A few quick thoughts on what happens when the pulpit and expository preaching loses a place of centrality within the life of the local church:
- Personal intake of Scripture becomes tiresome
- Personal prayer becomes little more than religious day-dreaming
- An atmosphere of worship gives way to a craving for entertainment
- Truth is replaced with preferences
- Discipleship is dismissed by the cult of personal excitement
- Culture becomes central
- Creativity becomes a mantra
- Personal desires become dominant
- Tradition becomes foundational
- Counseling becomes, at worst, psychological, and at best merely conservative Dr. Laura-type of advice or simply relational
- Fellowship becomes superficial
- Unity becomes merely relational
- Missions becomes nothing more than temporal societal betterment
- The gospel becomes self-help
- Discipleship becomes nothing more than a mere decision
All this will be true because people, for people’s sake, become the focus and God becomes a servant to their own lust for centrality (2 Timothy 4:1-4) ““ our thoughts are no longer tethered to what God has systematically revealed to us about Himself. In the end, people are not best served where they are most prized.
When expository preaching is not central in our life:
- We ultimately and over time won’t feel fed, satisfied, fulfilled
-
The grass will always look greener in another ministerial field
“¦because ultimately, God, truth, and His glory is not what we crave. Or perhaps we are misinterpreting our cravings and feeding them with the wrong things.
When expository preaching is not central in the church’s life
- It will give way to the whims of culture
- It will be replaced by the mystical
- It will be sapped of true spiritual power
- It will be shallow in terms of spiritual depth
It will be empty of the Glory and majesty of God
