Constant Change: Where Preaching Has Been In The Last 20 Years and Where It Is Going
Although the last two decades have been characterized by a dramatic increase
in the use of technology in the church, more and more preachers are learning
to keep it in perspective and use it as an appropriate tool. Ray Pritchard —
who uses technology to send his weekly sermon out free of charge to subscribers
all over the world — reminds us, “Preachers today must remain current with technology
and the culture around them. They must show they are plugged into the world
while remaining true to the biblical text.” He adds, “Technology is driving
everything. We can now preach via the Internet to the whole world.”
Congregational Changes
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One
characteristic of the past twenty years — and, no doubt, the decades ahead —
is that change is an ever-present reality for anyone in ministry.
Ron Allen, from his perspective of teaching and preaching in a church related
to a mainline denomination — the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) — points
to a variety of changes which impact the church: “Increasing numbers of women
are coming into the pulpit and into the teaching of preaching. There’s an appreciation
and understanding of various ethnic and racial cultures that have influenced
preaching; a dramatic increase in detailed attention to the context of preaching;
an understanding of the congregation as a ‘culture’ and preaching needing to
fit into (as well as be transformative of) that culture; and a new respect for
logic, propositions, clarity of ideas, and even deduction and for ways that
such things can work together with imagination.”
That
changing environment is not limited to the mainline denominations; evangelical
churches are also experiencing the impact of cultural change.
As churches have sought to respond to a changing culture, one of the major influences
has been the emerging influence and modeling of “seeker-sensitive” churches
and worship models. The last twenty years has seen an explosion of churches
which have been planted and built based on large, successful congregations like
Willow Creek and Saddleback, led by gifted communicators like Bill Hybels and
Rick Warren. Indeed, in the aftermath of his books The Purpose-Driven Church
and The Purpose-Driven Life, it’s hard to identify any individual who
has more influence on the church today than Warren, whose weekly newsletter
alone goes to more than 140,000 pastors and church leaders.
The influence of how-to, seeker-driven sermons has been mightily felt in the
pulpits of evangelical churches. In those churches that have adopted this model
for ministry a whole new wave of people are now entering their sanctuaries.
Depending on the success of implanting the model in their church, the preacher
is not only preaching to the already convinced; the preacher may be addressing
a larger number of non-believers who share a greater level of biblically illiteracy
than the traditional person in the pew.