The title of this article probably has piqued the interest of some and drawn the skeptical eye of others.
“Church planting preaching?” “Secular preaching?” How can the sacred process of proclaiming the timeless and infallible Word of God to his people be any different whether it takes place in a school gymnasium or within the sanctified walls of a traditional church building?
That is a great question.
I have had the privilege of spending much time with church planters across North America, and I’ve seen some who have understood the difference and some who have not. I have observed some who have intuitively grasped the distinction and communicate directly to the hearts of their audience with candor, precision, and great power.
I have also watched too many unartfully fumble their eternal opportunity. I have heard carefully crafted, well-polished messages that sounded eerily familiar to what John Piper or David Platt might have effectively preached, but to an audience that seemed inattentive and uninspired.
What accounts for such a difference? Sunday by Sunday, John Piper and David Platt seem to have their audiences leaning forward, engaged, and busily taking notes for deep personal application.
So, why does it often feel so bizarre and ill-fitting in a church plant? Is it the gymnasium? Maybe it’s the sheet-metal music stand? Would a proper pulpit normalize the peculiarity?
The fact that this discussion has been largely neglected leaves most church planters with little more than their personal experience to determine an approach to missionary preaching. Some planters have had the benefit of marinating in missional environments under skillful gospel communicators, and these blessed few have numerous second-nature advantages as they approach their own craft.
Intuitively, they perceive and account for the worldview diversity in their audience. And because of this cultured sensitivity, their approach to preaching is fundamentally different.
Over the next two Missio Mondays we will examine six characteristics that differentiates gospel proclamation within a secular church planting environment from our classical understanding of preaching within the common worldview of Christendom.
Today we will look at the first two.
1. Empathize with your audience
Without question, most sermons heard by a potential church planter were delivered in the context of an established church. That means that most of the messages we have experienced were delivered to an audience with a thoroughly Christian worldview (or at least intellectual assent to that worldview) with all of the implicit assumptions therein.
There is often an evangelistic appeal somewhere in the message, but it’s presented with the assured confidence that the vast majority of the hearers are well acquainted with the main themes of the culture of the faithful. Prayerfully, this is not the preaching context that most will be experiencing as a church planter because their ministry will take them deep into the harvest fields.
For the majority of planters, if they are knee-deep in engaging the constituency of their context, the audience they will assemble will look, think, and behave much differently from the well-dressed crowd attending church across the street.
Their new congregation’s innate operating system will filter information much differently from those who have long made “church” part of their weekly routine. Many of the same statements that normally inspire solidarity, nodding heads, and muffled “Amens” to good churchmen will rouse irritation, confusion, and disengagement to the less-religious newcomers among us.
For example, the defining cultural issue of this generation that separates secularists from their sacred neighbors is that of human sexuality. Convictional Christians and cultural secularists have deepened the divide of communication and understanding through the radically divergent ways each group approaches this subject.
Convictional Christians see this issue as a biblical one. The Bible has clear and unmistakable teachings on human sexuality, and part of the big package of being a Christ-follower is to resist the impulse of aligning with the changing tides of culture and remain faithful to the Word of God. To well-discipled Christians, the issue is not easy, but it is exceedingly simple.
Nominal Christians and cultural secularists approach this issue differently. To Christians this is an issue of faithfulness. To the nominal and secular, this is an issue of justice. Their worldview elevates the human equality of all as the highest good and concludes that the astringent Christian positions on sexuality are unjust relics from a much uglier era of human history.
Source: Christianity Today
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