Just Preach the Word

After moving to Indiana, I have been constantly exposed to preaching in a form of using pictures and images. I did not experience that very often while I was living in New York City. I welcome any form of communication to deliver the Word of God. But I dislike people using images or pictures without a strong sense of purpose. Am I worshipping God through his Word? Or I walk into a movie theatre in which my eyes and ears are being entertained by its visual and audio effects? I get pissed off so bad when the storyline and the characters are bad. Often time I feel uncomfortable when a speaker shows a picture (e.g. a flower) and explains it in great details. I don’t need to know how unique the flower is. Just explain the Word and exhort the congregation to live it.

I strongly believe that when a speaker deviates the attention of the congregation from the Word and focuses on non-essential matters, it implies that the speaker is incompetent in handling the Word or doesn’t know how to explain it in details. Reading the Word is not preaching; showing and explaining a picture is even worse. Reading the Word is called bible reading before preaching; showing and explaining a picture is called art exhibition.

In The Living Church: Convictions of a Lifelong Pastor (Downers Grove: IVP Books, 2007), John Stott laments over the place of traditional preaching in the contemporary church:

The contemporary world is decidedly unfriendly towards preaching. Words have largely been eclipsed by images, and the book by the screen. So preaching is regarded as an outmoded form of communication, what someone has called “an echo from an abandoned past.” Who wants to listen to sermons nowadays? People are drugged by television, hostile to authority and suspicious of words (p. 97).

A speaker who relies too much on graphics in preaching may be influenced by the cultural taste of the world. Most graphics are attractive, but not offensive. The congregation is rarely challenged and confronted by a beautiful picture. But there is an “attracting offensiveness”[1] in the Word. “They [the laws of the Lord] are more desirable than gold, even the finest gold. They are sweeter than honey, even honey dripping from the comb” (Ps. 19:10, NLT). “For the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are” (Heb. 4:12, NLT).

In Nehemiah 8:8, it says, “They [the Levites] read from the Book of the law of God and clearly explained the meaning of what was being read, helping the people understand each passage” (NLT). This is my basic understanding of preaching: read the Word, explain the Word, and help the people understand and live the Word.

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[1] This expression is taken from Darrin Patrick, Church Planting: the Man, the Message, the Mission (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), p. 195.