It is well-known that the church in America is declining. Somewhere around 5000 churches close per year. Church leaders are scrambling to come up with answers. They are looking for ways to reverse the decline. One attempt can broadly be labeled the attractional church model. The idea is that if the event is appealing and the message seems relevant, then the church will attract new people. This worked fairly well from the late 70s to the early 2000s, but now the question is how to engage with Generation X, Millennials, and Gen Z, because the attractional model isn’t working.
In 2020, Christianity has nowhere near the credibility or social capital that it had following WW2. We are now fully situated in a pluralistic culture akin to the world of the NT. That is to say, religion and spirituality are not absent in the younger generations. In fact, they appear to be more prevalent. This is why we are seeing the explosion of Buddhism and New Age spirituality—even paganism is making a comeback.
Now all this may seem depressing and bleak. But it’s not. In fact, I’m optimistic about the future of Christianity. This cultural moment calls us to return to our roots. The question we have to ask is: What is does Christianity have to say to our culture?
Here’s my answer. The gospel of Jesus has traction in our pluralistic culture. That traction does not come from being clever or crafty; it does not come from doubling down on forms of cultural Christianity; it does not come from the political culture wars. Fighting the battle on those planes is a game the church can’t win because it’s not the game the church is called to play. The church must resource its rich past (I’m talking centuries and millennia not decades) and be empowered by the gospel of King Jesus—that is our traction.
I want to walk you through one passage of Scripture. The goal is to identify a vision for preaching that has traction in our cultural moment.
The Object of Preaching
Paul writes 1 Corinthians to the believers at Corinth. They are plagued with problems and divisions. One of the factors contributing to these divisions is a sort of celebrity culture where people are picking their favorite preachers. Against that backdrop, Paul casts a vision for preaching.
Look at v. 1: “And I, when I came to you, brothers and sisters, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.” We will come back to this verse in a moment, but for now take note of how Paul does not consider lofty speech or wisdom part of preaching. Why is this?
His answer is in v. 2: “For [that indicates the reason] I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” For Paul, there’s one object of preaching: Jesus Christ and him crucified. We call this the gospel. The NT expounds the gospel from multiple angles, but perhaps the shortest one is that Christ died for our sins and rose again for our life.
One of the unfortunate emphases of cultural Christianity is moralism. By moralism, I mean the idea that Christianity is about following a certain code of morality such as the Ten Commandments. The Bible is seen as a rulebook. But the gospel deals a deathblow to moralism. The gospel says, “We need God to act on our behalf.”
I expect my experience was not very different from yours. I grew up in a rigid form of cultural Christian that was heavy on moralism and virtually clueless about the gospel. I was almost 20 before I heard the gospel really described, and it was like someone lit a fire in my soul. It changed everything.
One of the most common mistakes in reading the Bible is forgetting that it is a book about God. When we do this, we invariably turn it into a book of moral principles and examples. Be kind. Be like David.
Interestingly, one study found that preaching on both the theological left and the theological right makes this mistake. The study examined sermons about the Prodigal Son. On the theological left, the moral instruction was “Don’t be like the older brother.” On the theological right, the moral instruction was, “Don’t be like the prodigal son.” Neither pointed out the central thrust of the passage: the steadfast love of the father, which is really the gospel.
Preaching that is faithful to Scripture and Christianity must hold out the gospel because the law can only condemn. Moralism emphasizes what we do. The gospel declares what God has done. Once we understand this, it changes everything.
Distractions from the Object
So, Paul is concerned with keeping the gospel in focus. But there are distractions. Going back to v. 1, notice the two distractions he mentions: “lofty speech” and “wisdom.” He clarifies in v. 6 that he is speaking here of human wisdom—you might think of it as a self-help program. “Lofty speech” carries the idea of clever rhetoric. Think of it as wrapping an empty box. On the outside, it seems promising, but inside it’s empty. He repeats these items in v. 4: “and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom.”
One impulse of those watching the decline of the church has been to turn away from Scripture and doctrine and turn toward something with more “contemporary relevance.” They say, “People don’t want to hear about esoteric doctrines like the Trinity; they don’t want a lecture on the Bible; what they really need is some motivational advice.” They’ve focused on a pretty package with little content.
But such an approach has no traction in our cultural moment. In 2012, a theologian at the University of Toronto said this: “It is sad but true that a lot of contemporary preaching manages to be neither orthodox nor heretical, but simply mind-numbingly dull. The reason this is so, I think, is that our culture is already awash in self-help programs, so that when the preacher stands up and offers more of the same it is just not that interesting. What the pastor has to tell us we have already heard many times on Oprah.”
The present world demands substance. The evidence is overwhelming. What is the most popular audio program of all time? The Joe Rogan show. As of this week, his YouTube channel has over 2 billion, 200 million views, and his podcast far exceeds that. The show is simply a longform interview usually exceeding three hours for each episode. The rise of Jordan Peterson, a PhD clinical psychologist, also illustrates the point. What are people searching for? They want something that has traction in our world, something with substance. The world wants meaningful answers. That is why people will listen to three-hour long interviews.
