Preaching until we’re Sterile
Dec 12th 2007Jeremy MyersChurch & Preaching
I preached my LAST seminary sermon today. Yay! Though I have learned a lot about preaching while I am in seminary, I hope I can forget most of it. If I had to preach for the rest of my life within the box that is the seminary sermon, I would quit the ministry. Sadly, I think most of my fellow students don’t understand that what they are providing here is a bare bones template, and we have to add in our own personality and creativity to make preaching come alive. Such students preach predicable three point sermons every week, boring themselves and their congregations into spiritual sterility.
Seeds of God’s Word are being flung out there, but the seeds are impotent to reproduce disciples. Part of this is because too many pastors get their sermons from a can, and present them to a sitting, smiling, and nodding audience (maybe they’re nodding off). Adding more stories and jokes is not going to help. It may help people pay attention, but keeping their attention is not the same thing as making disciples. Some have tried shorter sermons, while others go for longer sermons. Some go for topical series, while others do “exposition.” None of it seems to be working very well.
It’s a cop out to say (as I’ve heard some pastors say) that “Results are not up to us. We just need to preach the Word and leave the rest up to God.” This is an excuse to not face the hard questions.
So I wonder if it isn’t time to reexamine “The Sermon.” This is something I fear to do, because frankly, I LOVE to preach. Preaching is one of the aspects of pastoral ministry I enjoy the most. I am not sure I would enjoy pastoral ministry if I wasn’t able to preach (maybe that says something about my heart…).
But I’ll put off that examination until tomorrow, since I don’t want to face the music today.
2 Comments »
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Jim on 13 Dec 2007 at 5:55 pm #
Congratulations!
Your right about the framework and your personality. Hoever, I do like Haddon Robinson’s book (old version) where he makes the same point you make.
But taking the fruits of exegetical method that was taught here at RMS, I got three methods as a short primer on what to do with the exegetical work in terms of preaching/teaching: 1, preach off of the exegetical outline (no time to prepare); 2, use the proper by the book method (Homiletics training); 3, use Pauls method of explaining the passage doctrinally for up to half, and spend the rest of the time in application.
I have not even taken my homiletics course yet and am have already preached at a home church and itinerantly. I hope I can get some credit!
In The Name,
Jim
Amanda on 16 Dec 2007 at 9:47 pm #
“Seeds of God’s Word are being flung out there, but the seeds are impotent to reproduce disciples.”
I like that. It’s important for every believer to remember that it is only God’s work in us that creates us into the people He wants us to be, it’s living in the reality of His love towards us that produces spiritual fruit in us, and makes us into disciples. No amount of preaching - no matter how sound it is - no amount of “seeds” can create disciples, as only God has the ability to do that. And He is the only one we should trust to do so.
I think that another big problem with preaching is that people can have the misunderstanding that hearing the preaching itself can produce fruit in them, I know that’s a misunderstanding I had for a very long time. It’s not the preaching that helps the believer grow, but how the Holy Spirit uses the truths taught. And learning those truths doesn’t need to be limited to the context of a sermon, service, or message on a Sunday morning. It SHOULDN’T be limited. Our Heavenly Father is the Creator, so obviously He is very creative in how He individually draws us to Himself. God gave every believer the Holy Spirit for a reason; He wants us to individually draw closer to Him.
I think that your idea of teaching, with interaction between the one teaching and the people being taught is better suited towards emphasizing that fact than preaching, because the teacher can then work with the listeners regarding how God can use the truths being taught in each individual believers life. Not only can this better foster trust in the Holy Spirit alone to produce fruit and disciple molding, but it is also, in my opinion, a much better example of how the Body of Christ operates. We are ALL considered priests in God’s eyes, and we all have the power within us, (the Holy Spirit,) to study the Word and learn what it is God wants us to know. When believers create a setting where they can learn together the Word of God, instead of it just being taught to them with no chance for interaction, the fellowship between believers is much better cultivated.
I’m really enjoying listening to your thoughts on these issues, so thank you for writing about them. I know how hard it can be to inwardly challenge something I had always believed. It takes every confidence in the Father, and our identity in Christ to be able to do that.
Many blessings
~Amanda