I recently read a statement by A.W. Tozer that clarified for me the limitation of pulpit-style teaching:
"Though God… has provided answers to our questions concering Him, the answers by no means lie on the surface. They must be sought by prayer, by long meditation on the written Word, and by earnest and well-disciplined labor. However brightly the light may shine, it can be seen only by those who are spiritually prepared to receive it." (The Knowledge of the Holy)
As with everything else in life, we want the quicker, easier way. Stop at McDonalds. Shop at a big box store. Drive a mass-produced car and live in a mass-produced house. We want everything efficient, pre-packaged, and ready-to-go.
So… give me an outstanding talking-head spiritual message. In fact, give it to me from someone who has delved deeply into the things of God. Give me a message that has come from that person’s diligent meditation on the word of God and well-disciplined labor in the things of God. Then take that powerful message and wrap it up in a 30-minute sermon and serve it to me on an easy-to-reach platter so that I can feed on it quickly and easily.
And there is the problem.
The message may, indeed, come from someone’s deep intimacy with God and loving labor in God’s word. But I will not be able to digest that message, no matter how well prepared it is, unless I am, myself, putting forth my own effort to draw close to God and know him. There are no shortcuts to actually grasping hold of the things of God. We can hear the messages, and even be emotionally charged and thrilled by them, but transformation that leads to more deeply knowing God comes only by our own time spent in pursuit of him.
The problem with the talking-head preaching/teaching, even the really good stuff, is that we highlight it so much that we perpetuate the concept that hearing these messages are at the core of transformation. This is simply not true. Simply hearing others share their deep insights into God does not bring us to deeper places.
Is there, then, no place for talking-head teaching/preaching?
Obviously we do see "preaching" in Scripture used to motivate people to action, such as to accept the Good News. But, in case you are not aware of this, one of the key words used in Scripture for "teach" is related to the word for "dialogue" referring to a back-and-forth discussion rather than a monologue. Beresford has a good article on this here. The point is that talking-head preaching/teaching is not the norm for gathering in Scripture, and this is so for a very good reason. It is simply not the key to real transformation and knowing God at a level deeper than that which lies on the surface.
In my mind, we are back at recognizing the value of simple gatherings in which 1 Cor 14:26 provides the framework. Here is this verse from the Message:
“Here’s what I want you to do. When you gather together, each one of you be prepared with something that will be useful for all: Sing a hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight. All of these must be offered for the strengthening of the others.”
Why is this type of gathering so powerful?
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Every person learns to dig into the word, find insights, and hear from God
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Our dependency on others to provide pre-packaged spiritual food is reduced
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We develop our personal disciplines of meditating on the word and seeking God even while we are gathered together
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We benefit from the spiritual gifts of many and the stories of God-at-work in people’s lives from many
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We are around other people who are discovering the incomparable value of becoming God-pursuers rather than passive receivers of-other-people’s-messages.
Yet… the challenge remains! How can we see our participatory gatherings even more powerful, more Spirit-directed, and more fully engaged with God? I think this is a future post coming on. Maybe y’all will be brainstorming this with me over the next few days?
Comments
16 responses to “The Ineffectiveness of Talking Head Preaching”
FABULOUS POST! I literally just wrote something extrememly similar to this as a comment on someone else’s blog – it just wans’t as well written and didn’t have the specific Biblical references. One of the ways our small group (soon to be developing into an organic church) gets more fully engaged with God is at the end we break up into smaller groups (those who want to) and pray for each other – but generally we don’t ask what they want prayer for, we just get quiet before God and He gives different ones of us pictures or words for each other. Much healing has come from these times. P.S. Do you go to any conferences such as House2House or anything like that?
Hey brother!
Great, great post. I too just wrote on some of these things in a post called, “What if?”
Thanks for your words!
bill
WOW!
You are a judgmental group aren’t you.
Remember in Romans we are told that what ever YOU judge another in, you are doing the same things.
I am not at all impressed with you all, waving your fingers about and in the end don’t know what you are even talking about.
Jen, I love the house2house conferences.
