Here is another thought, mine I suppose, on another way to look and think about preaching, particularly in the local church context.
We should preach a message as though we are group counseling people.
Dealing with felt needs and real needs
Thinking while we are preparing about the hurts and pains people are going through.
We know these hurts and pains, because we pastorally care for people, pray for them and love them.
I was having a discussion with my youth/YAs a few weeks back about the difference of preaching and teaching, because they noted that I did different things when I shared with them on Tuesday nights as opposed to Sundays
On Tuesdays I was teaching. Taking the Bible passages we had and trying to get them to process it and come to their own point of view or understanding of how it applies to their lives. I see that as teaching, getting people to communally learn, with me being the facilitator and hopefully able to answer the questions that arise.
Sundays is preaching – as a Church the congregation has recognised my call to preach, so through the week I study a passage, I find the truths and the application and then on Sunday I communicate that to them with the authority of the preacher… I don’t usually ask for congregational input… but give them my understanding, my point of view, about what God showed me in Scripture during the week.
Listening to preaching is understanding the authority of someone who has studies, listened to God and learnt themselves and taking on what they say as application – and learning through it. Listening to teaching should mean asking your own questions, understanding through discussion and trusting the teacher to input knowledgeable wisdom to the time – and communally learning.
With that in mind I seek out what God wants to communicate through preaching, sometimes it aligns amazingly with what the congregation is going through, but I don’t think I purposefully seek out passages that relate to what I have been seeing in pastoral care.