The Practicality of Sermons

An interesting question came up in Bible class on Tuesday and it's been kind of mulling itself over in my mind. "If you wanted to become a general in the military, what would you need to do academics wise?" Of course, the list grows as one thinks hard. Military History, Engineering, Language, Psychology, Business and people skills, and geography and yet these things don't seem to pertain directly to leading a bunch of men in a campaign. That's the problem. Seeing connections between big picture ideas or foundational ideas is sometimes hard. However, if you train with a gun and play Modern Warfare, you're setting yourself up for a failure. You're training to be a soldier and not a general. You're only serving to hinder your ultimate goal because there is a dichotomy between the two.

This is a fantastic analogy for preaching. You've likely heard the phrase, "I want more practical preaching." To me, this just means, tell me what to do. It's almost like the Bible is a cosmic instruction manual that needs to be tapped into. Give me answers to Christian ways to run my finances and Christian ways to parents. Certainly these are good, but these acts are illogical without the proper foundation. It's like rubbing a rabbit's foot in hope that God will bless your finances because you did it the Christian way. This is not a proper way to interpret Scripture. God has given His people a framework and we must live and act within that framework. Of course, false preachers would happily tell you what to do, but a good preacher can preach God's basic framework but also make practical connections. Practical connections are certainly to be made because a lot of connections are not immediately clear, however there must be a foundation upon which the connections are made. It's the big picture of foundational ideas those asking for "practical sermons" are objecting to. Really, it's the American mindset of immediate gratification that objects to ideas that may not immediately make sense or provide easy answers. Just like merely training with a gun or playing Modern Warfare, this is setting us up for failure because a Christian acts and lives a certain way but has no real logical basis for doing so. He is ill-equipped to defend or understand his faith. Ultimately, this is a stumbling block and is inconsistent. In short, practical sermons need to mean providing valuable foundational work and making connections as opposed to "tell me what to do."

I end with the simple disclaimer that this in no way categorizes every single person who says "I want practical sermons." I'm sure there are godly people who desire practical sermons in the sense that I describe them. However, I feel that what I have outlined here is not the prevailing and underlying thought behind that common cliche.

God Bless,

Stanley

P.S. I'm almost finished reading "The God Who is There" by Francis Schaeffer. I highly recommend it! First, a suggestion. You should read "How Should We Then Live?" first so as to understand his view of philosophers through the ages and understand to a better degree the references he makes throughout the book.