Jerry, no judgment intended. I do have occasion (very infrequent) for being a talking-head speaker, just acknowledging its limitations.
I absolutely agree with you. It seems to me that part of what keeps the whole “talking head” sermon thing going is that it can be such a blessing to the preacher. There is something wonderful about being forced to dive deeply into Scripture in order to prepare a sermon. And there is something wonderful about listening to it — but hearing the fruit of all that study and meditation is a far cry from the soil preparation, planting, watering, weeding, etc. that went into the process. I can listen and appreciate the process. I can even on occasion be inspired to desire the same kind of process in my life. But listening doesn’t really invite me into the process, doesn’t show me how to do it myself. That can only begin to happen in a participatory group like you describe.
As in most things in life you get out of something what you put into it. I think if you ask most preachers they will say that we sould take notes and review them durning the week.
In my own life, it is what I read or studied with prayer that had a change in my heart. Sermons many times will point me in a direction to study.
But Christianity is not so much understanding as it is love for others. And love and faith linked together.
Small groups may give rise to this more than a large meetings.
I think that you hit the nail on the head!
Tozer was a pastor for 30 or more years and preached hundreds if not thousands of sermons. He prepared and so it is for those who prepare their hearts to receive the word of God.
I think what I like, about a church that has a traditional ‘talking head’, as you would call them, is that the doctrine is sound, no bringing our thoughts and implying them on the word of God. It continues to concern me that it is not a ‘big deal’ to challenge the Body of Christ by being castigating and obnoxious. I’ve done the same thing but I hope your reflection will be taken to your own view and question what you do as well.
My own reflection has caused me to ask Him to break up the fallow ground of my heart and reflect the image of His Son. His word has brought me great delight and back to a place of rest. I hope you can find a place of rest in your opinion and not keep looking back and seeing how ‘wrong’ the traditional church is or has been in your life.
Take care,
Tim
I think what I like, about a church that has a traditional ‘talking head’, as you would call them, is that the doctrine is sound, no bringing our thoughts and implying them on the word of God.
I’m going to argue this point. I think that non-doctrinally sound preaching happens all the time, even in good churches. A huge weakness with preaching is that when errors do occur it’s quite difficult to straighten out the situation. Suppose for a moment that the preacher misuses scripture, not grossly but just enough to be irritating and inadvertently teach bad hermeneutics. As a member of the congregation you have a few choices. You can stand up and correct the error then and there, you can go to every one in the congregation and tell them what was wrong or you can go to the preacher, point it out and encourage them to correct themselves the next time they speak. None of these options would really be appropriate in response to a small misuse of scripture. If on the other hand you had the exact same thoughts shared in a small group and had a discussion as a part of the time together then the small misuse of scripture could be pointed out at the time and everyone would be uplifted.
I suppose that it should be mentioned that small group discussions also fall as a victim to unprepared hearts. As when a sermon is preached to unprepared hearts I’ve seen small group discussions result in people walking away with nothing more then just the new knowledge of their peers’ opinions on scripture. The great benefit of discussions over sermons is that they are way more likely to cut to the heart of the people in the gathering’s struggles. For example, you can have a sermon on lust that details ways to fight it or you can have a discussion on lust where each person, or even just a couple of the people, have thought through the issue ahead of time and come together to share their thoughts, their personal struggles, offer accountability to one another, and personal prayers. I think that option “b” is far more likely to result in fruitful change. Small groups offer so much more opportunity for transformational ministry.
I just wanted to share a good article on the problems with preaching. I think that you might appreciate it. Here is the URL:
http://www.the-next-wave-ezine.info/issue93/index.cfm?id=16&ref=ARTICLES%5FDOING%20CHURCH%5F253
Hi there Roger, this is John Marcus from Kyoto Japan. We have touched base before on your blog and I’m subscribed. I have been in the ministry from some years now and function as a prophet and teacher, but getting more apostolic all the time. I seem to be thinking more practically about church life these days, as you know apostles tend to be very down to earth and practical in nature, wanting to use wisdom to apply revelation truth into the life of the local church.
