You're right that we as preachers cannot compete for long with what is out there on YouTube, innumerable free apps for anything called a ministry or the old fashioned radio. People do tend to exercise their confirmation bias. So I guess ultimately they are sort of listening to themselves. It's frustrating.
My hope is something along the lines of John 10:27 "My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me." The preacher's job is to be faithful, of course, and winsome as possible. To give our best in preaching will then mean that more energy must go into sermon research and preparation than in times past. Today devoting ourselves to public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching means that whereas a pastor's energy could be diffused in times past among many ministries, now it must be concentrated more in preaching. So the pastor has to be more selective in taking on ministry tasks; that one Sunday sermon (some of us still have two!) will need more prep time than in former years if the pastor is to be a faithful minister of the word. Maybe others will have to join the pastor in providing pastoral care and the leading of meetings and the teaching of classes and the many other tasks that we require in church life. Even so, it is going to be the Holy Spirit that leads people to hear in the pastor's sermon the voice of Jesus speaking through faithfully proclaimed Scripture and if those competing voices are at odds with the clear teachings of the Bible, we have to trust that God will enable his elect to discern the difference.
I would also hope that God's elect would notice the positive difference between the Word proclaimed in a public worship service with singing, sacraments, communal prayer and liturgy and the Word proclaimed in the alienation of one's headphones. It's not that the latter is without benefit, but it is no substitute for the former. We are made to live and worship together.
Posted in: Not Enough Time?
Good thoughts and questions, Rev. Hoezee.
You're right that we as preachers cannot compete for long with what is out there on YouTube, innumerable free apps for anything called a ministry or the old fashioned radio. People do tend to exercise their confirmation bias. So I guess ultimately they are sort of listening to themselves. It's frustrating.
My hope is something along the lines of John 10:27 "My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me." The preacher's job is to be faithful, of course, and winsome as possible. To give our best in preaching will then mean that more energy must go into sermon research and preparation than in times past. Today devoting ourselves to public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching means that whereas a pastor's energy could be diffused in times past among many ministries, now it must be concentrated more in preaching. So the pastor has to be more selective in taking on ministry tasks; that one Sunday sermon (some of us still have two!) will need more prep time than in former years if the pastor is to be a faithful minister of the word. Maybe others will have to join the pastor in providing pastoral care and the leading of meetings and the teaching of classes and the many other tasks that we require in church life. Even so, it is going to be the Holy Spirit that leads people to hear in the pastor's sermon the voice of Jesus speaking through faithfully proclaimed Scripture and if those competing voices are at odds with the clear teachings of the Bible, we have to trust that God will enable his elect to discern the difference.
I would also hope that God's elect would notice the positive difference between the Word proclaimed in a public worship service with singing, sacraments, communal prayer and liturgy and the Word proclaimed in the alienation of one's headphones. It's not that the latter is without benefit, but it is no substitute for the former. We are made to live and worship together.
That's my reaction.
Posted in: Meet Sarah Hoogendoorn, the CRC's Newly Endorsed* Chaplain!
Congratulations Sarah! Blessings on your ministry!