Great Preaching

We live in an age when truly great preaching is rare. Preachers have been trained for several generations to avoid solid biblical content and to focus on applications instead. They have been told to "preach for a decision" not to increase knowledge. The result is that we have churches full of Christians who have not grown spiritually, who see the Bible as a trivial book that has little of importance to say to them, and who know little about the God they profess to worship and trust. Clearly, a reformation in preaching is needed--and is, in fact, coming, as a new generation of homiletics professors bring a fresh perspective to our Seminaries. We are all learning that great preaching is expository preaching. The era of "topical preaching" as a mainstay of our churches is dying, and for that we should be grateful. However, I wish here to lay out some additional basic characteristics of really good preaching:

• Simplicity--This means that great preaching makes a clear point. No one should be left wondering what the preacher was talking about. NOTE this does not mean Shallow preaching. We've too much of that already. Simplicity can be coupled with . . . .

• Depth--Great preaching brings the "unsearchable riches of Christ" to the whole congregation. Too many preachers preach shallow sermons because they don't want to leave anybody out. The result is that people they have preached to for thirty years are getting the same easy little inspirational messages they were getting years earlier--no wonder they haven't grown! Closely relate to depth is. . .

• Relevance--I don't mean relevance to "where people are today." We need to call people UP from where they are to where God wants them to be! I mean relevance to the Scriptures and to the God revealed in them. Don't preach to me about me--preach to me about Christ! That is what I need! Relevance also takes in the idea that the sermon should grip my attention and matter to me as the hearer. This leads us to. . .

• Importance--great preaching is important preaching. A great preacher never neglects the great truths in a passage to preach some minor point. Never preach a trivial sermon! Never preach on lesser truths when God's word abounds with great ones! Never be content to give the congregation a little inspiration when they need a great challenge from God's word! Finally, great preaching is marked by. . .

• Intentionality--great preaching is intentional preaching. The best preachers in history--St. John Chrysostom, Martin Luther, C. H Spurgeon , S. M Lockridge, Adrian Rogers, etc.--never wasted a word in the pulpit. They planned carefully and made each word count! These men did not ramble! They did not get off the point! They did not "over tell" a story. Every word was carefully chosen and carefully used. It was intentional preaching!