But notice that Paul’s vision of preaching is not another self-help program. It is focused on the gospel and empowered by the living God. These trends are showing up in churches as well. Even in 2008, Mark Driscoll, a church planter in Seattle noticed a correlation between longer, doctrinally focused sermons and younger congregations.
Church trends reveal that Driscoll was correct. The seminary trends confirm this as well. The SBC seminaries hit record enrollment numbers virtually every academic year. Russell Moore, the head of the ERLC, recently stated in an interview that younger Christians are more committed to theology than their parents and grandparents because the cultural moment forces them to wrestle with a different set of questions.
Characteristics of Preaching
So what are the characteristics of Paul’s vision for preaching? Look at v. 3: “And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling.” Three things: (1) weakness, which is the opposite of power, so he’s talking about humility; (2) fear, which is a biblical word for worship, dependence, honor, and love—all directed at God; (3) trembling, which refers similarly to this same level of devotion and holy worship. Then there’s v. 4: “And my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” We’ve already noted the distractions, so let’s pick up these other two characteristics: demonstration of (1) the Spirit and (2) power.
The reformers of the 16th century conceived of preaching as the heavens splitting and the voice of God booming from heaven like thunder, striking the hearts and affections of those in attendance. Now that’s an image worth recovering. We would be mistaken to move away from such a vision, relying on lofty speech and worldly wisdom in our desire for relevance. We will find that if we abandon the profound elements of our faith, we have no relevance in our current culture.
What do Paul’s characteristics mean specifically? I can think of at least three things. First, we need preachers who begin on their knees in prayer. That is preaching characterized by weakness, fear, and trembling. Preaching is a sacred event, not a well-rehearsed speech. It is dependent on the power of God.
Second, we need preachers who centralize the text. Throughout Scripture, fear is linked to knowing God and hearing God’s instructions. Proverbs 9:10 is just one example: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” Scripture is also characterized as powerful and God-breathed. Listen to Paul’s reminder in 2 Tim 3: “The sacred writings … are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus [notice the object is Christ].” They are able or capable (i.e. powerful). Paul goes on: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the person of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” If we want to see the power of God, then we must centralize the Word of God. Sidelining the Word of God removes the substance of the Christian message.
Third, we need preachers whose aim is doxology. Paul is not interested in crafting clever sermons. He is interested in exalting the Father and the Son. The Spirit’s trinitarian role is to glorify the Father and the Son. Preaching that is a demonstration of the Spirit aims at glorifying God.
There was a young philosopher named Justin who lived in the second century. As a young man, he was a seeker. He first studied with a Stoic philosopher, then he learned from an Aristotelian philosopher. After that he sought out a Pythagorean, and finally a Platonist. One day, while feeling slightly encouraged by the prospects of Platonism, he was walking on the beach where he began a conversation with an old man. They discussed Plato. But this man offered some compelling alternatives to Platonism—namely, that the soul is a gift from God and that God is the source of all life. Justin asked where he could find a teacher of this new philosophy. The man responded that long ago, even before the philosophers, prophets told about this way. They spoke about what they had seen and heard. As this conversation ended, Justin was surprised to find that the man didn’t try to sell him on this philosophy. Instead, the man prayed that Justin’s eyes would be opened and he would receive the message. This was the moment when Justin converted to Christianity. We know him today as Justin Martyr. He would become one of the most prominent voices of Christianity in the second century.
His conversion wasn’t the result of a slick marketing pitch. It was the result of the demonstrable power of God and the compelling message of Christianity in a pluralistic world. There was nothing else like it in the world.
Conclusion
A sermon is unlike anything else. It is a sacred event not because it happens in a church building, but because it is rooted in the Word of God and aims to worship the triune God. Theologians refer to the preached word as an ordinary means of grace. What they mean is that in this humble and seemingly simplistic act, God speaks and imparts grace to his people.
And this is the goal of preaching. Look at v. 5: “So that [this is the purpose of everything Paul has said] your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” The goal of preaching is believers who are transformed by the power of God. This means believers with deep roots, who do not fall away when their pastor fails or when life gets hard. Put another way, believers with a faith that has traction in a slippery world. When we talk about church growth, the growth we are after is the growth Paul is describing here.
I submit to you that this vision of preaching is the form of preaching that has traction in our culture. The famous theologian Karl Barth once said, “The church must continually be occupied with the exposition and application of Scripture. Where the Bible becomes a dead book with a cross on the cover and gilt edging, the Church rule of Jesus Christ is slumbering.” In other words, when the Bible is sidelined, the power of the church lies dormant. If we want to be relevant in our cultural moment, then we must proclaim the Word of God for the glory of God—that has traction in the world we find ourselves in.