Posted by Andrew Wencl in IMPACT Features
Happy Sunday afternoon! Here’s a quote to open up conversation:
“If you look back in your life and ask what God has most used in your life to make you grow, you will find that in the vast majority of cases it is preaching.”
—James Montgomery Boice
Thoughts?
;)
Sharing Christ – With Your Family (gasp!)
;)
Favorite Stories
;)
Baptist Identity? Assembly of God Identity? Denominational Issues in an Ecumenical World
;)
Your Prayers are Stored~~Do You Know Where?
;)
Why I Have Become an Ecumenical Baptist
;)
I Need You, You Need Me
;)
A Contract With Southern Baptists – Part 3
;)
Someone Switched the Price Tags
;)
Looking to Louisville…
;)
Leaders: Repent and Restore
;)
For me, it was the silent ‘preaching’ of a beloved non-verbal Down syndrome son.
I never saw anyone love people like that child before.
Pretty amazing. Very humbling.
Guess I’m one of the small minority, then. The quote definitely doesn’t apply to me.
Guess I’m one of the small minority, then (which I don’t mind at all…). The quote definitely doesn’t apply to me.
Christiane,
Good to hear from you. I have know many people whose faith has grown through sicknesses and deaths in family members. A big influence on my life was the passing of a friend in high school. James 1:2-3 has been on my mind a lot lately.
Bob,
Why do you think he said it? Is it possible he may have a different meaning, or that it may be more true than you initially thought? Or do you think that you may actually be in the majority and Boice is overestimating here?
Andrew,
It would be helpful to know a little more context for this quote. Was he, for example, talking specifically about pulpit homiletics, as traditionally understood? Or was he possibly talking about “preaching” from a broader perspective?
Here’s what he says just a sentence or two later:
To quotation is from Feed My Sheep: A Passionate Plea for Preaching, Chapter 2.
In other words, it sounds like he is talking about pulpit homiletics.
I would say, because the venue in which most people in America in recent generations have received the proclamation and teaching of the Word of God has been through pulpit homiletics, it is likely that, at least for generations leading up to the present one, his quote is on-target.
However, I am not so convinced that pulpit homiletics is the silver bullet for all contexts and cultures. “Preaching,” in the broader sense of the word, is. But, this embraces, as I understand it, many more forms of communicating the Word of God than just pulpit homiletics.
It seems that the only ones who place such great emphasis on preaching as the ideal means of communicating biblical truth are, well, preachers.
If it’s you’re profession, it makes sense that you’d work very hard to convince people that your presentations from a pulpit are vital to my understanding and experience of God. Self-preservation, and all of that.
Though I’ve sat under some gifted and passionate preachers, as I look back across my spiritual formation, I’m not sure I can point to any specific sermons as having been a life-changing point along the way.
I’m not against preaching! I do think, however, that preachers often overestimate the power and influence of the sermon.
Here’s what I prepared in response to the quote:
I think the point Boice is making is that preaching is powerful and it is a major influence on Christians’ lives. I think, however, the majority would not say that it is the greatest influence because preaching has a more subtle impact on our lives. So it may well be that it is the biggest influence on our spiritual growth, but it is so subtle, it is difficult to measure or see.
For instance, when a pastor preaches through a book or takes a passage and expounds upon it, that exposition will affect our interpretation and application of the passage in the future. When I go through the gospel of John and notice or make mention of the contrast John makes between light and darkness, and night and day. It is not in mere passing that John mentions that Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. It is not for mere chronological ordering that John mentions that Judas went out and it was night. I know I didn’t come to see this continuous theme in John until I heard about it in a sermon.
So I would agree that preaching has a major impact on our thought process, which in turn has a major influence on how we interpret and apply the Bible to our lives. But I’m not sure if it is so easy to determine that it was the most influential piece.
Are any of our pastor friends inclined to agree? Disagree?