Sermons DO Make Disciples - A Response to Bill Kinnon
Wednesday, July 7, 2010 at 10:52AM I suppose it's partly my fault. I egged Bill Kinnon into posting. I should know better. Whenever he posts, it's a doozy (a good one usually too) - and his latest post is no exception.
The core if Bill's argument seems to be: "Sermons don't make disciples - though living life together just might."
I agree with Bill in one sense. I'm not alone. Tim Keller has sounded a similar warning to pastors who spend too much time in the study and not enough time in community:
If you put in too much time in your study on your sermon you put in too little time being out with people as a shepherd and a leader. Ironically, this will make you a poorer preacher. It is only through doing people-work that you become the preacher you need to be--someone who knows sin, how the heart works, what people's struggles are, and so on. Pastoral care and leadership (along with private prayer) are to a great degree sermon preparation. More accurately, it is preparing the preacher, not just the sermon. Through pastoral care and leadership you grow from being a Bible commentator into a flesh and blood preacher.
The Trellis and the Vine, a book that's making the rounds in the young, restless and Reformed crowd, argues that "Sunday sermons are necessary but not sufficient." The authors write:
Sermons are needed, yes, but they are not all that is needed. Let's be absolutely clear: the preaching of powerful, faithful, compelling biblical expositions is absolutely vital and necessary to the life and growth of our congregations. Weak and inadequate preaching weakens our churches...Conversely, clear, strong, powerful public preaching is the bedrock and foundation upon which all other ministry in the congregation is built...
[But] God expects all Christians to be disciple-makers by prayerfully speaking the Word of God to others - in whatever way and to whatever extent that their gifting and circumstances allow. When God has gifted all the members of the congregation to help grow disciples, why should we silence the contribution of all but one of them (the pastor) and think that this is sufficient or acceptable?
If you want to talk missional, David Fitch said this recently: "The continuous forms of the church, including Eucharist, the preaching and interpretation of the canon of Scripture, the fellowship of the gifts, are therefore dispensable for Mission."
Let's put it this way.
Bill is on to something. Some churches rely too much on the Sunday event, and the preaching in particular, to do all the work. Some pastors put too much emphasis on Sunday mornings and don't see the main worship event as only part - an important part - of what it means to be the church.
But just as some expect too much from preaching, I'm convinced many of us expect too little. I've seen some pastors prepare too little, just as some prepare too much. Preaching is central to the life of the church. It's not everything, but it's hugely important. Lose preaching and you don't just lose preaching. You start to lose a lot of the other elements of church life you were trying to save.
Let's not create a dichotomy between preaching and community, or any of the other important elements of church life. The Bible doesn't.
Reader Comments (9)
I agree with everything right up to, "Preaching is central to the life of the church." I'd say that preaching/teaching/exhortation is key to the life of the church, but Jesus is central. And I know you'd agree that Jesus is central. The problem is that when you say "preaching is central" then young leaders seem to forget that Jesus is actually central. They then focus on their preaching - rather than the One they are (or should be) preaching about.
Yes, that is a danger. I think it's related to thinking that it's something about the preacher that is central to the church. That's the beauty of having multiple voices.Reminds me a little of Paul: "We do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord..."
I weigh in on a lack of relational discipleship as the far bigger issue then a lack of well crafted and well delivered sermons.
Perhaps the problem flows from separating the words and works of Jesus. He was the word of God when he was speaking; he was also the word of God when he was not speaking. His actions proclaimed the Kingdom of God *and* trained his disciples. With respect to preaching in particular, Jesus ministered to the masses, but explained his words and actions to the disciples. He did not neglect the spoken word in corporate settings, although many times those words were misunderstood (the parables, for example--or even better John 6!).His relationship with his few disciples also included works of power. Jesus performed miracles and trained his disciples to do the same: When he commissioned the disciples to "preach" the Kingdom, he included the instructions: "Heal the sick, raise the dead, drive out demons." In my view true discipleship is where word and deed meet.
Well, both you and Mr Kinnon are right. And you are righter. :)
When I stated that "preaching alone doesn't bring life-change" in my thesis-project, Haddon Robinson rebuffed the statement. He said, "Paul would tell you preaching does make disciples." I did my doctoral project on "sermon-based small groups." They are the answer. Christ-centered preaching is central to the church's life and can be brought to bare in community in the sermon based small group. The SBSG focuses on building Christ centered relationships in biblical community.
Mark Twain once said: "No sinner is ever saved after the first twenty minutes of a sermon."Know what? If the preacher doesn't live his sermons, he can preach to me all day and I will not heed his words. If what he says stems from his own experience with his Lord, he can speak for three hours and it will seem like no time has passed.
...one only has to enroll in and sit through a "Homiletics" course at any number of Evangelical North American seminaries to know that preaching -- and being a star at it -- is THE most important skill among those a pastor MUST have. Without this skill, no one will want to come to your church, no one will 'get saved' and no one will be able to know what to 'do' with all those bible verses ...a big mess.... Besides, what would Evangelical churches do with the 45-60 minutes left over if there wasn't a sermon? Sing more songs? Now THAT certainly wouldn't make disciples. ... but I digress into extreme sarcasm...Seriously, ...preaching isn't the problem. Preaching 'of a certain kind' IS a problem, however. The kind of preaching that makes "fans" is a problem. The kind of preaching that tacitly communicates that every bit of Scripture has a "thou shalt" or a "thou shalt not" embedded it that only the skilled preacher can extract and proclaim is a problem. The kind of preaching that plagarizes the Word of God is a problem. I'm sure y'all could think of more. But let's not do away with preaching. Let's just start doing it right.
Preaching IS the problem when it replaces spiritual formation 100% of the time when the community gathers.Would I eliminate preaching (or whatever word you want to use to describe some form of proclaiming God's Word)? No.Would I remove it as the central item every single Sunday. Of course. As Bill stated we center around Christ, and that means the Table. As soon as sermons take up 45 minutes and music 25 we first let the musical worship, then to the cool pastor, drive our gatherings.Frost has a good argument that these items shouldn't drive worship, let mission drive our worship. From there we can add elements to accent both celebration and formation of the community around Christ.