Monday, November 19, 2007
Does Preaching Work?
Dan Edelen asked a while back if preaching "worked." His answer was one that I think is predictable - context matters. He points out four characteristics of a church that place preaching in a context that makes it effective:
Teaching is necessary to the proper consumption and understanding of scripture, Holy Spirit inspired and directed teaching, but teaching nonetheless. This is a key function for the pulpit.
Dan also neglects the necessity of leadership in formulation of context. His qualitative discussion of that context is great, but how do we get there? Leadership matters; leadership establishes the context and preaching is a valuable tool in establishing leadership.
The problem lies not in teaching itself, but in what we expect of, and how we apologize for preaching. I agree it is not the directly transformative tool we often hear it described as, but it is important and it does matter.
Would that more preachers understood its proper use.
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- Intimacy
- Relationship
- Holy moments
- Discussion
I agree with Dan very much in his basic assertion here. Preaching, absent the proper communal context if just more words, more noise, more entertainment. I do; however want to quibble with Dan on a couple of details. Consider this pullquote:
This is not to denigrate the spoken word at all, but in an age where nearly everyone in the America has easy access to the Bible, I suspect the person who best exemplifies discipleship and growth is the one who reads the Scriptures, believes them, and goes out and does them without a second thought.Dan is, I think here being overly simplistic. Much mischief has been done in Christ's name because someone "just read Scripture and did it." It is too easy to confuse our own urgings with those of the Holy Spirit, and when we read about so-and-so smoting someone else, we find ourselves following that example. NOT a smart idea.
Teaching is necessary to the proper consumption and understanding of scripture, Holy Spirit inspired and directed teaching, but teaching nonetheless. This is a key function for the pulpit.
Dan also neglects the necessity of leadership in formulation of context. His qualitative discussion of that context is great, but how do we get there? Leadership matters; leadership establishes the context and preaching is a valuable tool in establishing leadership.
The problem lies not in teaching itself, but in what we expect of, and how we apologize for preaching. I agree it is not the directly transformative tool we often hear it described as, but it is important and it does matter.
Would that more preachers understood its proper use.
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