On Preaching and Stuff
Commenter Dave makes a fair statement, in the thread on Awesome Manliness and preaching:
"You seem kind of down on pulpit preaching."
Have at me: I think I am kinda down on it. Even the word "pulpit" weirds me out. Seriously. Maybe that's not fair. Just being honest. "Pulpit". Bleh. "Pulpit." Ew. "Pulpit."
But -- and it sounds silly to the ear, but I'll type it, anyway -- I don't think there's anything "wrong" with pulpit-preaching.
Oh, I do think there's something wrong with fostering expert culture, ego trips, lack of equality in the church, stopping people from interacting when ostensibly "gathering", enjoying small (and big) time celebrity, idolizing never-ending knowledge-accrual, limiting those who can contribute, promoting a seeming singular "leader", ear-tickling, confusion about the original public nature of "preaching" in the N.T., and, especially, feigned religiosity.
I do think there's something wrong with those things, but those don't have to come along with pulpit-preaching. They often do, sure (seen it my whole life) but they don't have to, and some humble leaders demonstrate this.
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Full disclosure: My dad is a minister. My very cool brother (he's a minister, too, and I used to be one) and I grew up around this stuff.
Does this color my impressions of both the necessity and efficacy of week-in, week-out, in-the-church-building-pulpit-preaching to the same people by the same guy?
Oh, heck yeah.
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My family and I went to an all-black church for awhile, before we moved here from Illinois. It rocked. The preacher was incredible, man. Funny! Entertaining! Grounded! Insightful! Well-educated! Mature! Awesome! ...and he talked for two and a half hours!
-- I snuck out every week. After a half-hour, I'd run past the frowning, gloved ushers and across the street to "Strawberry Fields", where I could eat granola and read the NYTimes Book Review. I confess, I can't handle it. I'm sorry. He was great.
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"Preaching" in the N.T. is largely a public phenomenon, so far as I can tell.
Preaching in the synagogues --- to Jews; preaching to then non-believers at Pentecost, preaching outside, gettin' busted for preaching, interacting with people all the while, answering questions, responding.
I confess to being a bit confused by the elastic use of the word, but that may be my own lack of biblical knowledge. Maybe preaching was, in the N.T., what it generally is, now: Non-interactive speaking to large groups of the same believers in "church buildings" on a weekly basis.
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As a media-type person, I get invited to "preach" sometimes, too. Occasionally, I don't offend everybody, and get asked back.
One recent sermon topic at a big church: "Why Sermons are Overrated". That pastor -- figure this -- asked me back.
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Truth is, I don't learn best, I'm not reminded best, by listening to large-group oration. I learn best when I can interact, when I can listen to others interacting, or when I can hit "pause" during a podcast, or when I can go back and re-read that last thing Jesus said that shocked everybody and made me laugh.
Even better: I learn when I'm doing stuff with people, when I'm doing one of those 40-or-so "one-another's" in the N.T. that you can't possibly do in a typical worship service.
That's just me. Your mileage may vary. But here's what's weird: Between the two of us, your preacher's probably more like me than you. Except he's manlier than me. But that's not the point.
He probably won't say, "You should sit in a large group and have someone preach to you on a weekly basis." He probably won't -- at least shouldn't -- say that because he likely doesn't sit in a large group and have someone preach to him on a weekly basis. He listens to podcasts, reads books, interacts with people, does stuff.
And by golly, that's okay by me.
