Preaching Power

That we in the church have been infected by the consumerist mindset is a given. It is a buyer’s market, with sellers of every imaginable stripe vying for our attention. In the mindset of too many churches, and too many church members, entertainment rules the day. But even here I run the risk of boring my audience, the risk that you will click away from this piece and turn to other things if I merely rehearse the ills of the church-growth movement. It’s just another stale take, “Blah, blah, blah, those other people, blah, gurus, blah blah, inch deep, blah.”

If, however, we are among those few who yet worship in churches free of clowns on unicycles and assorted other circus freaks, we are not necessarily home free. If we are in the market for meat instead of milk, we are still in the market. Our problems aren’t solved, in other words, if we cater to the right demographic. Some may have better taste than others while everyone tends to feed the self.

What is missing isn’t just depth. What is missing is authority. Crusty, prickly Reformed folk who spend their Lord’s Day sitting like an Olympic judge, waiting for the pastor to slip up theologically are, in a sense, hardly better than the smiling evangelical who rates his pastors’ sermons with a laugh-o-meter. They both sit in seats of judgment. They simply have different personal standards.

While we are commanded to have the spirit of the Bereans, while we are to test the spirits, it is the spirit of the age that looks at the sermon as something to judge rather than as something by which to be judged. We come to the sermon not ultimately to measure it by the Word of God but to be measured through it by the Word of God. We come as those under authority, bondservants of the King. While from one perspective it is only that clumsy sinner who is filling the pulpit, from another legitimate perspective, what we are hearing is the Word of God preached. And for those who fill the pulpit, we are not there in our own authority, or for our own glory. And we too need to hear the Word preached.

If we would regain in our day the power of preaching, if we would see our selves, our families, our churches, and, from there, our culture remade by the power of preaching, those who listen must come not as those who are hearing a sales pitch but as soldiers being given marching orders. And those who preach must recognize that they are delivering not just a message but the very words of God. Sound preaching wounds us, heals us, and sends us back out into the battle. When the Captain of the Lord’s Hosts appears, there is no dickering. There are no negotiations. Instead, there we receive the commands of our King. From there we go forth as more than conquerors. May we, by His grace, be given ears to hear.