Performance Preaching

“A preacher will never get in our pulpit without a coat and tie.”
“Our preacher dresses so cool—he wears skinny jeans and a T-shirt.”
“My preacher sounds so pastoral when He preaches—he preaches with such authority it just lets you know God gave him the message.”
“Our preacher never raises his voice—and he just talks to us like we’re his best friends.”
“Our preacher preaches from the Authorized 1611 King James Version.”
“Our pastor just gives us the Bible in his own words—it’s so refreshing.”
“My pastor doesn’t beat us down—his sermons lift us up and give us confidence to know that God’s got our back.”
“Our preacher ain’t afraid to step on our toes.”
 
 
I could go on. These are the type things I hear somewhat frequently from members of various churches. Problem is, none of those things necessarily have anything to do with Biblical pulpit ministry.
 
Our society is consumer-driven today. As a result, we have lost a basic understanding of what pulpit ministry is supposed to be. If your preacher isn’t preaching the Bible, it really doesn’t matter if he wears a coat and tie, or he wears skinny jeans and a T-shirt. God doesn’t accept it and you shouldn’t either. If your pastor isn’t opening to a text, explaining what it means and applying it to the congregation, it doesn’t matter if he uses the 1611 King James or the most liberal Bible version every printed. Again, God doesn’t accept it and you shouldn’t either. I’m certainly not saying every Bible version is equal—they aren’t. But it doesn’t matter if he’s reading straight from the Greek and Hebrew if he isn’t accurately preaching it. As preachers, our authority comes from what God has said in His Word. If we aren’t preaching that, we have no authority to say anything. At that point, we are just exercising derived authority from our position. Worst case scenario—that’s spiritual abuse.
 
We’ve been lulled to sleep in our day and age. We have developed a “performance mentality”. It’s simply more important that pastors go through the motions we are most comfortable with than that they preach the whole Bible to us, which may make us very uncomfortable. And listen—I am not saying a man saying hard things is equivalent to preaching the Bible. It isn’t. A pastor may challenge his people weekly with doing better. He may “step on your toes”—and still not be preaching the text of Scripture.
 
God has given us a Book. Understand, we couldn’t know Him if He didn’t reveal Himself. Yet graciously, He has chosen to. This Book is divided into 66 smaller sections—books, if you will. Some of these are histories; some are prophecies; some are letters; some are poetry. And they are all necessary. And listen, unless we understand the Bible as a whole, we cannot properly serve God. When Jesus was tempted by the devil, He responded by saying, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4) By the way, this was a quote from Deuteronomy. If Jesus is right (and He most certainly is!), then we need the Old Testament as much as we need the New. We need Genesis as much as we need Revelation. We need Obadiah as much as we need Philemon. And God has placed elders in churches to explain all those books to the people.

“My pastor doesn’t preach through the Bible systematically—but at least he preaches the truth.” Really? What do we base that on? The fact that he says what we want to hear? Paul told Timothy, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4). Your pastor preaching what you want to hear and already believed before you walked in the door is not a mark of his faithfulness to God and His Word. In fact, according to Paul, it may be the mark of a false teacher. He was serious, you know. Listen—if a preacher isn’t preaching the Bible, then he isn’t preaching “the truth”. Bottom line…end of story.

Again, Paul told Timothy, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” (2 Timothy 3:16-4:2). Do we believe that? Of course, we all say we do. Go back and read it again. Now—do we really believe that? I certainly so! Listen—there’s simply no way around it. If these words from Paul to Timothy are true (and they are!), a pastor who isn’t teaching the Bible to his people shouldn’t be in the pulpit—no matter what system he may be faithful to. A church where the Bible is not preached cannot do anything but apostatize according to Paul. That’s a scary thought considering the lack of actual Bible preaching today.

“But my pastor said God gave him that message.” Unless he means the Bible, there simply is no reason for you to believe that. I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve heard a conference sermon that begins with “I really didn’t want to preach this, but God just wouldn’t let it alone.” Or “I was going to preach something else, but God gave me this other message this morning.” There isn’t one Biblical reason to believe a man who says such things. Preachers aren’t prophets. God isn’t pouring revelation into our heads that we just pass along to the people from the pulpit. Again, Paul’s instruction to Timothy was “preach the word”--not “just sit around until God drops a sermon in your brain.” I’ve heard men preach that seriously believe every thought that pops into their minds while preaching is from the Holy Spirit. Let me burst that bubble—it isn’t. I know that because I’ve heard far too many ridiculous and unbiblical things from such men.
 
We need to get away from “Performance Preaching”. And listen—just because your church is a southern goin’, conservative holdin’, old redback Baptist hymnbook hymn-singin’, coat ‘n tie wearin’, preacher voice preachin’, 1611 King James totin’, pulpit stompin’, women in dress wearin’, (etc., etc., etc.) church, doesn’t mean your pastor is preaching the Bible. In fact, I dare say if those type things are the primary focus, either the Bible isn’t being preached—or the people ain’t listening. Because none of those things are the focus of even one paragraph in the Bible.


Let us all hold the pulpit to a higher standard. God has graciously given us the Bible. Let us all demand that our church leaders teach it to us so we can rightly serve the One Who called us by His grace.