Is Preaching Dead?

Having spent the day on Saturday listening to a series of speakers stand at the front of a large group of people and say, "This is not the best way to learn," you'd have thought that the obvious answer would be that preaching should be scrapped and a more interactive, group focused style adopted. 

But that rather assumes that the primary role of preaching is to teach, and I'd want to question that assumption. It seems to be that we've actually reduced preaching to teaching rather than allowing it to be something rather more inspirational. Maybe aspirational is a better word, given that we tend to think of inspirational as leaving us with a good feeling and a pumped up level of expectation. 

By aspirational I mean that preaching is not necessarily about presenting new information but sometimes about presenting old information in a way that encourages us to aspire to become better followers of Jesus Christ. Yes, there are times when the information will be new, but I've too often heard the phrase that we need more teaching in church if we are going to produce more commitment and deeper devotional lives. 

But how well taught do we need to be to do that? Do we not have more resources available to us now than ever before, but our devotional lives are possibly more shallow on a general scale than they were decades or centuries ago? It's not teaching we need, it's practice!

I found Saturday's conference really challenging and, dare I say, inspirational when it comes to thinking about how we learn and how we do that in church. These unconnected ramblings are my emerging thoughts about all of this. So much of my early Christian life was focused on getting the right answers to the questions. Even when I was baptised I felt that it was more important to the church at the time that I understood the theology and practice of baptism than that I had a deepening and growing relationship with God. But being a follower of Jesus is not about preparing for a Bible Quiz. forgive me, but I don't think God is going to check to see if I know all the books of the Bible in order before allowing me access to heaven.

And as for preaching? Well I will continue to preach and my goal will remain what it has always been: to challenge and inspire us all to better connect with God and to walk in his ways. It's not about trying to impress people with a wide range of theological vocabulary or an extensive reading list. There will always be a teaching element, but teaching is not the only goal.

Anyway. I'm rambling a bit again and there are snowmen and women to be built!