The Problem with Sermons

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 Jesus, Paul, and Peter as your example of preaching, you’ll have many more changes to make in your life than just getting some training in homiletics. (2) Culture has changed greatly since the time of Jesus, Paul, and Peter. Today, people can listen to the best speakers on the planet at the click of a button. If you want to get and keep people’s attention today, that’s what you’re competing against. Why should I listen to an amateur sermon at my local church when I can hear a professional on YouTube?

2.     Preachers don’t know the Bible. It may be that they appear this way because they have to appeal to the lowest common denominator in the congregation, so preachers may know more about the Bible than they let on. But I think it’s more than that because I often (usually) hear egregious theological errors and misunderstandings proclaimed from pulpits. Often I hear personal opinions proclaimed as gospel truth. Most preachers haven’t had any formal theological training, so they don’t know as much as they think about the Bible. They have a superficial understanding – they would do well on a Bible trivia quiz – but they don’t have a good picture of how the gospel is woven throughout the Bible, how the Old and New Testaments are related to each other, how various levels of context are critical to Biblical interpretation, the history of Biblical theology, basic principles of Biblical interpretation, and so on. When you don’t get the big picture, you don’t know how to interpret the smaller pieces either. As above, I temper my comments here by acknowledging that I’ve never gone to Bible college and I’ve never had formal theological training, so I don’t make this criticism from a place of pride. But ever since my teen years I’ve been an avid student of the Bible and I’ve read hundreds of theology books and commentaries, so I think I know enough to recognize this lack in the typical preacher.
        In the church where I grew up in Phoenix, our ministers took correspondence courses from Bible colleges like Moody. That was much more difficult than today, when you can simply turn on your computer to take a class, and it was in a day and age when such activities were considered "fraternization" in our denomination! Our ministers had careers, families, and church responsibilities, but their commitment to God’s Word drove them to personal sacrifice so that they could learn more and handle God’s Word better. Many evangelical preachers today have such a strong anti-intellectual bias that they’re actually proud of their lack of education. “Knowledge puffeth up” – true – but if someone wants to be puffed up, they’ll manage it with or without knowledge.

3.     Preachers don’t lead exemplary lives. I don’t have any major criticisms about the lifestyles of most preachers, but I also don’t see anything in their lives that inspires me. Again, I don’t make this criticism from a place of pride; my life is nothing to write home about. But when I sit and listen to a preacher for 30 or 40 minutes, I want to listen to someone I respect and admire.
        This summer there were two consecutive weeks when we had visiting missionaries at our church. One missionary gave a 5 or 10-minute overview of his work before the morning sermon. The other missionary was relegated to the afternoon service. Meanwhile, both Sundays, we heard the same old sermons from our regular preachers. One of the sermons was actually from a visiting minister, who was worse than our local ministers. As I recall, the topic of his sermon was “cars” – I’m not kidding – he spent the whole sermon talking about cars. I would have loved to hear sermons from our missionaries because those are people who I respect – they’ve devoted their lives to spreading the gospel, they work full-time for the Lord, and they’ve sacrificed everything for God’s call. They may not be the most eloquent or the most educated, but that’s the kind of person I want to listen to – they’ve earned the right to be heard.
        As another illustration, I spend my vacation time and money going on mission trips, while the typical preacher spends his vacation at the beach, on cruises, or at Disneyland. That tells me everything I need to know about their spiritual maturity and depth. There’s nothing wrong with vacations! But I expect more from my spiritual leaders. I don’t want a leader who hasn’t advanced beyond myself. I’m not special just because I spend my vacation time on the mission field – I should actually be living there full-time, so I don’t hold myself up as an example. But I’m not interested in listening to a preacher unless his lifestyle challenges me.

4.     Sermons are obsolete. Sermons became popular in the church because of the need to read the Bible to an illiterate populace. Many hundreds of years ago, when most people were unschooled, and before the invention of the printing press, the typical Christian did not even own a Bible. Their only opportunity to hear the Bible was by going to church and listening to the preacher read. Nowadays, everyone in the US knows how to read, and every Christian in the US owns several Bibles. The modern-day sermon has outlived its usefulness.
        You may argue that preaching is emphasized in the New Testament, so it should be the norm for today’s church. I can respond to that argument in a few ways. (1) Sermons in Bible times were in the context of an illiterate church. The vast majority of New Testament Christians were illiterate, so their only way to hear the Bible was to listen to sermons. (2) Sermons in the New Testament were not a focal point of the church service, but were an evangelistic tool. (3) New Testament sermons within the context of the local church were very different than what we typically see today. For instance, the Corinthians had preaching in tongues and preaching by women. If you want to use New Testament sermons as your model, then you have many more changes to make than what I’m suggesting here. But even so, my point still stands; we should not use New Testament preaching as a model for today’s church because our culture is much different.

So, what am I saying? Should we abolish the morning sermon? Absolutely. The Sunday morning sermon is a complete waste of time. In fact, it’s worse than a waste of time. If it were a waste of time it would have zero value. But it actually has a detrimental effect on the church because it exalts the preacher, both literally and figuratively. Literally, because the preacher stands in a place that is physically higher than the congregation. Figuratively, because the preacher speaks without interruption for 40 minutes while the rest of the congregation is expected to stoically sit and listen. That’s an implicit value judgment of the preacher vis-à-vis the congregation. So not only does the sermon lead to spiritual pride on the part of the preacher, but it's detrimental to the church because it encourages a passive lack of involvement on the part of the congregation. I find it terribly and tragically ironic that the centerpiece of the life of the church – the Sunday morning sermon – is the precise time when the average Christian is the most passive.

So, what’s the solution? Stay tuned – I’ll post my ideas for some alternatives here in a week or two.