This is what I find odd. Evangelicals invest huge amounts of capital into sermons. We spend large sums of money training people to preach and then pay them an annual salary to do it as a fulltime job. We set aside at least fifty percent of our weekly church services to sermons and we invest huge amounts of our hope in believing that preaching is one of God’s chief ways of saving and nourishing us, and his way of speaking to the nations.
Why are we so reluctant to talk about them?
It can’t be that we consider sermons unimportant. We invest so much in preaching because we believe with Peter that ‘the one who speaks, speaks the very words of God’ (1 Pet. 4:11). We stand with the Westminster Shorter Catechism when it says that ‘the Spirit of God makes… the preaching of the Word an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, building them up in holiness and comforting them through faith unto salvation.’
Our excuses
Some people would say that preaching is personal and that what God says to them is nobody else’s business. Some people, but not evangelicals! In the Bible, preaching was always to families, tribes or nations. Their response, whether weeping, anger, amazement or indifference, was always corporate. I can’t think of a time when people responded ‘privately’, can you?
Let’s be honest though. Isn’t the real reason we don’t talk about the sermon because it gives us nothing to say? How many people in your church might say, ‘The preaching I hear is boring, repetitive and safe? If I heard real preaching that would be something worth talking about.’
I’m a preacher. I wish I was cleverer, funnier, better equipped, more imaginative, more engaging. I wish I was all the things you wish about your preacher! Yet here’s the thing. Paul preached for so long it literally killed Eutychus. Peter was accused of repeating himself. Timothy was told he was too timid, perhaps too ‘safe’. All preaching is the Word of God in jars of clay. That doesn’t excuse dull preaching but it does challenge the hearer to humble himself and trust that God will still speak.
Start talking
What shall we do? Let’s start talking! Create a virtuous circle where conversation provokes better preaching, producing more fruitful conversation. Begin by resolving to come to church with a PEN: Pray; Enquire; Now what?
Pray
At the end of the service bow your head but say nothing. In that moment of silence allow the Holy Spirit a moment to speak to you. Let him stir your heart, your mind and your emotions. Think carefully: what do I need to hold on to? Then you can take it to a friend.
Enquire
Iron sharpens iron. Before the word is snatched away, think through what you have heard and speak about it. What challenged you? What did you learn? Be brave. Encourage honesty by opening up what you found difficult to hear or to understand. Admit your struggles.
Remember that the message was preached to the church family so talk about it together. Ask the questions, ‘What do you think God was trying to say to us today?’ ‘I wonder how we could apply that as a fellowship?’
Now what?
How can we pass the Word of God on? Ask each other how the sermon will change how you will do things tomorrow? How could you sum it up in a sentence to tell your friend, colleague or family member tomorrow?
Preaching is important. So why don’t you take your PEN to church this Sunday and talk about what you just heard?