Categories: Ministry

Some Reasons Why Churchgoers Disdain Expositional Preaching

  1. The seeker sensitive (driven) movement has reprogrammed many to reconsider church based on how it meets their needs. While I do think that the best of the seeker sensitive movement helped us realize some of the changes in culture, I also think the worst of it has done far more damage. For years, popular culture has been on a headlong march toward emotional, experiential, and self-affirming arguments becoming the foundation of one’s learning and assessment of the world.
  2. For the most part, factual based arguments that deal with primary components of underlying ideologies and worldviews are in short supply. In such a world, people are confronted everywhere (but especially online) with highly-charismatic and eloquent preachers (false though they may be) who take advantage of the inherent heightened value of self which pervades this culture.
  3. Given the rampant impatience which has been fueled by efforts of mass-marketers to make consumption easier, most Americans seem to want to avoid the effort associated with critical thinking and instead allow some ‘Christian’ or non-Christian guru to give them the short version.
  4. The Billy Graham era, which is looked back on by many with a deep desire for its return, may play a part. Billy Graham taught Americans through his crusades that all Christian denominations not to mention the Roman Catholic Church are essentially equal in the eyes of God. After all, anyone who made a profession of faith was turned over to the Christian denomination of their choice. Such an approach, by default, teaches an extremely low view of doctrine especially when both Protestant and Catholic groups are included.
  5. The average churchgoer today is extremely ignorant of theology. At best, they may be able to affirm the faith statement of their respective denomination but they can hardly defend it in most cases. This could be due to intermittent church attendance, lack of significant time in word on a daily basis, and a willingness to make doctrinal stances based on emotional/experiential reasons.
  6. The rise of postmodern culture has led many to consider truth to be relative. This has led to a rejection of propositional truths. While some churchgoers may not have completely fallen into this void, they may have a heightened suspicion of objective truth claims. Given this, many preachers are moving toward narrative-based sermons as narratives tend to suppress truth claim as they become concealed or at least blurred within a story. Another approach used by these same preachers is to deliberately conceal their meaning by speaking in such a way that the members of the audience can assign meaning to the message that is given.
  7. Expositional preaching when done correctly and biblically is going to make active demands on the Christian. It presumes that God has the sovereign right to place demands on the believer’s life. Furthermore, it presumes that those who fail to obey God are sinners and therefore wrong in the eyes of God. With this in view, the heightened view of self held tightly by many worldly churchgoers will most certainly become immediately offended.
  8. The doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture continues to be undermined within and without the church. Modernism (e.g. science) has been raising objections for over a century although this has waned some in recent times. Postmodernism has declared that absolute truth cannot be known. Atheism has declared there is no God so of course there is no Word of God. Among those who label themselves Christian, the Emergent church has embraced postmodernism and rejected the doctrine of inspiration of Scripture. The Word of Faith movement has turned the Bible into a book of mantras. The Prosperity Gospel movement has made the Scripture little more than a tool for selfish gain. Collectively, these quasi-Christian groups among others have weakened the minds of Christians and elevated doubt in its authority and these doubts are only exacerbated all the more in the postmodern and atheistic culture at large.
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markwchristy
4 years ago

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