Why we preach like this

Hello,

One thing which is highly critiqued in Church life is preaching. Perhaps the phrase ‘you can please some of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time’ applies particularly to preaching. Maybe that’s a problem as old as the Church age itself. Even the apostle Paul writes ‘some say..in person he is unimpressive and his preaching amounts to nothing’ (2 Cor 10:10).

If I were to canvas opinions about preaching, I’d hear such diverse comments as ‘too long, too short, not meaty enough, too inaccessible for outsiders, too many stories, not enough stories, not enough young voices, not enough depth and maturity, not enough exegesis,’ etc.

So what are our preaching priorities at Woodlands?
Firstly, we believe in ‘Word and Spirit’, that the Bible is how God speaks to us inspired by the Holy Spirit. Through the Bible we meet Jesus and through the Bible we understand what discipleship and godly living looks like. So, we preach the Bible to help fulfil our mission to ‘make disciples’, to see people come to faith and grow in their faith as followers of Jesus.

But people ‘preach the Bible’ in very different ways in different Churches and traditions. We have the challenge at Woodies of trying to preach ‘deep and wide’ at the same time. We want to preach to a congregation that includes seekers, our friends who are not yet Christians, who may be at Church for the very first time. We cannot assume biblical literacy or that they understand the language we use. But we are also preaching to believers who have had decades of Church attendance and who still want to grow and press into God’s self-revelation in Scripture.

Real Biblical depth is to understand the depth of the Love of God (Ephesians 3:14-21). The same love that draws the seeker also refreshes the heart of the oldest disciple, like the aged apostle John (1 John 3). My understanding is that the early Church always needed to prioritise the unchurched or new believer (c.f. 1 Cor 14). Jesus tells a parable about seeking a lost sheep and leaving the ninety-nine, and perhaps sometimes in Church we may want to ask well fed sheep in the fold to be patient with preaching that leans to the outsider. My own heart however is that whatever stage we are in our spiritual journey, we leave our services with a refreshed and bigger view of the love and mercy of God.

When I read about the way Jesus preached to crowds, I see him telling stories that provoke, that arouse curiosity, that use relevant pictures from daily life and sometimes leave more questions than answers. It’s often in the small group context of the twelve disciples that Jesus unpacks those teachings and applies them. Another aspiration I have is that our sermons at Woodies are the start of spiritual conversations, and that in our small group life we can unpack sermons and apply those biblical truths to our lives. That’s why we produce questions each month to underpin our series.

In larger Churches preaching is where leadership is articulated. There are many very capable preachers in the Woodlands Church Family, but preaching assignments are often given to the senior leadership team because of the responsibility they carry to bring spiritual momentum to a large body of believers. Leadership is mediated in all kinds of ways, but the leadership teams in our congregations see preaching as a big part of their responsibility and influence, just as the early church leaders did (Acts 6:2-4). That’s why thematic preaching is often a framework for our preaching series, though from time to time over the Church year a purely exegetical approach is also taken.

There’s lots more I could say about our preaching philosophy but that would make for too long a mail. Indeed probably this is already too long. I wonder if you will read it and think about the Pauline quote I already used in 2 Corinthians 10..’his letters are weighty and forceful’?

Much love to you,

David Mitchell

Senior Leader
Woodlands Church Family