Some input on your post:
The traditional or denominational churches have become very one dimentional in how the church operates. The churches function around some pet doctrine that identifies them as a denomination, and then around the Sunday praise and worship time, followed by the message or sermon. I think there is still a place for a powerful anointed preaching time or teaching time, that can be very effective in a church. Yet, the church today in order to remain effective in the community, needs to develop other ways of functioning as a local church and other ways of equiping the saints for the work of ministry. In traditional churches there is always the problem with the “pew sitter” mentality of coming to a meeting, listening and going home. But the saints are not really getting involved in ministry themselves. Therefore the need to change the structure of the local church to be effective for the kingdom of God.
Your house church approaches to church life and important and very relevent today, as it gets the body to relate to one another on a personal level and also gets the ball roling in creating an environment for all to participate in gatherings, this is healthy and good, very biblical and very “book of Acts” like.
I think there is still the need for leadership to have training for the saints, that each saint may find their calling and ministry in the community. Ephesians 4:11~ Romans 12:28 Ephesians 2:20 so we know that God has graced some of us as offices that are there to equip the others, that they may do the ministry. These five offices are grace gifts as coaches to equip the saints, so each of us can do ministry.
So we have to conclude that the house church meeting or gathering is just one dimension of church life, its not the beginning and end of church life, its one aspect of doing church and being church. There is also a need for seminars, conferences, and local church training programs, where people come to be trained by others who are in these five offices mentioned above. There needs to be the priestly training, for those called as full time ministers, and all sainst in becoming disciples of Christ, but also the kingly training, for most of us who work in the community in governmnet, education, media, business and all kinds of market place positions. People need to be trained in gody values that they an apply to their positions in society. Such as a CEO teaching and training in how to start a new company according to Gods patters. Or a media leader teaching on being a godly influence in the media world. etc etc.
I think the apostles have the grace to see the whole picture, and not just do church on one dimension, but include many areas within the context of the church.
Often cell churches fail and house churches fail due to the lack of leadership. There needs to be leadership that are apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors and evangelist. They work together in team, and bring a nice balance to the church. Its best if they are led by an apostle, who has the gift of leadership to bring the other four together. They are not dictators, they are fathers, with servant hearts and with true humility and brokeness, laying down their lives for the church. They are very needed for the churches to survive over the years.
Grace and Peace in Jesus to all of you
John Marcus
Kyoto Japan
http://www.johnmarcus.wordpress.com
http://www.YouTube.com/ApostleProphet
I started a ministry to convalescent homes and we bring a full service to two convalescent homes once a month. During this time, I have had to deliver a message a few times and each time, I find that I learn a lot from it. However, I think that there is something to this idea of interaction that is valid and needed. However, it is also possible that some people get this experience from small groups.
It’s clear that we shouldn’t depend only on a pastor. I think we all could learn a little by trying to do a few things ourselves and not expecting it to be done by the pastor.
P.S. We might appreciate what it takes to do the “talking head” thing a little bit more as well….
Too bad that the whole idea of a “god” is ridiculous in the first place. You people are wasting your time trying to find meaning where none exists. I hope you’re at least happy doing what you’re doing.
The core problem here isn’t one of traditional church vs. house church, but of human laziness and our tendency to let someone else do the study for us. I’ve grown up in the church and am only just beginning to realize how ignorant of Scripture I really am. A preacher I discovered recently has inspired me to go to the Word myself, and suddenly I am filled and rejoicing with the truth God reveals. At the same time I’m saddened and appalled by the rampant Biblical illiteracy I see in the church, even in leaders.
I do think a house church model makes people more likely to study and seek God for themselves, but ultimately this is a matter of the heart.
See my post about this subject:
http://www.hanfordoasis.org/blog/
Be careful about swinging too hard in opposition to the primary tool of the early church. They were able to spread the message of Jesus all over the world through the “foolishness of preaching” (1 Cor. 1:21).
Thanks for this post. I appreciated the quote by A.W. Tozer and am going to link to it from my blog.