Why is So Much Preaching So Poor? (Part 2 of 3)

(Part 2 of 3)

Third, there is the relativizing of the preached word and the growth of emphasis on one-to-one counseling. I am not here denying the usefulness of one-to-one counseling but I am saying that most problems which most of us have should be dealt with quite adequately by the public proclamation of God's word. The world around tells us we are all unique and have unique problems. Talk of our uniqueness is greatly exaggerated. We need to create a church culture where uniqueness is relativized and where people come to church expecting that the preached word will meet their particular problem. I am struck by the fact that, while Paul does make some very pointed individual applications, he typically operates at the level of generality. Seminaries should make preaching a priority at every level; and preachers should be taught to preach with the confidence that they will impact individuals for the good as they speak to all from the pulpit.

Fourth, there is often a failure to find one's own voice. Coming to faith in the 1980s, I remember there was nothing more embarrassing than listening to yet another British preacher who felt he had to sound like Dr. Lloyd-Jones and preach for as long as the great Welshman did. Many a brilliant thirty minute sermon was undone by the preacher carrying on to the fifty minute mark.

Today, if anything the problem is worse. A few years ago, I asked a group of students who their favourite model preacher was. Not one of them mentioned any of the pastors under whose care they had grown up. The names were all drawn from that small and incestuous gene pool that is the megaconference speaking circuit.

This is disastrous in many ways but not least for the fact that these conferences consistently present as normative a very narrow range of voices and styles. Every preacher needs to find his own voice; the tragedy is that the economics of filling a five or ten thousand seat stadium mean that the only voice heard are those that can pull in the punters. But many of those voices pastor to churches where there is little contact between pastor and people. They can fill stadiums but they are not the only voices to which aspiring preachers need to listen. Time and chance makes men megachurch pastors and big names. Many much better preachers operate in smaller churches and it is they who can really bear witness to the importance of finding one's own unique voice.

Fifth, in Presbyterian circles at least, there can be too high a view of the ministry. This is counterintuitive, particularly coming from the pen of a high Presbyterian who believes that a high view of ordained ministry is an important aspect of a healthy church. What I mean here is this: if your church culture projects such a high view of ministry that congregations are left thinking that ordained ministry is the only worthwhile calling for a Christian man, the unfortunate consequence is that men who lack the basic skills to be ministers will nonetheless feel the need to be ministers in order to serve in a useful capacity. And men in the ministry who really lack the personal skills necessary to preach will not preach well. We need churches where a healthy understanding of general Christian vocation is taught and cultivated so that men do not feel such pressure.

(To be continued)

From an article published November 2013 at: http://www.reformation21.org/articles/why-is-so-much-preaching-so-poor.php by Carl R. Trueman - Paul Woolley Professor of Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary. His latest book is The Creedal Imperative (Crossway, 2012).