Some churches have become engaged in ambitious experiments to accommodate themselves to the market-driven expectations of the world. The principle seems to be that if you want to get your share of the audience you must offer them something they want. The church can be popular if it is prepared to trivialize preaching, and some think that is a price worth paying. When the congregation of a church is treated like an audience, the activity of that church is a vaudeville act rather than a service. Some of these experimental projects have begun slowly and modestly with noble motivation but misguided enthusiasm. We now find that such churches have become caricatures, a distortion of what church is meant to be.

Perhaps this process begins when a church desires to be more acceptable and pleasing to the community. There is, of course, nothing inherently wrong in such a desire, but that aspiration may become an unhealthy obsession, leading to compromising changes. At first, changes made by a church in its practice may seem benign.

It seems to me that many churches are being lost to shifts in ecclesiology and this cannot be allowed to go unnoticed. People are being readily assimilated into a new way of doing things that is dangerous. It is all being done in the name of progress. A church that makes no claim to be a preaching church is one thing, but a church that has pretensions to that claim, when in fact it has diminished the meaning of preaching, is another thing altogether. The church is being mesmerized by entertainment values, and we need to break the spell.

Expository preaching is a form of spiritual discourse that dictates and regulates the content of the communication. The advocates of other forms of ecclesiology, which minimize and displace preaching, fail to recognize the inadequacy of alternative methodologies to shape and safeguard the message. At first, we are urged to make what may appear to be cosmetic changes, but we soon discover that the content of our message is subordinate to its style of presentation. This is part of a dumbing-down process where the supporters, adherents, and defenders of the anti-preaching lobby are in effect promoting the use of optional means of transmitting the message. Means, such as stringing comments and choruses together in a kind of spiritual necklace to adorn a church are prostituting the church to the world instead of preaching to it! Paul's instruction to the Roman church needs to be restated in today's hedonistic society, 'Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind...' (Rom. 12:2).

Preaching produces serious-minded and biblically informed people, whereas in its absence there is shallowness. We must not refashion our ecclesiology to make ourselves more attractive and acceptable: Preaching is seen, in some circles, as no more than a cultural bias. But, when we consider the fact that we live in an age of epistemological relativism, preaching as prophetic proclamation (that is, a forth-telling of the mind of God) ought to be central in church life, so that it may infuse health into our churches.

This shift is reflected in eclectic approaches to communicating truth. However, authoritative preaching makes demands on its hearers, and one is never left merely impressed with the eloquence of the preacher. A sermon is more than semantics. The hearer is made aware of the clear implications of the message. It is not the sensuous experience of the preaching or only the superior logic of the argument, but it is the power of the Holy Spirit that is at work. It is a cognitive communication and an emotional experience, but, primarily, it is a spiritual awakening and quickening of the whole soul.

In other words, preaching is not just rhetoric; it has a spiritual resonance that vibrates in the soul. It trains us as believers to tutor our minds and to integrate our experience in a process that shapes our identity. It does so by defining and regulating our understanding of the truth in accordance with biblical patterns. But, in addition to the medium of communication, it is required of the hearer that he have a residual faith in the authenticity and authority of the message.

I grew up in Limerick City, Ireland, where the river Shannon was a dominant feature of the geographical landscape and was the recreational and occupational life of the people. In my lifetime, that great waterway has been slowly polluted and it is no longer suitable for bathing. It is amazing what can be lost in a generation. The church is like a river, in that changes in its life are sometimes gradual and imperceptible at first. Like the river it can be slowly polluted. It takes time before the river becomes so poisonous that the fish die. Yet the river looks the same as before and one could still take a boat ride on it. In other words, even when life has been taken from it, the river does not disappear, nor do all of its uses; but its value has been diminished and its degraded condition will have harmful effects throughout the landscape. Boating is now a leisure activity on the Shannon, but, in a previous generation, life was sustained by the fish caught in that great waterway. The river is still there, but it's not what it used to be, and it is not what it appears to be! So it is with a church that is being slowly polluted. If a church merely has a recreational function in the life of the community, it has ceased to be what it ought to be.

In some churches, an ephemeral and experiential enterprise masquerading as preaching has replaced the traditional sermon. The transcendent has been displaced by the trivial.

Preaching is not meant to be inert. It is not merely about imparting information. There has to be an information-action ratio where relevant information is generated into action. Otherwise the information is no more than an abundance of irrelevant facts. Detractors of preaching will say that we are faced with the problem of an information glut. This is another way of saying that there is diminished spiritual potency. They might suggest that the Sunday evening sermons dislodge the Sunday morning sermons from our minds. Surely, if this is true, it is not less information that we need but more action. People who say we are receiving answers to questions we did not ask are forgetting that preaching will help us to ask the right questions, and not merely provide us with the answers to the questions we are asking!

It no longer seems strange for some to have church events where there is no preaching. Take, for example, what is sometimes called 'low-key evangelism'. Various activities can be arranged in the church building with the purpose in mind to 'just get people across the threshold' and into a 'non-threatening environment'. This has come to seem natural rather than bizarre. The fact that we have lost the sense that this is strange is a sign of our adjustment to low expectations and to a desire to be inoffensive. The extent to which we have adjusted is a measure of the extent to which we have been changed. Why should the world change to accommodate the church, when the church is willing to bend over backwards for them? If the way some people desire to 'do church' does not fit the biblical template they say, 'Let's adjust the template.' The desire to be accepted and the need to appear relevant may turn the church in a wrong direction. Let us remember the words of Paul,

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Cor. 1:18

If the business of the church is preaching the Word of God, then some churches are facing bankruptcy! Although its detractors would say that preaching creates ineptitude and passivity, I would contend that, where it has existed, the historical dominance of preaching has borne the fruit of able service to God.

Is preaching disappearing? It has certainly moved to the periphery, and other things are beginning to take its place at the centre. We must do all we can to halt this decline. The demise of preaching is part of a wider issue, namely, the crisis of confidence in biblical wisdom, its sufficiency and efficacy. Taking heed to the writer to the Hebrews should put our view of God's Word in perspective:

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Heb. 4:12

Are evangelical churches reaching the point where methodology is displacing theology as the area of competence over which a pastor must have expert control? Romans 10:17 tells us, 'Faith comes from hearing the message...' We would do well to remember that there is a message that must be told, in a method ordained by God for that purpose. Paul's instruction to Timothy applies to us and has not been rescinded. 'Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season...' (2 Tim. 4:2).