Preaching and Preachers

The Congregationthat becomes the determining factor. It is the same as all the talkabout 'man come of age', and other characteristic modern cliches.We must look at some of the ways in which this attitude tends toexpress itslf. It does so in its approach to what we may call 'theordinary people'. We are told that today they cannot think and followreasoned statements, that they are so accustomed to the kind of outlookand mentality produced by newspapers, television and the films,that they are incapable of following a reasoned, argued statement. Wemust therefore give them films and filmstrips, and get filmstars tospeak to them, and pop-singers to sing to them and give 'briefaddresses' and testimonies, with just a word of Gospel thrown in.'Create your atmosphere' is the great thing, and then just get a verybrief word of Gospel in at the end.Another form which it takes is to say that these people cannotunderstand the biblical terminology, that to talk about Justificationand Sanctification and Glorification is meaningless to them. We mustrealise that we are living in a 'post-Christian' era and that this is thegreatest obstacle to preaching today, that people do not understandour terms. They sound archaic to them, they are not modem, they arenot up to date. The result is this great modem craze for new translationsof the Scriptures in familiar, ordinary everyday language, andthe fashion of no longer addressing God as 'Thee' and 'Thou', but'You'. This, we are told, is all-important, that when the modem manhears Thee and Thou it is almost impossible for him to listen to thegospel, leave alone to believe it. So we have to change our language,and we do this in our new translations of the Scriptures, and in ourprayers, and in general in our style of preaching and all our religiousactivities. That is how this modem attitude, which regards the pew ascontrolling the pulpit, expresses itself with respect to the ordinaryperson.Then, when you come to the intellectuals, we are told that they arenow scientific in their outlook, that they accept the theory of evolutionand the entire scientific outlook which makes a three-dimensionalworld impossible, etc, and that therefore we must make it plain toIZ3