Short answer: Pastors can teach The Pursuit of God well by making Scripture the sermon or lesson text and using Tozer as a pastoral conversation partner. The congregation should leave understanding the Bible more clearly—not merely admiring Tozer. A strong teaching plan identifies the biblical text, Tozer’s burden, the congregation’s real condition, a gospel guardrail, and a concrete response.
Decide what role Tozer is allowed to play
A Christian classic can sharpen diagnosis, supply memorable language, and raise neglected questions. It should not become the authority that the sermon then tries to prove from the Bible.
A useful order is: Scripture establishes the truth; Tozer helps name the spiritual problem; pastoral teaching supplies context; the congregation responds in faith and obedience. That order protects both biblical authority and the usefulness of devotional literature.
Use a five-field teaching grid for each chapter
- Biblical text: What passage will govern the teaching? Read it in context and build the main claims from it.
- Tozer’s burden: What spiritual condition is the chapter pressing on—hunger, possessiveness, self-life, perception, attention, pride, or whole-life worship?
- Congregational reality: Where might this issue actually appear in your people’s lives? Avoid vague rebukes aimed at an imaginary church.
- Gospel guardrail: What truth about grace, assurance, Christ’s finished work, or the Spirit’s work prevents the application from becoming performance religion?
- Faithful response: What can a hearer actually believe, confess, stop, begin, repair, or practice?
Distinguish four kinds of Tozer statements
Pastors do not need to defend every sentence in the same way. Classifying a statement first makes teaching more accurate:
- Biblical claim: a proposition that should be demonstrated directly from Scripture.
- Devotional metaphor: language such as inward gaze, veil, thirst, or tasting that creates an image and needs interpretation rather than wooden literalism.
- Pastoral diagnosis: Tozer’s judgment about a spiritual condition in the church or believer.
- Application: a proposed response that must be tested for wisdom, context, and pastoral suitability.
When a statement is difficult or disputed, direct leaders and participants to the Scripture-testing method rather than pretending that a devotional author requires unquestioning agreement.
Teach Chapter 2 without preaching poverty as holiness
Chapter 2 is a good example of why pastoral qualification matters. Tozer’s concern is inward possessiveness and the right ordering of God’s gifts. A pastor can open Genesis 22, Matthew 6:19–24, or 1 Timothy 6:17–19 and show that surrender, trust, stewardship, and generosity belong together.
The application should not pressure people into dramatic disposal of possessions merely to prove sincerity. It should expose where money, status, comfort, or control has gained veto power over obedience.
Teach Chapter 6 without creating a second source of revelation
Tozer’s language about the speaking voice can awaken readers to the living God and to attentive reading. Pastors should make the boundary explicit: Scripture is God-breathed and authoritative; impressions, memories, and inner promptings do not carry the same authority.
That clarification preserves the devotional force of the chapter while protecting people who may otherwise treat every internal thought as a message from God.
Do not use Tozer to scold the congregation
The preface contains sharp criticism of spiritually lifeless religion. Those warnings can be useful, but they can also become a convenient weapon for a leader who is frustrated with the church.
Apply the text first to the preacher. Ask whether busyness, reputation, program dependence, or spiritual dryness appears in your own leadership. Pastoral honesty does not require public oversharing; it does require teaching as a fellow disciple rather than as the one person who has already arrived.
Choose a teaching format that matches the setting
A three-message thematic series
- Desire and surrender: Chapters 1–3.
- Faith, presence, and attention: Chapters 4–7.
- God-centered living: Chapters 8–10.
This format works when the church needs the book’s major movements without turning Sunday preaching into a ten-week book review.
A ten-session class or group
A class can move chapter by chapter and allow more time for Scripture comparison, questions, and application. Use the book as reading between meetings and the Bible as the controlling text in the room.
Create a pastoral response ladder
Not everyone should receive the same application. One person may need repentance. Another may need reassurance that dryness does not mean abandonment. Another may need to simplify commitments. Another may need to seek help for depression, grief, trauma, addiction, or a relational crisis that cannot be reduced to “try harder spiritually.”
Pastoral teaching becomes safer and more useful when it distinguishes conviction from shame and spiritual practice from professional or clinical care.
Hand the discussion to others without losing biblical clarity
If the teaching continues in groups, give facilitators a brief answer boundary and let them lead discussion rather than replay the sermon. A leader answer key can identify the biblical anchor and likely misunderstanding, while the group-study guide supplies meeting flow.
End where Tozer wanted the reader to end: with God, not Tozer
The measure of a successful series is not how many people quote the author. Look instead for clearer biblical understanding, renewed prayer, repentance, reordered desire, quieter pride, faithful work, generosity, and a deeper willingness to obey Christ.
If leaders want the classic paired with structured summaries and discussion material for classes or groups, the expanded study edition can reduce preparation time while still requiring Scripture to govern the teaching.