Preaching or Discussion Groups: what's best?

Is preaching an outdated authoritarian form of communication which will soon be a thing of the past. I don’t think the apostle Paul anticipated that. However, he did expect there would be seasons when people didn’t really want to listen to biblical preaching but preferred being flattered. Sound familiar?

The apostle Paul is in prison. The church is about to face persecution. There are people teaching things that distort the gospel. The most important thing his lieutenant Timothy must do is to preach.

Preaching is fundamentally a proclamation much more than a discussion. Mostly in the Bible, that means one person talking to group bringing them news from God. This works best because it models and in fact it is, the way God speaks. There are other methods of communication which are helpful to embed the word in our lives but preaching will be the primary way that God speaks to us in the church. Preaching if done well is culturally and intellectually neutral. It carries the least obstacle for hearing and responding.

So expect God to speak when you hear preaching

The content of preaching must be the word of God, meaning the gospel word of truth, also called sound doctrine. When Paul says gospel, he doesn’t just mean a narrow message about sin and salvation but anything to do with the story from creation to new creation.

This preaching should be eminently practical with correcting wrong behaviour and encouraging and urging right behaviour.

So expect God to speak to you about how you respond.

This kind of preaching is urgently needed because Christ will return to judge all men. We want to be ready and we want others to be ready too.

So pray for, and demand practical gospel preachers.

This is a summary of a sermon on 2 Timothy 4:1-5.

You can listen here to the full sermon here...