…the most urgent need in the Christian Church today is true preaching; and as it is the greatest and the most urgent need in the Church, it is obviously the greatest need of the world also.
This is how Martyn Lloyd-Jones began his lectures on preaching—which would eventually become the classic text, Preaching and Preachers. He gave these lectures in 1969. In his day, much like our own, many were saying that preaching had jumped the shark. (Of course, they weren’t actually saying that, as Fonzi didn’t jump the shark until 1977). A type of liberalism had gained much traction and many were saying the thing in the way of people being Christian was the Church herself. We still hear those things in our day.
Lloyd-Jones believed the diminished view of “the spoken word” was prevalent in culture, but such a view had also wormed it’s way into the church. The slide, he says, began when men stopped believing in the authority of Scripture. “If you have not got authority, you cannot speak well, you cannot preach”. As such the form soon became more important than the substance and before long preaching turned into entertainment.
As I read this chapter I couldn’t help but think that Lloyd-Jones must have time-traveled and accidentally started speaking of things in 2016. If that slide too place in 1969 what of the landscape of preaching in our day?
There are many things which can take the preachers time and the churches time but Lloyd-Jones staunchly believed our greatest need and greatest duty was to be preachers of the Word. What is needed is a revival of preaching.
Tweet Note for Chapter One
At the end of every chapter I like to put together what I call a Tweet Note. A simple 140 character or less summary of the chapter. Here is the Tweet Note for chapter one:
Contra contemporary opinions the most urgent need in the church & the world is true preaching.
What would be your TweetNote for chapter one?
Quotables:
Sentences change lives. I always read with a pen in hand and underline money quotes that I hope to go back to. Underlining helps my brain store the quote. Here are some of the things I underlined in chapter one:
- As preaching goes down personal counseling goes up
- It is, therefore, interesting to observe that immediately after these men are filled with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, they begin to preach.
- What is it that always heralds the dawn of a Reformation or of a Revival? It is renewed preaching.
Discussion Questions:
- Would you say that true preaching is still the greatest need today?
- Lloyd-Jones bemoans the “new emphasis placed upon ‘the service’. What does he mean? And do you agree with him?
- What are the contemporary objections to preaching?
- Lloyd-Jones says, “the primary task of the Church and of the Christian minister is the preaching of the Word of God”. To Lloyd-Jones does preaching=sermon? Do you agree with him that the primary task is preaching?
My tweet note for Chapter 1: True preaching has been and continues to be the primary task of the Church, in the face of the consistent threat to undermine it.
I found his discussion on the “service” to be fascinating, including his slam on cassettes. I hate them to but for different reasons.
Good Tweet Note!
And have you guys moved away from 8-track yet?