Less than a Fool

Acts 2:42 – They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. In last week’s blog I argued that the Sunday sermon is an outdated and counterproductive practice of the 21st-century church. Of course, if we put it to a vote, no one would agree to get rid of preaching. After all, what else would we do on Sunday mornings? But Christians, of all people, should think outside the box. Jesus was the most creative and controversial revolutionary who ever lived, and Paul was a close second. Why are we, as Jesus’ followers, so traditional and so stuck in our ways? But again … if we get rid of the Sunday morning sermon, what else would we do? I believe that the church should be devoted to the timeless priorities of the Apostolic church in Acts. In Acts 2:42 we read that the church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching , to fellowship , to the breaking of bread , and to prayer .” We see four focal points of the first-century church:...

Job 35:16 – He multiplies words without knowledge. I want to emphasize that I’m writing here in generalities; I’m not referring to any specific preachers. There are a few preachers who I respect, and I’ve heard a few sermons that I’ve appreciated. But my overall opinion about the usefulness of sermons in the modern-day church is almost uniformly negative, for the following reasons. Problems 1.      Preachers don’t know how to preach. There’s an entire field of study called “homiletics,” and it’s pretty clear that the vast majority of preachers have never studied homiletics. I’ve never read a homiletics book or taken a homiletics class, so I don’t make this criticism from a place of pride. But I think that preachers need training in order to be effective. You may argue that Jesus, Paul, Peter, and many other great preachers didn’t have any formal training, but I can respond to that argument in a couple of different ways. (1) If you really want to follow Jes...