Preaching and Preachers

Preaching and PreachersThey are content with this detached attitude towards the Church. Itis a fundamental failure to understand the true doctrine of the ChristianChurch- 'the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace', thegathering together of the people of God. 'Where two or three aregathered together in my Name, there am I in the midst.'I have always opposed the idea of trying to force people to attendchurch services; what I am saying is that our preaching ought to fillthem with a desire to do this. You should not have to whip them up todo it. Look at those people in Acts 2: 'Daily' you remember; 'fromhouse to house,' they 'continued steadfastly' in these things. This ideathat people should be content with attending just one service on aSunday displays a failure to understand the true character of theChristian. He is like a 'newborn babe' desiring 'the sincere milk of theWord', and also desiring to be with his fellows, 'loving the brethren'.It seems to me to be indicative of a wrong view of the Church and ofthe individual Christian as a newborn babe. We have allowed theseoutside forces to influence us overmuch; and I suggest it is time for usto break into it all and to try to get back to the New Testament pictureof the Church. With the advent of tape-recorders there is no longerany difficulty in making provision for the aged and sick members ofthe church.... ...We turn now to consider the things we have to avoid in preaching.We have been dealing with some of them already, but there are somefurther points. Starting with the preacher himself, what has he toavoid? First and foremost professionalism. That is the greatest of alldangers in the ministry. It is something preachers have to fight as longas they live. Professionalism is, to me, hateful anywhere, everywhere.I abominated it as much when I was practising medicine as I do now.There is a type of medical practitioner who is more professionalthan able. He has all the airs and graces, and knows all 'the things todo' and 'the things to say', but is often a bad doctor. The greater thedoctor the less evidence there will be of this mere professionalism.252