What Do You Want to Hear the Preacher Say?
Since I am no spring chicken anymore and I have been in the church all of my life I can honestly say that I have seen a thing or two happen in the church. This article may sound like it is being written by an old fuddy-duddy but I promise you this is not my intention. It is purely my intention to cause you to think and answer the question in the title for yourself.
I grew up believing purely that the Bible was what preaching was all about. I admit that this was hammered into me my parents and grandparents, and my papa was my preacher and a missionary and my personal hero. So it is hard for me to ever think that anything he did or stood for was incorrect. I sat at his feet for most of my upbringing and what he taught me by example and in his preaching was a love for the word of God. So in my mind, what I see in a large part of the newest generation of preachers is somewhat disturbing.
Here’s my take. I believe that the irresponsibility of preachers in decades past in being too legalistic at times coupled with a generation of itching ears has led to a younger batch of preachers who want to do anything but preach the word. A large number of younger pulpiteers would rather tell stories and make the church feel good. They have been getting pressure to do that for years from disgruntled church members as well as from denominational friends. It is also common for younger men to want to please everyone and get along. They have not yet learned that you can’t make everyone happy in preaching and that this is not the ultimate goal. It is the preacher’s job to get God’s message to the world!
This new approach in the pulpits of America is also, in part, the result of Christians in the church who have played God instead of leading by example and who have abused the true identity of the church by creating an, “it’s my way or the highway” atmosphere in the community. It has led to watered down preaching and very little time spent in the text. I have heard so many younger preachers make fun of the preachers of the past who once memorized scripture and quoted it without looking in their bibles…as if this was the definition of holiness. For me, observing a preacher’s knowledge of the word as a child never meant that. It simply displayed that this man had spent time in the word. It made me ready to listen to what he had to say.
So that is what leads to this question. Over the past few months, I have gotten to hear more preaching than I have in a long time. I have heard men from ages 29 to 89 speak and I have been reminded concerning what I want to hear the preacher say. I want the preacher to preach the Word! I want the Bible. I don’t need stories and anecdotes and phrases that “empower” me as if I were at a self-help conference. When I am being preached to I want someone to teach me something about the Bible I have not yet heard, or explain to me in better detail something I have heard but have never understood.
The Bible is the mind of God in human language. It is the will of God. It is the power of God unto salvation. It is the wisdom of God entrusted to sinful but shapeable man. It is hope for the soul.
So when that preacher stands up I have only one thing I want to hear him say. Give me the Bible!
“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions” – 2 Timothy 4:3
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AUTHOR: Jeremiah Tatum
Photo by James Coleman on Unsplash
