Utumishi Blog

This is revised version of something I posted a year ago. I think I got it wrong first time so here’s another attempt…

When we call for preaching that is directed to the heart, the misunderstanding that could easily arise is that this is a call for emotionalistic preaching rather than intellectually-engaging preaching. It’s as if there is an either/or: EITHER preaching is devotional, passionate, stirring, ‘powerful’ OR it is intellectual, cerebral, textual, doctrinal, deep. ‘Devotional’ in this sense means: ‘devoid of Hard Truth’. That is not an end of the pendulum we want to swing to.

Chris Sinkinson, observing the UK scene but I think with much wider relevance, writes:

I am convinced that one of the weaknesses of the evangelical church is our general drift into devotional preaching. What I mean by devotional preaching is the kind of sermon that (a) assumes the hearers are all believers and (b) assumes the hearers are all convinced of the point being made. Therefore, all the preaching needs to do is to encourage fresh devotion to God on the part of those present. Devotional preaching can be warm, heartening and gentle. It can leave a congregation feeling satisfied and uplifted. But are those feelings based on fact? Or have underlying doubts and objections been temporarily swept aside? If so, might they not creep back into the light on Monday morning?

When we stop to think about it, the Bible itself is apologetics. It is God’s word to a rebellious world. God speaks with clarity, gives reasons for faith, demolishes the alternatives and presents the case for his own authority. The Bible is not given as timeless poetry or heart-warming chicken soup for the soul. The Bible is a sustained word from God undermining all the rebellious attempts of the human race to sidestep his authority. The Bible is described as a double-edged sword — a weapon to cut through all the pretensions that set themselves up against God.

We must preach with the aim of clarifying truth, demolishing error and persuading hearts and minds.

There are some really important issues for us to grapple with here. One big one is whether we are making too great a division between evangelistic preaching to outsiders and regular Sunday preaching to the church. Don’t we all need to be reminded of the gospel? Don’t we all need to have our sins and doubts addressed week by week?

Another issue is, where does the emotion come from? Sinkinson is not asking for less engagement with the heart. He wants us to persuade hearts and minds. The question is how you persude, how you stir the heart.

The answer must be you stir the heart with Christ. This sort of authentic devotional preaching will not be fluff and fireworks and whipped up emotion because the Christ we’re talking about is the one who is The Truth. He’s the Christ of the Bible. He’s the historical, real, physical Christ. There will be serious content. There will be engagement with the real world. It will be textual, expository, truth-telling preaching. This is preaching that doesn’t just titillate the emotions but grips the heart at the deepest level.

More of that please.