Three Problems with Modern Preaching

I love preachers. And I love preaching. I know I have my faults and I want to improve. But I am concerned with what I see at times and want to address a few problems. These needs will be more or less prominent depending on the individual preacher, but they are prevalent enough to merit talking about them.

Seriousness

We have the need for seriousness. A lack of serious preaching means a lack of serious preachers. And, if preaching isn’t serious, is it even preaching? I’m not all negative on preachers and preaching. Trust me. But we have a “serious” problem. We cannot be in earnest when proclaiming when our everyday life is lighthearted. Yes, there is a difference between public preaching and everyday living. We cannot and should not always be the same in and out of the pulpit. But the divide can be too wide. I count a lack of seriousness as one of the primary problems in preaching, with a more foundational problem being a lack of the fear of God. This lack of fearing God in the personal lives of preachers helps lead to glib Church services, nonchalant messages, as well as devastating physical adulterous affairs. Are there reasons that the world doesn’t take the Church seriously? Yes, there are. And this is one of them. How can we expect a world to take a Church seriously when she doesn’t take herself seriously. And preachers must take the main blame for this.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, in his well-known book on preaching, says, “The preacher must be a serious man; he must never give the impression that preaching is something light or superficial or trivial.”[1] He later says

You remember what was said of the saintly Robert Murray McCheyne of Scotland in the last century. It is said that when he appeared in the pulpit, even before he had uttered a single word, people would begin to weep silently. Why? Because of this very element of seriousness. The very sight of the man gave the impression that he had come from the presence of God and that he was to deliver a message from God to them.[2]

Brothers, we need a sense of sobriety, of seriousness, about us.

Ambassadors

We need to remember that we are ambassadors. Certainly, we can think too much of ourselves even to the point where one tries to create a “presence.” But, laying aside that extreme, dare I say that we need to take ourselves more seriously than we do? There is a healthy aspect to this. An ambassador who acts like his role is unimportant disgraces the one sending him. An ambassador acting in his official capacity who says, “Let me say a quick word. I won’t bother you too long,” is showing that the message from his king is not worth the listeners’ time. God forgive us for times we have done such evil. We are ambassadors for the King, who is the Judge of all men. Let us take our role seriously! We don’t speak for ourselves!

The preacher’s job is to speak out boldly for the Lord, to proclaim His Word, to cry aloud and make known what the Word of God says. When we preach, we must in some sense demand a hearing. George Whitefield was one time being ignored by some who listened to his preaching, so he began stamping his foot, demanding that they listen to him. We may not emulate him, but the truth remains: what we say and Who we represent is of vital importance. And we need to act like it.

Engaging

We have a need to engage with the congregation. I am not here going to enter in to how many notes one should or shouldn’t have when he preaches. But regardless of one’s personal preferences, we must engage with our hearers. They have not come to listen to a speech! A preacher is not a lecturer, or a writer of essays. Essays kill when spoken in place of a sermon. Our calling is not simply to instruct or to convey information. But we are to engage with those in front of us. They, in a real sense, are the reason why we were called to preach. God commissions preachers to reach men, real life people, with the gospel. As we preach, we should have some idea if the message is reaching the people, because we are paying attention to them. G. Campbell Morgan, Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ predecessor at Westminster Chapel in London, once asked for a Church’s lights to be turned brighter because he could not see his notes, and by “notes” he was referring to the congregation!

Think of it this way. You’re sitting with a friend at lunch. Your normal conversation with him is taking place. There’re a few light moments. You’re going back and forth talking. And then, suddenly, he says he has something important to talk to you about. He takes out his phone where he has a few notes typed out and begins talking with very little eye contact. His language changes. That familiar tone you’re used to is gone. His mannerisms change too. He is now more “proper,” and a bit wooden. You wonder what’s happened to him! He then closes in a formal way. And then your normal conversation continues, and he’s his normal self. I think what I am describing happens too often in preaching. The preacher is not himself. He is rigid in his delivery. He is unnatural. He doesn’t make too much connection with the hearers. Something is wrong with this picture. We must engage with those listening to us. There must be a connection. We are here for them! God has sent us to help them. I see room for myself to improve in this.

Conclusion

This short article has only addressed a few things. Many more could be stated. Further, it is possible to have everything mentioned in this writing and still not preach. True. However, these needs mentioned above help us to see some of what I think is missing at times in modern preaching. And these are truths that all of us can improve on.

[1] D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers: 40^th Anniversary Edition (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011), 99.

[2] Ibid., 100.