“So many sermons follow the beaten track, in which we can soon foresee all that is coming, as to make it a weary task even for devout hearers to listen attentively. One feels inclined to utter a plaintive cry, ‘Worthy brother, excellent brother, if you could only manage to drive us sometimes over a different road, even if much less smooth, even if you do not know it very well — I am so tired of this!'” (Broadus, Preparation and Delivery, p. 259).
Have 'Em Delivered
Write to the Editor
Dr. Charles Stanley of in-touch ministries in Atlanta cannot go 5 minutes during his sermons without reverting to the basics of the Gospel. He is all-technical and what-not and this-not and that-not and then comes the Gospel “Listen! Jesus Christ died for your sins and if you repent of your sins and trust in Him then you will be saved… ….” .///then you wait another 5 minutes and “Listen!…” With apologies to Mr. Broadus, it never grows old–rather, it gets better each time I hear it./// I contrast Dr Stanley’s fervor with the chap from “The Crystal Cathedral” who had… Read more »
Timothy, with all due respect, if you didn’t hear the Gospel in one of Doug’s sermons it’s because you weren’t listening close enough.
This might be one of the reasons young people are leaving the church. Most oldies love hearing the same old thing, at least the ones I know. Young people today have a much greater capacity for what’s actually in the Bible. The old ways just don’t cut it any more, but the Old Books still does. Sadly, the ministry is too often a veil BETWEEN people and the Scriptures. My kids tell me this, too. Young people don’t just want a pastor who tells them WHAT they learned in Sunday School (or worse, a pastor I know who just reads… Read more »
timothy — Does your definition of Gospel exclude most of the Bible? I mean, you heard a preacher base his words on Scripture — you thought “Well that’s true enough” — yet you don’t know if you heard the Gospel? What part of the Bible is not Gospel?
Eric,
Good point. God does speak through it all–for the unsaved who is at a service for the first time, the “begats…” section my not be the most effective for conveying it.///Also, it is very true that my ears perk up every time I here it. Chesterton wrote about some philosphers complaining about how the planets just went around and around the sun–and how boring and predictable it was. Chesterton flipped that on its head with God taking the simple joy a child has in taking delight in ‘again!’
Mike. You describe precisely why I enjoy Pastor Wilson’s preaching so much. I have also observed the incoherence you speak of–I call it ‘flippitis-preaching’–where the main exercise of the sermon for the laity is to attempt to turn to the correct verse before the pastor starts reading from it. You know, turn now to Hebrews 2.3….”read read read”…now turn to “minor prophet who’s name nobody remembers” verse 4:2.”read read read”..now quickly flip over to Acts…You get dizzy! Plus its embarassing when you have to keep glancing to your left and right to see which way to turn. ///I much… Read more »
To shake things up here a bit…. William Lane Craig just had a debate with Sean Carrol and your good friend from number 2 thermodynamic lane makes an appearance.
I apologize for semi-hijacking the thread, but it is a wonder how the same themes and mistakes repeat across the intellectual spectrum. From my link in my previous comment, I cut-n-paste from the linked site: In my first speech I used 5. above as a launching pad to make a bigger point: the real reason theism isn’t taken seriously is because it’s completely ill-defined. If we would presume to contemplate theism from an intellectually honest perspective, we would try to decide what kind of universe we would expect to live in if theism were true; then we would do… Read more »