biblical content. You probably wont have dug into the passage deeply and much of what you bring will be personal and not Biblical. On the other hand if you work hard on a message but have no passion for the topic then you will probably end up with a great explanation of the Bible passage which will engage peoples minds, but you will almost certainly fail to touch their hearts. People will not see the passage working in your life if it hasnt hit your heart.
Which of those two is better? Well my inclination would be to say that preaching without passion is actually better, because when the Bible is taught well God uses it, regardless of how the preacher feels about the message. Obviously though, the ideal is to have both passion and good preparation. To let the word of God dwell in you richly and affect your heart.