I recently asked David, somewhat aggressively, why anyone would want to preach. After my time in Florida, my opinion is softening somewhat, but I still have a few hangups with the whole system:
- It's impersonal - In what other setting would relative strangers sit down and listen to 20-45 minutes of another person's opinions without interrupting? When I hear the more "relevant" speakers like Rob Bell or Louie Giglio, they tend to create a good illusion of intimacy with their delivery, but who are we kidding here? This is mass media, a shotgun blast of Christian opinion.
- It's top-down stuff - preaching reinforces the trickle-down, leader-reliant mode of Church that allows some Christians to be mere spectators. If I go into a church and talk about working in a community, people can tell me "good message" and they've fulfilled their role. But if I sit down with someone and we start talking about each of our lives, then we've got something to work with.
- It's ironic - Ruthie and I are very focused on being good neighbors. We believe that's how the gospel works itself out. So dressing up and getting behind a podium to say that what's most important is not how we look or where we stand on Sunday seems a little silly.
However, there are some upsides to preaching as well, which are:
- It's a gateway - what you say from the front can open doors for further conversation.
- You can break rules once you're up there - I've seen preachers stop early to create opportunities for reconciliation and conversation among the congregants. Every time I see that happen, the results are stunning.
- The audience is diverse - If you write or make music or make movies, your message will only reach the type of person who probably already thinks the same as you on whatever topic. When you speak in a Church, you connect with people from different walks of life, different frameworks of belief, and across socioeconomic lines. It's a unique opportunity.
For now, my response to speaking opportunities will be to accept them if they don't interfere too much with my other, more important work, which is caring for the people in my neighborhood. I'd way rather show the gospel in deed than get behind a pulpit and discuss it.
I have struggled with this concept somewhat as well. Because, I think, what can a talking head really accomplish?
ReplyDeleteBut I think there are two redeeming aspects of preaching that have nothing to do with the particular talking head.
1) The Word! I know it is old school, but the very Word of God is the most powerful agent of change and cause ever known to man. It is by the Word that the earth and the expanse of the heavens were made. It is by the Word that God became man. That Deity wore a body. The preacher is a mouthpiece of the Word of God, nothing more. If people will be changed, they must hear the Word. So there must be a constant presence of the Word.
2) The Spirit! This is the way that the Word weaves itself down into our rusty hearts. The Spirit works on us like a potter with his clay or a smith with his hammer. The Spirit makes reception of the Word possible.
One can argue that this can take place with out "preaching". And you would be right. It should take place constantly, in an ever flowing conversation of Grace. But in your experience do conversation do this most of the time? I think that preaching provides a constant voice of the Word (if preaching is being done well) that people can possibly be changed by.
Romans 10:14-17 "But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!' But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?' So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ."