Finding Voices Worth Following
A Rubric for Distinguished Substantive Christian Teaching
We live in an age of infinite spiritual content, where anyone with a smartphone can broadcast their interpretation of the divine. But not all voices carry equal weight. Some teachers possess that rare combination of depth and clarity, faithfulness and relevance, that marks truly substantive Christian leadership. In response to this, I created a new criteria derived from and expanded on from an earlier version I created in 2012. I called it B.C.A.P. The following is called B.O.M.C.A.P.
Here's a recommendation on how we might discern sound preachers, teachers and teachings using the BOMCAP Rubric:
1. Bible-Based
The most trustworthy teachers don't merely reference Scripture—they're utterly soaked in it. Their sermons emerge organically from the text itself, not from cultural commentary with a few verses sprinkled on top. You sense they've wrestled with the passage, turned it over in their minds, let it shape their thinking before they ever shaped a message from it. As Paul instructed Timothy, they are those who correctly handle "the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15), treating Scripture not as a prop but as the very foundation.
Orthodox
There's a kind of theological trendiness that afflicts every generation—the temptation to sand down Christianity's harder edges, to make it more palatable to contemporary sensibilities. The substantive voices resist this. They hold fast to what Jude called "the faith that was once for all entrusted to God's holy people" (Jude 1:3). They understand that true creativity in ministry doesn't mean reinventing doctrine, but finding fresh ways to proclaim ancient and timeless truth.
Method
The best Christian communicators are master storytellers and careful expositors. They walk you through a biblical text the way a good guide walks you through a museum—pointing out details you'd miss on your own, connecting disparate elements into a coherent whole. They employ what we might call expositional narrative: unpacking Scripture's meaning while honoring its story-shape. Jesus himself modeled this when he "explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself" (Luke 24:27), turning exposition into revelation.
Christ-Centered
This might seem obvious, but it’s surprisingly easy for Christian teaching to drift toward moralism, self-help, or political commentary with Jesus as an afterthought. The substantive voices keep Christ at the absolute center—not as a supporting character in our personal improvement projects, but as the point of everything. They preach Jesus in the Old Testament and the New, in the law and the prophets, in wisdom literature and apocalyptic vision. They understand what Paul meant when he resolved “to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). Every sermon, ultimately, is about him.
Applicable
Here's where many otherwise solid teachers stumble. They master the historical context but can't build the bridge to contemporary life. The best voices do what Jesus did constantly: they help you see how eternal truth intersects with your Tuesday morning. They make the gospel feel not like an ancient artifact but like "living and active" reality (Hebrews 4:12), sharp enough to cut through the specific confusions and challenges of our moment.
Portable
Finally, the most substantive teachers are essentially multiplication-minded. They don't just perform for a crowd; they equip the crowd to teach others. Their sermons are constructed so you can take them home, digest them further, share them with a friend. They embody Paul's instruction to Timothy: "The things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others" (2 Timothy 2:2). Their teaching has legs—it walks out of the sanctuary and into the world.
These criteria don't guarantee perfection, of course. No teacher possesses them fully. But they give us a framework for distinguishing between mere religious content and the kind of substantive Christian voice that actually forms souls, builds communities, and transmits the faith across generations.
Originally drafted by Zion McGregor in 2012. Revised 2025.
©️ 2025 Zion McGregor. Permission required for printed use.