Sunday, December 7, 2008
Evangelical Sermons: A Sacred Cow
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While I haven't thought about it too much, I think I agree with this post by Bob Carlton, which essentially says that Evangelical Christians worship the 20 minute sermon, and we would be a lot better off as Christians (and as people) if we largely did away with sermons and instead spent the time, still "in church", doing something more spiritually beneficial.
Some quotes:
I also think the sermon poses a problem for the 21st century media culture. There is no need for me to go to church to hear so-and-so talk when I can easily download and listen to any number of world renowned pastors and speakers right in my own home, or while I walk the dog, or drive in my car. Why listen to an "OK" sermon when I could listen to a "GREAT" sermon?
I can hear the response now: Listening to a sermon on my iPod takes me away from the community of believers, whereas going to church and listening to a sermon is worshiping with the community. This sounds good in theory, but when I really go to church, I typicaly walk in, sit, stand, sing, sit, listen, and then walk out. There is very little interaction with the community. Arguably, there even less interaction than when I listen to a sermon online and then blog or post comments about the content and my reactions.
Again, no real conclusion here, except just to say that IMO, there are many other ways we could express our faith together, many other ways that would invite God's presence more, many other ways that would draw us to worship God rather than the church, and many other ways that would generally be spiritually beneficial rather than simply going through the rituals of being Christian-eze.
Perhaps that is why today, instead of going to a Sunday morning service, I will be joining with my friends from the Central Ohio Emergent Cohort at three in the afternoon to discuss The Great Emergence. I expect to meet God, to be challenged, encouraged, and hopefully changed into a person who is more like Jesus.
Some quotes:
But come rain or shine, there will be a 20 minute sermon. We will listen - he (it is almost always he) will talk. Thoughts will be thought - assumptions challenged- pop culture will be cited, oh yes pop culture will definitely be cited. You walk into a quasi-evangelical faith shop - you are gonna get a sermon, just as surely as walking into Chick-fil-A means you are gonna eat chicken.I think these are valid points, and are perhaps this is one reason why it is so hard for me to drag myself to church on Sunday mornings. I often wonder, as I sit and listen to a guy talk to me for at least 20 (if not 30 or 40 minutes) what exactly it is I am doing there. Perhaps part of the problem is that sermons are no longer a "proclamation of the Word" as they were when the practice was developed by the Reformers in the 16th century. I've heard many sermons based upon only one verse (or a fraction of a verse) and sometimes the basis of the sermon is simply a "good idea" with some sprinklings of Scripture added for good flavor. As Carlton points out, even if there is no Scripture, there will always be references to pop-culture and media. But this is hardly proclaiming the Word of God which Christians confess to believe has such transformative power.
...we gotta stop kneeling to this cow. It would be healthy to start just by admitting our dependency on this cow. That the modern - and much of the pomo - model of churchianity i[s] built on the assumption that a preacher will draw us in, that those sermons will be the connective tissue, that content can be re-purposed into books & podcasts & TV show[s].
People - good people, faithful people, many ordained people - just do not want more sermons. Our lives do not have a sermon shaped hole. We do not itch to be talked at for 20 minutes each week - even if that talking is wise or cool or edgy or soothing or quotes someone we like or hate or would like to buy stuff from.
What to do with that 20 minutes ? Imagine..just imagine. Be still. Hold someone's hand. Talk & listen in clusters of 2 or 3, human size talk instead of sermoning.
being a room when a sermon is given no more makes us a Jesus follower than being in a gym makes us Lebron James.
I also think the sermon poses a problem for the 21st century media culture. There is no need for me to go to church to hear so-and-so talk when I can easily download and listen to any number of world renowned pastors and speakers right in my own home, or while I walk the dog, or drive in my car. Why listen to an "OK" sermon when I could listen to a "GREAT" sermon?
I can hear the response now: Listening to a sermon on my iPod takes me away from the community of believers, whereas going to church and listening to a sermon is worshiping with the community. This sounds good in theory, but when I really go to church, I typicaly walk in, sit, stand, sing, sit, listen, and then walk out. There is very little interaction with the community. Arguably, there even less interaction than when I listen to a sermon online and then blog or post comments about the content and my reactions.
Again, no real conclusion here, except just to say that IMO, there are many other ways we could express our faith together, many other ways that would invite God's presence more, many other ways that would draw us to worship God rather than the church, and many other ways that would generally be spiritually beneficial rather than simply going through the rituals of being Christian-eze.
Perhaps that is why today, instead of going to a Sunday morning service, I will be joining with my friends from the Central Ohio Emergent Cohort at three in the afternoon to discuss The Great Emergence. I expect to meet God, to be challenged, encouraged, and hopefully changed into a person who is more like Jesus.
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4 comments:
I mostly agree - which is ironic because I consider preaching/teaching to be my dominant (and authentic) spiritual gift.
The singing-preaching-singing ecclesiology is incredibly shallow and has never been a reliable way to make disciples. It must be unseated. Yes.
Still, I think we need to keep preaching, it just needs to be utilized in it's proper places - and the center of our worship is not it's proper place by a long shot. That distinction belongs first and foremost to the eucharist (imho).
I would agree that the Eucharist should take a much more central role, and I think if the church really explored the incredible implications of the Eucharist - not only Jesus' actions at the Last Supper/cross/resurrection, but also what does it mean to "celebrate" his actions on a weekly and even daily basis - I think diving into those implications would really transform the way our worship looks.
Man, this is dead-on. There are better ways to fellowship together than collectively sing, listen to someone talk, sing some more, and part ways.
Your point about our media-centric culture is huge. I don't need to go to church to hear some OK observations/musings on Christian themes, because people all over the world are doing a better job, and I can witness their fruits at home. Preaching is nice enough, I guess, but if I can get better fare without stepping out of my home, the Sunday church event has got to find a different focal point.
Having been an evangelical pretty much since birth, I would say that the sermon has become the focus of far too many church experiences. For far too long we have totally ignored many viable aspects of corporate worship, things like corporate meditation, silence, and straight up reading of the Word. Far too many sermons are based on a miniscule bit of Scripture and lack the depth that Scripture itself has.
The purpose of sermons imho should be to stir the hearts of the people to live out their faith in the outside world. But the problem is way too many people hear the sermon and think that hearing it is enough.
I'm beginning to think that as one becomes more mature in the faith that perhaps sermons are not really meant for them. For new Christians, teaching needs to take place. I will admit that at times I have difficulty getting excited going to church and hearing a sermon that doesn't challenge me spiritually. but then I have to remind myself that it's not about me and my needs. Maybe I simply should go to serve in some capacity during the message or if nothing else provide support for those young in their faith. But the awesome thing is that with the availability of so many great, challenging, and intellectually stimulating sermons on the Internet I can both serve and be challenged.
One other thought... all those great sermons that are available on the Internet would probably not be there or be "great" if someone wasn't physically in that church listening to that sermon. If no one came to hear that speaker then I doubt he or she would stand up there to deliver a "great" sermon. :-) So I guess if we still want to enjoy really good sermons then we wouldn't want to throw out sermons altogether. Or maybe that's exactly why we should, maybe I should ask myself if great sermons have become my sacred cow.
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