What Should Pastors Preach on More Often?

[c968]

What Should Pastors Preach on More Often?

Just curious . . . what's lacking in either topics, passages or issues?
What's your opinion?

[TheAnalogman]

Repentance and reaching out to the community.

[Storico]

Repentance and reaching out to the community.

And I'd just like to add that I'd love to hear more pastors preach on the ABILITY we have TO repent. I've heard WAY too many people say something like "I've gone too far, God wouldn't want me", which is nothing short of a lie. God ALWAYS wants us. And that's where A-Man's second suggestion about reaching out to the community is perfect... there are so many people sitting in church pews wondering "would God even want me"? and they're part of the community we need to reach out to. There might also be people out in the community, people who wouldn't step through the front door of a church, who are wondering "does anyone care at ALL?" -- and those hearing their pastors REALLY need to be hearing about effective outreach. The homeless, the hungry, the hopeless... they all need love. Pastors' messages should be given with compassion, with drive, with confidence... so that parishioners can also go out with compassion, drive and confidence, too.

Pearls, A-Man.

[Rayado]

I would be simply overjoyed if pastors preached more on the Trinity. I haven't heard many sermons on it. There's no shortage of preaching and teaching that can be done from the Trinity.

[furay]

The Four Last Things (Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell)
Purgatory
The Eucharist
Penance

[Little Shepherd]

I'd like to see more on the how and why of Christian doctrine, giving special attention to the original language of the text and its cultural context. And by more, I mean any.

I'd also like to see more preaching on the 147 lesser-known Psalms. You know, the ones that aren't about being led by still waters, the valley of the shadow of death, or eagle's wings. For that matter, I'd like to see more teaching on books such as Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. And Proverbs. And again, by more I mean any.

I'd like to see more preaching on heresies, including what makes them heresies and how they contradict the Bible. And how to address them. More apologetics in general would be nice, come to think of it. And yet again, by more I mean any.

[The Silent Q]

The most common recurring theme throughout the Bible is poverty and helping the poor yet I didn't really hear much about that until I went to college. The doctrine is important, but I think preachers need to focus more on helping others in their physical needs. I'm a firm believer that you need to attend to people's physical needs before you can attend to their spiritual needs; they're interwoven to closely to neglect one over the other.

[Little Shepherd]

Helping the poor is one of the few things the church I was a member of got right. At least, preaching about it all the time. Actually doing it . . . well, that's up to the individual members and while most people I knew participated pretty well, the few who didn't can't really be blamed on the teachers.

I do, however, think the church could benefit from a good dose of shame. The pastors I know seem to be too timid, or too afraid of scaring people away, to call those who are lazy and disobedience on their laziness and disobedience. It's sad.

So add that to my list of things the church should teach -- shame. What it is, what it meant to people in the ANE(that whole cultural context thing again), why it's still important, and how to properly use it(i.e. discernment so people don't get the idea they can use shame as some excuse to power-trip).

[BeJoyous]

How's about the Bible?!

Seems today that so many preachers are so concerned not to offend anyone and about "life application" that the majority of the sermon is storytime minus the felt board.

I am so tired of hearing 2 minutes spent on a Scripture and then the rest of the sermon is spent on some story about how the rabbit makes burrows in the thicket and the baker in Hugh takes time to sprinkle every doughnut.

[spiritmech]

How's about the Bible?!

Seems today that so many preachers are so concerned not to offend anyone and about "life application" that the majority of the sermon is storytime minus the felt board.

I am so tired of hearing 2 minutes spent on a Scripture and then the rest of the sermon is spent on some story about how the rabbit makes burrows in the thicket and the baker in Hugh takes time to sprinkle every doughnut.

That's one of the main reasons I got tired of preaching-centric churches. There are some very good preachers out there, but overall, there's so little Bible actually being covered (2-3 verses here or there) and it's more about the personality of the preacher than the Bible. Sick and tired. At least in a liturgical church I know I'll hear a decent sized chunk of an epistle and a good sized chunk of one of the four gospels.

sm

[Faramir]

My 2 cents worth (though I think I am not adding anything that has not been said).

The Trinity!!!!
Heresies, especially those that try to pass themselves off as "mainstream Christianity"
Good solid Doctrine.
Sin/Judgment/Repentence

And all (will not absolutly all but vast majority of) sermons should be expository. That is you take a text and the preacher preaches the meaning of the text and an application based on the meaning. Too often today (at least in my experience) preachers seem to "pick a 'feel good' topic" and find some scritpure to "make it fit" the topic. Scripture should guide the topic not vice versa imo.

[ApologiaPhoenix]

TRUTH!

It's that simple. Give me some serious truth. I'm sick of hearing sermons only on "Here's how to make your life better in X way." Now if you preach on the truth, you can do that when you get to application, but today, we start with application.

All of our messages are also basic. I think of my Sunday School where we go through these magazines now and everything is so basic. I want to learn things I wouldn't learn on my own that easily in church. I don't want to hear just basic stuff so that we look at the book of Joshua and say "You should obey God."

Yeah. You should. What's the context of Joshua though? Why is Joshua there? What is the history before Joshua? How does this relate to promises in Genesis?

Truth indeed. The Trinity is great. The real doctrines of the church are great. We've spent too much time making church a self-help place. Church is a place where we come so we can help others and not ourselves.

[BeJoyous]

TRUTH!

It's that simple. Give me some serious truth. I'm sick of hearing sermons only on "Here's how to make your life better in X way." Now if you preach on the truth, you can do that when you get to application, but today, we start with application.

All of our messages are also basic. I think of my Sunday School where we go through these magazines now and everything is so basic. I want to learn things I wouldn't learn on my own that easily in church. I don't want to hear just basic stuff so that we look at the book of Joshua and say "You should obey God."

Yeah. You should. What's the context of Joshua though? Why is Joshua there? What is the history before Joshua? How does this relate to promises in Genesis?

Truth indeed. The Trinity is great. The real doctrines of the church are great. We've spent too much time making church a self-help place. Church is a place where we come so we can help others and not ourselves.

If you are ever on your way up to South Bend or want to do some fishing near Lake Michigan, you should stop by our church.

I totally hear what you are saying and whole-heartidly agree.

I love my pastor.

[spiritmech]

Truth indeed. The Trinity is great. The real doctrines of the church are great. We've spent too much time making church a self-help place. Church is a place where we come so we can help others and not ourselves.

Amen. Church is not a self-help program. I couldn't agree more with you.
sm

[ApologiaPhoenix]

If you are ever on your way up to South Bend or want to do some fishing near Lake Michigan, you should stop by our church.

I totally hear what you are saying and whole-heartidly agree.

I love my pastor.

I would love to. My best sermon I have is the one I call "Revolution." I conclude as an apologist that Christianity is true, but I do not see the life of Christ being lived around me (And sadly at many times, even in myself). So there are either one of two options.

A. Christianity is not true.
B. We're not living it.

With my apologetic thrust, I can't accept A. It'd just require too much denial of what I know. So then I must accept B. Now why aren't we living it? Simple. We don't really believe it. Thus, I choose to emphasize that we learn what it is, learn how to apply it, and then learn how to live it.