INTRODUCTION

Preaching - the Problem

The Christian Church in western Europe is in steady decline. There are some wonderful exceptions to that rule where individual congregations are bucking the trends and flourishing but the overall picture is one of a persistent downward trend and this despite all the innovative methods that some churches have implemented in an attempt to try and stem the flow. Attempts to make services more ’seeker friendly’, the inclusion of livelier and more interactive forms of worship and the like have singularly failed not only to attract more outsiders in, as a rule, but have also not succeeded in persuading present church attenders to continue coming to church on a regular basis.

It is my conviction that one of the major causes, if not the primary one, for this declension is the marginalisation of, or even discarding, what ought to be the central feature of the life of the local church; that which is, in the words of John Stott, “indispensable to Christianity” and without which “a necessary part of its authenticity has been lost.” I refer to preaching.

It seems to me that to be a faithful, earnest, expository preacher of the Words of God in today’s generation is to be something of an endangered species. It is to be counter-cultural since many of the very core features of true preaching are seen as old-fashioned, out-dated and irrelevant and very dull when compared to the high-tech, multi-media, fast moving means of communication that abound in today’s world.

I have had the enormous privilege of being a preacher of God’s Word for more than 25 years now; indeed 2007 marks the 25th anniversary of my ordination into the Christian ministry - since when I have pastored two churches,spent the last 14 years in an itinerant Bible centred ministry working with a non-denomination mission agency and am now embarking on a new stage of ministry on the staff of a Bible College. During this time, I have had the privilege of traveling widely through UK and in parts of Western Europe and have interacted with most of the Christian Church groupings and denominations, having an input in Bible teaching but also being afforded the opportunity to observe what is going on and hear the comments of those involved. While there is in some circles a very strong commitment to ministry that is faithful to Scripture and a desire to retain the Word-centred nature of the local church, my overall conclusion is that there are two distinct trends observable.

Firstly, for many churches the recipe for success, in terms of reversing the trend of decline, is to make the preaching of God’s Word less of a central feature in the life and worship of the congregation and, even where it is retained, to make it more of a visual or interactive presentation. In some churches the traditional sermon has become no more than a talk, almost invariably illustrated by means of a powerpoint presentation and increasingly interspersed with video clips to relieve the perceived monotony of the address. Indeed there are evangelical churches which fill out the service time with so many different activities, designed to ensure that everyone attending feels a part of what is going on and if, from time to time, that leaves no time for anything remotely resembling a sermon, then so be it. I speak from personal experience on this last point.

But the problem does not only lie with those who have effectively done away with the central place of Bible teaching. Even in many churches which have a high view of Scripture and recognise it’s vital role at the heart of the life of the fellowship, what is called preaching is, in reality, all too often lecturing or simply Bible teaching but not true preaching in the sense that I want to define and encourage in the following pages. The distinction between ‘preaching’ and teaching’ has become blurred and so what one often gets is an address that is doctrinally sound and orthodox but which lacks any passion or application and is, to be often, dry as dust and utterly irrelevant to the everyday lives of the congregation.

However, the more I study the Scriptures and Church History, the more convinced I am that the very feature of church life that so many want to reject as being out-dated and a problem is, in fact, the key to ’success’, if only we would reaffirm our confidence in God’s Word and in communicating it faithfully and fearlessly to our people. I have absolutely no doubts that the local church can and should primarily be evaluated by its commitment to the regular exposition of Scripture in a way that remains faithful to the text of Scripture itself and relevant to the listeners.

My intention is to examine the whole issue of preaching and to do so under the following headings:

1. Preaching - What?

What is preaching?

What biblical warrant is there for this definition?

What is the difference between teaching and preaching?

2. Preaching - Why?

Why is preaching so important to the church?

Why ‘expository’ preaching?

3. Preaching - Who?

Who should be doing the preaching of God’s Word?

What sort of people should preachers be?

4. Preaching - How?

How should we prepare ourselves to preach?

How should we prepare our sermons for preaching?

How should we preach?