Darryl's Blog
He gave some to be teachers
LT reacts to yesterday's post on preaching by suggesting that preaching isn't biblical or helpful:
I see very few examples of anything resembling a sermon being preaching to those who have decided to follow Christ...I think most people are far better served by just picking up a bible and reading it themselves.
It's not hard to see why people have negative views of preaching/teaching. As Haddon Robinson says, it's has suffered more at the hands of its friends than its enemies. We've all endured preaching that is less than helpful.
As well, we may expect too much of Sunday morning in general and the sermon in particular. You can listen to sermons endlessly, but it won't change you. Check out this post from D.J. Chuang on how good preaching (such as that by Tim Keller) can fail to produce transformation:
But as good a preacher as Keller is, he can’t break through and create life transformation. I know first-hand of avid Keller listeners who don’t seem to have totally changed lives. They listen to Keller probably more than I do, many listen to him live and person week in week out, quote him, promote him, and yet something’s missing.
Listening to sermons and reading books – even very good ones – doesn’t really change character. It’s community that does that. You mainly become like those you hang out with, not those you listen to in a mass audience. For years I’ve seen this – "fans" who love the message but don’t get deeply involved in community don’t really change. They talk about the gospel but it doesn’t effect their lives. I’m glad you point this out. Yes, even if you like my sermons (and I’m humbled that you do) – preaching alone can’t "break through."
That being said, it's a mistake to devalue the role of teaching in the church. You can and probably should evaluate the form and the most effective way to teach, but don't ditch teaching. As someone else said today, people generally lack "a biblical background and a theological grid from which to shape their lives." The solution to this isn't less biblical teaching; it's better teaching as part of the church's life. Our minds and our understanding of the world needs to be shaped by Scripture.
David Fitch may be more helpful. He argues that preaching should not consist of handing out more to-do lists. Instead, it should re-narrate the world and form our imaginations. At the same time, it is more communal, and the senior pastor is not everything. Preaching, he says, can only be "the tip of a communal iceberg."
The Bible speaks highly of teaching all over the place, but it's only part of the picture. "Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers" (Ephesians 5:11). By all means, let's move away from pastor-centric models of church life, and let's move toward the ministry of the many, as LT says. There are more than teachers in the verse I just quoted. Let's emphasize the others - but let's not lose the important role of teaching as part of the church's life in the process.
Darryl
I think you misread my post. I didn't mention teaching nor did I say preaching was unbiblical.
I did say "I should take some time to reiterate that I believe that proclaiming the gospel is an essential part of church life. Preaching is one of many acceptable mediums."
I think a sermon can be a very effective medium to proclaim the gospel to non-Christians. It is losing some traction in our multimedia adhd culture but if the speaker is empowered by God good things happen.
It is clear in scripture that teaching is an essential part of the church. I fully believe in it, I love teaching and I probably should given I work at a bible college. Every year I find myself filling in for faculty. I think people should explore scripture together and teachers should guide that exploration. I really love teaching because it can be an effective way of giving people ministry skills or helping them understand who God is.
One big problem I have with preaching as we know it, is that it really isn't found in scripture. The two most common words we translate preach really don't mean preach. One means to share the gospel and the other is proclaim something publicly. When we look at the examples of preaching in scripture we see discussion, debate, challenge and stories. Jesus was proclaiming the gospel through telling parables. The modern day sermon stems more from Greek oratory than anything else.
I think it is deceiving to so closely wed teaching and preaching. Our concept of preaching is hard to find in scripture but our general concept of teaching is easy to find.
The sermon is a lousy medium for teaching unless you listen to it a couple of times over. If it by itself were an effective way to teach bible colleges wouldn't have exams or assignments or group projects.
There are some pitfalls to preaching. I agree with Keller that a community is an essential part of the transformation process. How can community form when the two highest regarded hours of church gatherings each week are spent staring at a stage or at the back of someone else's head? It is impossible to facilitate any community when one person dominates more than half the communication in the church. While I agree with Fitch in theory it would be impossible for preaching to be only the tip of the "communal iceburg" if it continues to consistently occupy prime time on the centre stage.
Preaching as a medium carries a message. To the person in the pew it says among other things "you aren't qualified to speak." If the dominant medium in church involves some monologue with a a healthy amount of dialogue people don't get the impression that there perspective isn't worth hearing. Good preaching actually is more effective at building a capability gap in the minds of people.
I think there is a real disconnect with the reality of preaching and the theory of it. Fitch says preaching should "re-narrate the world and form our imaginations." Yesterday you quoted Vanhoozer "Most important, the sermon envisions ways for the local congregation to become a parable of the kingdom of God. It is the pastor's/director's vocation to help congregations hear (understand) and do (perform) God's word in and for the present."
I've been going to church for almost 20 years and I've never seen this. I see people sitting down, listening, some keeners taking notes, and upon the end of the church service promptly forgetting everything they have heard. I've tried to strike up conversations with people after a sermon about the content of the sermon. It is darn near impossible to find someone to tell me something substantial about a sermon they just heard during lunch after church.
LT:
Part of the problem is that we generally have blended the NT ideas of preaching and teaching. I agree that we need to look carefully at the NT use of these words.
We both agree, though, that teaching has its place within the church. Even if we believe that preaching in the NT always equals evangelistic proclamation outside the church, we may have to settle for the reality that words change and by that we really mean what the NT calls teaching. (More needs to be explored here.)
If we're not going to chuck this - and I don't hear you saying that we should - then I'm quite comfortable asking if there are more effective ways to teach than we're currently using.
Unless you have a house church or simple church (meeting in group of up a couple of dozen people or less), it seems like something resembling a monologue has a role somewhere, and I've seen it used very effectively.
The real problem comes if people think church=sitting in rows on a Sunday morning. Then, no matter what happens, it's not going to be effective or enough.