Preaching has a role in everyones life, whether you are preaching or listening. As a Jesus follower, have you ever wondered what that role is? Or like most, do you just wander into a service, hoping that something compelling and conscious pricking is produced? Is the role of preaching to feed you? What is the role of the preacher in your life? Are they there to be your main source of conversation with God? Are they like a third wheel on your date with Jesus and every time you go to take a slurp of ice cream, they are there to dab your chin with a napkin? What is the role of preaching and the preacher in your life?
The Problem
It's getting weird out there! When it comes to preaching, we now value tweetable quips over Spirit-filled confrontational truths. We value the preacher more than the God they are preaching about. We hold that preacher so high on a pedestal, it is only a matter of time before they fall off hitting every pride branch on the way down. We are shocked by podcasts like "The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill", yet it is us who idolize the human until they start believing they are God. We build our entire Sunday around the preaching and that preacher. Our methodologies and ministry philosophies hold the Sunday Service and the preaching that happens there as peak value and then we wonder why we are not making passionate disciples, but instead making unsatisfied consumers. Like a bad poker player, the tells of the Western Church consumer are obvious and we will be bankrupt as a Church soon. Just listen as you walk to your car in the church parking lot.... "the music wasn't that great today"...."The preacher went a bit long and I didn't like that story about his daughter." Do these conversations sound like the people of God gathering to find out the hill in which they are about to charge? Do these tells feel like the family of God gathering to love one another, worship their God and then figure out how to take that radical love into their city?
No. They sound like people who don't know the role of the preacher and preaching in their lives. It is held too high or it nestles in to the wrong category of consumerism. The preacher is overly admired or critically judged, and preaching in a beautiful building on a big stage is too central to our methodology.
A lot has to change.
I don't think what needs to change is preaching itself, but the role of preaching. Sure I do think what we are preaching and how we are preaching needs to change, hence...the book. I address myself a lot as a preacher, and most of my writing is about the preacher. But I think preaching involves 4 parties...
The Preacher, the Holy Spirit, The Text(which the Holy Spirit wrote through man) and the listener. The listeners role and the role preaching plays in the listeners life is rarely addressed. Let's address it!
Everything Has a Role
You and I have a role in every scenario we are put in. Take hospitality for example....
My wife and I really like to host. Filipino's are legendary at hospitality and Anne is no exception to that rule. I love the way that she makes people feel, and how she makes them feel comfortable when they come to our house. I love how generous she is in that moment. My role in that scenario is very specific. My role is to do the dishes, make coffee, submit some awkward jokes, take out the garbage and produce a game that gets people laughing and engaging. Because I am a closet introvert, every 30 minutes or so, my role is to retreat to a bedroom somewhere and gather myself. That is my role! If you ask me to carry on copious amounts of small talk, remember everyones name, cook and be a supreme listener, you will never come back to my house. It is going to get awkward, and you may even be offended at some point. Everyone has a role in every scenario. Additionally, everything has a role in your life. Preaching has a role in your life and in the life of the Church. I think if we get that role wrong, we could see said negative results.
The Role of Preaching in the Listener
I think Steven Furtick is a great preacher. You and I may not agree with everything he says, and you may not fit in the pocket of his theology, but that is not the point. The dude can preach. However, I have preached in front of dozens of different crowds, all shapes and sizes. I have to say, Steven Furtick has the most favorable crowd I have ever seen. The guy gets an "amen" for citing the verse location. At that church there is a participatory culture. It seems that many at Elevation Church understand that the listener plays a critical role. The listener is there to contribute, lean in, and participate. Some are loud, some are quiet, some take notes, all lean in. Jesus ends many of His parables with "He who has ears, let him hear." This is not a statement about selective human anatomy. This is a statement about the leaning in of the heart. The humility and hunger to understand the Kingdom of God. Are you leaning in? Your role is take in deeply the Scriptures that are being taught and that has a lot to do with your posture. When you go to a gathering where someone is preaching....what is your posture? If you have a hungry and participatory posture, you will start to drain the consumeristic mindset out of your soul.
Another way to drain the consumerism out of the Church and another role you can take on is to be independent. I know, how very millennial of me. What I mean is, we are too dependent on the moment of preaching. That is the moment we commune with God, hear from him and get a breakdown of His Scriptures. Someone else puts in most the work. Therefore our posture is that of consumer and we become judges of how good the preaching is or bad the preaching is. We become entitled and dependent on that moment to "be fed". If I hear another person in the Church say "I just need to be fed"......
The point is, you shouldn't be dependent on preaching on Sunday. You are an INdependent follower of Jesus who connects with Jesus all week. You study His Scriptures constantly and hear the Holy Spirit preaching to you consistently. You have learned how to discern the voice of God and daily bread is landing outside of your desert tent every day. Preaching is something that you participate in because what you have been fed by God all week has just led to more hunger and you can't wait to be a part of that proclamation as you gather with your brothers and sisters.
Preaching should play a role in your life. I love to listen to preaching and I do two to three times a week. My Spotify playlist and my Apple Podcast library is thick. But, my hope is that it plays an appropriate role in my transformation. My prayer is that it is not all of my sustenance, just some of it. My prayer is that I never worship the preacher, I just root for them as they partner with the Text and the Holy Spirit.
Preaching has a significant role in your life, and you have a significant role in preaching.
Justin
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