Why the church doesn't need preaching

Many Christians that I know may have a problem; they are addicts, users, dependents. They have been “using” the preaching of men and women of God, using it as a fix. They need a regular hit of the “word” of God in order to feel spiritually satisfied, to feel as though they are making progress in their journey of faith and perhaps even to feel the presence of God. They rely on the preachers and pastors in their life to teach them about God, to show them His ways and to guide their relationship with Jesus. I know all about it because I too had this problem.

As with many dependencies one might only become aware of the problem when that which is needed is taken out of their life. I have been through a season recently of not receiving my weekly high, gained from hearing the preaching of the pastor, passing on from the pulpit, things he had himself received from on high. I noticed that all of a sudden my relationship with God seemed to be going nowhere. There was no life in me anymore. I felt that I was quickly drying up and it forced me to rethink much of my Christian life so far. I reached a place of brutal honesty with myself.

What I realised is that we can confuse the temporary thrill and excitement that follows hearing anointed preaching with personal growth and edification. We are often not actually changed by what we hear however much it impacts and challenges us. Many times we have heard amazing sermons, inspiring seminars; incredible preaching and we feel so excited and vow that our response to what we have heard will change the world. Many times however it hasn’t and a few days or weeks later we are back in the same old ruts, stuck in the same lifestyles and disappointed in ourselves. The problem is that we can simply be responding to anointed preaching on a short lived and shallow level. Just like the swirling colours of a titration approaching its end point, there are brief indications of change but these soon revert back to the normal. My feeling is that we are not actually being fed by the preaching we receive week after week. Much of it is excellent, often challenging but it singularly fails to feed our “inner man”.

This thought leaves us looking for how we can go about finding “food” for our spirits. How can we take the inspiration of a sermon and use it to really impact our lives to the point where we are being changed?

I think what we need to do is view preaching differently and learn how to engage with God for ourselves. Preaching is not the place where we are supposed to be fed. God has designed other ways for that to happen. Preaching is like the menu of the banquet that God has on offer for us. We can read the menu, get really excited, even salivate over it, but it is still just the menu, the real food is yet to come.

God wants us to meet with Him in our personal prayer lives. This is the place where He will feed us. We must get the language of the bible, the word of God, into our prayer lives. We must pray the bible, we must sing the bible, and we must meditate on the bible. We must use the language of His word by praying it, out loud, to Him. In doing so He will feed us.

We should realise that we don’t need to rely on others for our sustenance. Your pastor cannot take care of your prayer life for you. God provides everything that we need when we come to Him. He will bring us into incredible depths of revelation. He will show us truths about Himself that will blow our minds. He will change us and mould us into the people He wants us to be.

The church will always have preachers. I think that they should be seen not as shepherds who feed their flocks once a week, but rather people who have seen the amazing and glorious food that God has made available to us. Their sermons will guide us down the menu of this heavenly banquet! We can then go out into our own everyday lives, and find that God calls us to meet with Him there and feed at His banqueting table with a banner over us of His boundless love.