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Preaching and Teaching in the ‘Brave New Church’

Recently, I posted a short video on Instagram about the place of preaching in church today. It came out of my own context rather than being a global statement about preaching. From a brief online survey, it appears that preaching is alive and well in many places.

However my own, more local, impression is that preaching and bible teaching receive little functional priority in approaches to the renewal of the Church. The Church of Scotland, along with some other older denominations, has experienced significant and well documented decline. The response has been serious rationalising of resources accompanied by a renewed focus on mission. There has been a marked shift, at least in rhetoric, to promote fresh expressions, new forms of church and church planting.

Such a focus on mission is welcome. However, it has made me wonder whether the shift to church restructuring assumes that we have already perfected some of the older facets of church. From a Reformed perspective, the church gathers around the Bible and its ‘exposition’. However, I would suggest that training for preaching and teaching was one of the weaker parts of my training for ministry. And while Scripture featured heavily in my university training, it was mainly considered from a deconstructive perspective, speculating what was behind the text. There was comparatively little consideration of the Bible as the living text at the heart of the contemporary Christian community. So, at the point of ordination, I certainly didn’t feel that I had ‘nailed’ the basics of preaching. However, perhaps training has improved in the last couple of decades.

After, fifteen plus years ‘in the pulpit’, I still haven’t ‘nailed’ preaching. Sometimes, I still wonder what it’s for, where it meets ‘teaching’ and how it might be improved. And I also wonder whether my colleagues have cracked it? One of the problems of regular routine preaching, is that you seldom ‘sit under’ someone else’s preaching. It’s possible, therefore, that I am alone in my existential preaching crisis and confusion.

I am relatively flexible about definitions and styles of preaching, partly because I am still to discover a definitive description. And, I wonder whether preaching extends far beyond its common conflation with Sunday Bible teaching. But leaving that aside, might I put in a request for a renewed commitment to the very best sharing of Jesus Christ and teaching of Scripture with all the fervour and drive that the church promotes restructuring and new forms of church.

A return to basics

A few years ago, I deleted everything that I’d posted previously. I had become tired of writing online and dealing with the mild anxiety fuelled by thinking aloud. I also embarked on postgraduate studies which soon absorbed any compulsion to write.

I began this blog by talking about preaching. However, I soon became distracted by Presbytery planning, which admittedly distracted and continues to consume the entire Church of Scotland. In relation to Presbytery Planning, some of the angst and fallout, that I anticipated, appears to have been realised. But writing about such things didn’t provide solace or encouragement. Instead, it became a ‘slough of despond’.

Over the last couple of years I have continued to wonder, what preaching is, what church is, and where the Church of Scotland is heading. Meantime, considerable effort has gone into turning around the fortunes of the Kirk. Among calls for congregational mergers, missional programmes and investment in all that is new, I still wonder where preaching features in our future and whether there is scope for renewal here too?