The Danger (?) of Practical Preaching, Part 3 of 3

I’m on day three of three days in which I’m sharing an article that I recently read by Lee Eclov, Senior Pastor of Village Church of Lincolnshire in Lake Forest, IL. This is not my custom, as you know, but this brother’s thoughts so affirmed core beliefs that I have held for a long time that I thought it sensible and acceptable to share them with you. The title of the piece is “The Danger of Practical Preaching: Why People Need More than the Bottom Line.” Warning: This commentary could change your perspective on preaching forever!

The Ready Mind

It may seem to us sometimes that the Christians to whom we preach are not interested in the truth trails of Scripture; or worse, that they won’t get it. We hear so much about the postmodern mind that we assume our postmodern people will reject the absolute logic of the Bible. It is true that our listeners are susceptible to relativism. It is true that we must not only make clear what is true from the Word, but also demonstrate that other ideas they may hold are not true. But we may forget that converted people have transformed minds. Preaching biblical truth to unbelievers (in a seeker service, for instance) is an entirely different matter than preaching to believers. The truth isn't different. The capacity of the listener is.

God promised Jeremiah that in the New Covenant he would “put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.” New believers, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, almost immediately begin to understand spiritual realities that eluded them before. It is like a gifted child. Sometimes, even before a child starts school, we realize “that kid has a mind for numbers,” or music, or science. We say that because when they are introduced to something new in that sphere they understand it much more quickly than other children. It is like they are already wired for that kind of information. Christians are, from the moment of their new birth, wired for spiritual, biblical information. We “have a mind for it.”

Thus, when a preacher stands and opens before them the logic of the Scriptures—the contemplations of a psalmist or the doctrinal logic of an epistle—they understand it, like a gifted child. And the logic of that text gradually becomes the logic of their own minds.

Truth trail preaching, the careful and persuasive exposition of Scriptural thinking, shapes ready Christian minds for the everyday decisions unscripted in Scripture. When we face an ethical dilemma at work or a discipline problem at home, our minds walk the truth trails we have learned and we are able to reason our way, by the help of the Holy Spirit, to a biblical conclusion, even when no verse of Scripture directly addresses our situation.

When we preach only the principle, the bullet points, the bottom line, or when we try to make every sermon about an everyday problem, we may set truth in the minds of our hearers, but we do not set the logic and pulse of God into their minds and hearts. On the other hand, biblical exposition that lays out the Lord's own logic and heartbeat shapes “doers of the Word and not hearers only.”

Thank you, Bro. Lee Eclov, for such a thought-provoking article on preaching the whole counsel of God!