Sermon Activity

From Albert Moehler’s Blog
Preaching has fallen on hard times. So suggests a report out of Durham University’s College of Preachers. The British university’s CODEC research center, which aims to explore “the interfaces between the Bible, the digital environment and contemporary culture,” conducted the study to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the College of Preachers. The report is not very encouraging.
As Ruth Gledhill of The Times [London] reports, “Sermons, history shows, can be among the most revolutionary forms of human speech. From John Calvin to Billy Graham, preaching has had the power to topple princes, to set nation against nation, to inspire campaigners to change the world and impel people to begin life anew.”

As one who stands before God’s children each week and hopefully provides an empty vessel and conduit for God, I am continually amazed at how God uses the sermon.  Most of the time, it is not in a way that I would have ever imagined.  Someone may have picked up a line that I just glossed over and it changes their perspective.  Other times, what I think is the heart of the message does not connect with anyone!

What I have come to realize is that the sermon is a dialogue and the meaning is placed on it by those who listen and God.  And for that I am ever grateful.  This weekend, realize that, as you sit in the pew, the chair, or even your couch while on the internet listening to a sermon, you are an active participant in a holy moment of God’s activity.  God is speaking…even if the preacher is making little sense…keep listening!