What should we do when a preacher delivers a sermon chock full of big words or theological terminology that most of the congregation can't follow? Is it appropriate to ask him to bring it down to a different level or just explain it to you privately?

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Rich Koster
1689'er
Browns Mills NJ USA
Often Goofy Reformed Eccentric
Romans 7:14-25

Depends. If he is a guest preacher (or you are the guest), and will not be under his teaching often, perhaps you can talk to him afterwards or just drop the matter altogether. If you are going to be under this person teaching on a regular basis you may want to take a wait and see approach and determine whether this a repeated pattern. Also, what is the spiritual acumen of the congregation? It's quite possible the church may be well fed (spiritually) and able to handle more meat. Of course, you never do wrong by asking the preacher about his sermon, so long as you have a sincere desire to understand. I am always encouraged when I am asked about my sermons. It proves people are listening.

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Bill Brown
Elder
Reformed Baptist
Maryland

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I often ask questions if I'm not quite sure what the drift of something is.

The pattern comment is good. Sometimes if I walk in on the middle of a series, I may be missing some groundwork from a prior sermon.

I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts on this matter. I visited a church while in college and liked a number of things about it - except that I could not understand the sermon. I was newly reformed at the time, which may have contributed, but still... If a reasonably intelligent college-educated individual who was making a concerted effort couldn't understand the sermon, I wondered about everyone else in the congregation - especially the young people.

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Kathleen M
nondenominational
Montana

One, ask questions. Make sure if you don't understand anything within the sermon to ask afterward ... "Pastor Bob, I'm sorry, but I don't know what you meant by 'adonodalism in fluvian volgantry', could you explain those words to me?" would be a wonderful thing to ask. [Don't try looking them up, I made them up.] Then you are doing two things. You are making sure you understand and you are making sure he understands that you didn't understand.

Two, presume either he or you will change in time. I don't want my pastor to water things down. He has on occasion used a word that I do not understand, but asking him the few occasions when that happened seems to have made it so that he explains the word more often when he use a word that might be on the fringe of vocabulary.

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Brian Withnell
Deacon, OPC
Leesburg, Virginia

You cannot train for war in the midst of a battle. Prepare before the battle starts; if the battle is long and hard, you will wish you had.

There was a great article by John Leith in a Princeton publication some years back, on the necessity for pastors to take pains to catechize the congregation, precisely so that the congregation can then track with the sermon.

And if the church is faithfully doing the work of evangelism, there will always be a steady stream of new believers who are unfamiliar with some of the language. Then back to paragraph 1, above.

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Wayne Sparkman, Th.M.
Director, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO
Blogs: The Continuing Story and PCA History Blog

It depends on the circumstances. If the preacher will be continuing with the congregation and he has started by going over the congregations head as you describe, he should be encouraged to define the big words, and perhaps slow the pace of his sermon by looking again at the concepts discussed from slightly different angles or show how they recur in different Scriptures.

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In Christ's love and service

Mr. Tim Cunningham,
BMus. (Trombone Performance), University of Toronto
Dip. CS, Regent College, Vancouver
Member, First Baptist Church
Vancouver, BC
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"I once sat in darkness, and waited for the moon to rise.
I once sat in darkness, and waited for the son to shine.
I once sat in darkness, when all the light I'd waited for was gone.
Then Jesus came, and now the only true light, ever, shines in me."
– John Deacon -