What role would you say that listening to sermons has played in your sanctification and growth in godliness? Particularly, the sermons you listen to each Sunday at your local church.My response:
To answer your question - I would say that the preached word on Sunday morning has had comparatively little significant impact that I can recall. "That I can recall" I think is an important qualifier. Has it had an impact? Sure it has, but I can only specifically remember a few sermons that I can say, "wow, that impacted me".
I think perhaps a lot of the positive effect is through a kind of constant "soaking" of the word through good Bible teachers (much like we do in our own Bible study). One is not really cognizant of it having an impact, but it does for sure. To what degree? I'm not really sure.
But the overwhelming thing I think about in terms of my own personal spiritual growth is my time in the word and prayer, my own personal teaching of the word, serving, and relationships where older believers have invested in me.
Jesus did a lot of sermon like teaching, but it seems like it was always in the context of relationships, life on life. This is partly why I am leaning towards smaller church ecclesiology. I have only worked in big churches and have grow to see the draw back of how impersonal it can be.
My executive pastor tells me about how he has asked this same question to many many people over the course of his years and he has told me that he has never once has someone say that the preached word on Sunday was the #1 thing that contributed to their sanctification. Should we throw out the preached word on Sunday? Never, the Biblical emphasis on preaching is too strong, but I think it is good to challenge and question our current modes of ecclesiology since the NT gives very few rules for how our worship service is to be conducted.
It's easy to see how we got here...
(years are rough)
500-1500 - Catholic church dominates and there is a thousand year void (for the most part) of any solid, accessible, gospel preaching for the lay person
1500 - Reformation takes place - Luther and Calvin and others push back really hard on this and greatly emphasize the preached word for the lay person.
We still are reaping the benefits of this today, but I would say that I think it has, in our current culture, created churches full of spectators that I don't see in the NT for the church. We have so many different structured contexts for listening, but we have very few structured contexts
for serving and doing. This is a problem. Both should be mandatory. But in our culture, the listening is mandatory and the doing is not. Big problem in my view.
This is really hard stuff. There are no hard preaching rules in the Bible for the amount or the form. I would personally like to see structured elevation of the preached word in the context of home groups by qualified teachers.
To sum up, I think the preached word on Sunday mornings as most people experience it is a good thing and has had a significant impact on my life and sanctification. I just don't think we can make many ecclesiological laws about it's form for Christians. If think we are in grave danger if we begin to idolize forms that God has not given us.
Just my first reaction, knee-jerk response... Take it for what it's worth.
**Update** - ThinkChristian.net asks a similar question in this post. Might want to check it out.
4 comments:
At the beginning of September this year, Matt Carter, my pastor preached a series on Why Churches Die and then went into a Vision Series of the four components of our church, "Worship Christ", "Live in Community", "Get Trained", "Make Disciples". You should check it out. SO good. You can listen through the Austin Stone website, or through itunes Podcasts. Seriously check it out. He basically said at some point from the front that if you weren't about "serving the needy, clothing the naked, feeding the hungry..." and so on...that they needed to leave because we could use their seat. I can honestly say that each sermon I hear from this church I am impacted by in some way towards sanctification. But I completely agree with you that if I leave it at that...it doesn't work. The complete meat and sanctification comes from spending time with Jesus in His word and by serving and worshiping Him with our life.
Hi Zack,
I think that's a fantastic question to ask, and I pretty much agree with your response...
For my own part, I would say that Sunday morning sermons haven't had nearly the impact on me that specific teachers, via DVD/Podcast/YouTube and occasionally conferences have had.
This is coming from someone who listens to 5-10 sermons a week while I write code...
Of course, if Sunday morning sermons at my local church aren't doing much for me, then why go?
The answer has to do with what you said, the Church is about more than the teaching from the pulpit. It's community, small groups (where we do a lot of learning), and other things....
Plus, as I serve my fellowship, hopefully I will impact them all, including the pastor, towards the type of belief and teaching that would change more people.
It's like trying to build this forward momentum that eventually becomes a tidal wave...
Relationships and serving are definitely essential to sanctification. Any truly healthy church will recognize that fact. The thing is, with perhaps one exception, the strongest proponents of expositional preaching whom I know of are also strong in encouraging the building of relationships and serving in (and outside of) the local church. Preaching should NEVER be de-emphasized in a church. It should be at the very center (as God's church is built by and upon God's Word), AND it should also be accompanied by a church culture which encourages serving and building relationships. Actually, the preaching itself should encourage such a culture.
I agree that in a healthy church, both the listening and the doing should be "mandatory." However, the "doing" is really a part of the sanctification process. While sanctification can and should be encouraged and developed in a church, it can't literally be "enforced," in a structural sense, in the actual worship service (as preaching rightly is). Hence, while the listening is mandatory in a church, the doing is (or at least SHOULD be) part of the outgrowth of the listening. If listening doesn't lead to doing, there is a disconnect somewhere-- but the answer is not to make preaching less important in a church. A healthy, serving church culture should be, partly, the result of healthy preaching. As far as the importance of the preached Word in the worship service, check out the resources at this link: http://marks.9marks.org/Mark1
Oh yeah, my answer to your question: The preaching of the Word on Sunday mornings at my church has had a real impact on my sanctification-- at least, since I have been going to churches where the preaching has been more expositional. God's Word builds God's people, when it is preached faithfully and thoughtfully.
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