I confess, I am a refugee from “normal” church. I haven’t attended regular church services for some time. I’m not against regular services, you understand, I just haven’t been able to connect for a number of years now. One of the main reasons for this is that I am easily bored.
I’m not enamored of what I will call “packaged” preaching. You know, “Three Steps for a Better You,” “Finding your Ministry Purpose,” or “Getting Debt-Free through Stewardship.” I’m not saying that these sermons aren’t helpful to many. They just don’t do it for me.
In the early 80s I faithfully attended services at a church where the second the pastor began to preach I was overcome by incipient narcolepsy, at least that’s what I think it was. My wife was constantly poking me to wake me up, stop my snoring, and to wipe the drool off my chin. In the mid-90s I was an accidental pastor and saw the results of my own preaching! I could put ‘em to sleep with the best!
I don’t believe that preaching is dead, I just believe that “good” preaching is hard to find. This is why Monday, April 20, was such a good day for me. Next-Wave editor, Scott Bane, is a church planting pastor in Indiana. He is not preaching on a regular basis yet, but over the first couple of weeks of April he was in South Africa preaching at a “camp” meeting. He sent me the links to his talks on Monday. And I listened to all of them in one day, as I traveled from here to there.
Wow! Now that is what I have been missing, powerful Biblical preaching that proclaims the truth about God. I think I may have been born again, again! Of course, what do I expect? When the Holy Spirit is communicating the heart of God through a person that is yielded to be a conduit to His voice, the preaching has the power to change lives. That’s the kind of preaching we need more of, that’s for sure.
Charlie Wear is the publisher of Next-Wave. He and his wife Loretta and son Benjamin live in Moreno Valley, CA.
