It is always good to get some feedback on this preaching blog.
One reader wondered if the age of preaching is over. One of the reasons given for this assertion is that many church goers have spent years listening to preaching without there being much to show for it.
In Jesus’ parable of the sower the best preacher concedes that preachers and their sermons will receive a mixed reception. Preaching will always encounter those unresponsive, those who are distracted and those who show initial enthusiasm that soon gets deflected by the stuff of life.
The death of preaching has been greatly exaggerated!
Yet there is a danger of putting a high value on preaching. Not all preachers are created equal, and not all preaching is good preaching.
Taking Terry Virgo as a case in point, his preaching set the tone and helped to shape an international movement, but he also made prayer a priority and stressed the importance of relational leadership in the local church. All great preachers have been more than the sum of their parts.
I do want to make two observations:
1. Preachers cannot live by sermons alone.
This weekend I read with interest Building God’s House: The Life of Terry Virgoby Andy Johnson. It helpfully shows how his ministry and the hugely successful movement he led (New Frontiers) until 2011 was one shaped by preaching.
At the same time Dick Lucas began the ministry of the Proclamation Trust, which also puts preaching at front and centre. Greatly influenced by Dick Lucas and possessing a strategic vision for the church like Terry Virgo, Timothy Keller demonstrated the power of preaching to shape the church and change lives at Redeemer in Manhattan.
I remember Dick Lucas talking about his all-round ministry which had at its heart his preaching but was also expressed in one-to-one Bible reading with members of his congregation. Some preachers can forget that there needs to be some interaction with people outside the pulpit.
2. Preachers need to be willing to recalibrate their preaching on a regular basis to ensure that they are on the right wavelength.
I have always been interested in preaching and preaching. Over the years that has involved reading hundreds of books on preaching and reading or listening to thousands of sermons from the past 2,000 years.
One of the things that strikes me about these sermons is how different they are.
The sermons of the New Testament are not the same as the sermons of the early church fathers. The sermons of the reformers are not the same as the sermons of the puritans. And the sermons of the 19th Century are not the same as the sermons of the latter part of the 20th Century.
The genius of good preaching is the ability to make the old old story appear to be ever new! This is not the pursuit of novelty. Rather it is the freshness of preachers who are in touch with the God who speaks through his word, and in touch with the life situations of those who hear. This is preaching like the master:
‘I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me … My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (John 10: 14, 27).
Photo by Vince Veras on Unsplash