Proclaimer Blog
Mind the preaching gap
Here's my thesis – we (preachers) and our people probably have too low a view of preaching.
Here's George Eliot from her essay on evangelical preaching:
Given, a man with moderate intellect, a moral standard not higher than the average, some rhetorical affluence and great glibness of speech, what is the career in which, without the aid of birth or money, he may most easily attain power and reputation in English society? Where is that Goshen of mediocrity in which a smattering of science and learning will pass for profound instruction, where platitudes will be accepted as wisdom, bigoted narrowness as holy zeal, unctuous egoism as God-given piety? Let such a man become an evangelical preacher; he will then find it possible to reconcile small ability with great ambition, superficial knowledge with the prestige of erudition, a middling morale with a high reputation for sanctity.
And here are Anthony Trollope's well worn verses from Barchester Towers or The Warden or one of that series (I forget which)…
There is, perhaps, no greater hardship at present inflicted on mankind in civilized and free countries than the necessity of listening to sermons. No one but a preaching clergyman has, in these realms, the power of compelling an audience to sit silent and be tormented. No one but a preaching clergyman can revel in platitudes, truisms, and untruisms, and yet receive, as his undisputed privilege, the same respectful demeanour as though words of impassioned eloquence, or persuasive logic, fell from his lips.
Both represent a pretty low view of preaching, I think you would agree. But what about you, Mr Preacher? I'm just preparing some seminars for New Word Alive, and my working thesis is 'faithful preaching is an encounter with the living God' or to put it more pithily into Swiss: "The preaching of the word of God is the word of God" (Heinrich Bullinger's Second Helvetic Confession).
Uncle Henry had it right. And that probably means our view of preaching is too low, or at least there is a gap between the reality and the truth. How's that great truth going to affect your preparation this week….?