"Any church can determine whether or not it will survive into the 21st century by estimating how many people are involved in it between the ages of fifteen and thirty-two" (Long, 1997, 35). Few preachers in local church ministry can escape this challenge. Wilson's two reasons why many preachers have a hard time in today's transition make for uncomfortable reading. Most seminary preaching classes are "exercises in exegesis and analysis that often bypass a narrative focus in electronic storytelling and cultural literacy."

Also "the sermon is the core element of the worship service." However, the way in which he outlines the future is highly problematic. "Interpreting the gospel to our culture does not mean an abandonment of the sermon as a viable form. And the formation of this new wineskin will occur through replication and adaptation of methodologies already in place in current visual industries and in the arts" (1998, 40-41).

The challenge of technologizing the word, and we could almost add a new word "electronizing" the Word, presents traditional expository preaching with its greatest contemporary challenge.

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