timmopussycat
Puritan Board Junior
In a thread for pastors only, Pergamum asked:
CS Lewis once prefaced an address to Divinity students by remarking that the approach he was about to take was that of "a sheep telling shepherds what only a sheep could tell them." On this question, perhaps the shepherds here need to hear our bleating.
In my view, the first thing we ought to to if we experience preaching as boring is to examine our hearts very carefully indeed. In my time following Christ, I have found that experiencing preaching as boring is an indicator that something might be wrong with my own Christian life. So when I find myself being bored by doctrinally sound preaching, I ask myself: have I somehow grieved the Holy Spirit, either by active sinning, a passive refusal to address something he wants addressed, or by denying to myself the reality that the actions of someone in my life have so deeply hurt or offended me that "love covers a multitude of sins" is insufficient and the Matt. 18 process must be engaged in so that reconcilliation may occur? Often my answer is yes to one or more of these questions but sometimes the answers have come back no.
A second point I need to ask myself is: have I made the best use of the preaching that I can? Do I listen carefully to what is said, so much so that I can recall it later? Do I ask questions of myself? or meditate on thoughts that did catch my attention? If I have done these things, even though the preaching may be "boring" overall, it is still feeding me and I am being helped by it.
Only after we have searched our hearts, resolved any issues revealed in the process, and made certain we are doing everything possible to profit from sermons can we go on to the next step: telling the pastor? Start by saying something like:
"I've been having a spiritual problem recently. It has caused me to search my heart and make sure that I am neither sinning actively against the Lord nor my brothers, nor passively refusing what the Lord wants me to do. Nor as best I know, am I in a state of offence against anyone. But despite practicing, as best I can, the disciplines of best profiting from sermons, and although I find your sermons doctrinally sound, there is a sense in which I find them boring. Somehow your preaching is not communicating to me the life that is in the word." After which preface, it will be easier to offer any positive criticism that you can suggest that you think may help the pastor improve.
Only after taking all the above steps and giving the pastor a measure of time to consider and improve his preaching may we consider whether or not we need to cease attending that church. Yet, even if the preaching is boring, there are other reasons to remain at a church: for example, one could be so committed to the particular evangelistic or service opportunities available to a particular local church and so spiritually helped by the fellowship within it that you can remain under preaching that is not helpful to you.
On the other hand, a stoic endurance of doctrinally accurate but personally unhelpful preaching for an extended period of time has its own dangers. Unless carefully watched, dissatisfaction with the preaching can become so settled that you find it driving you to become a critic both of the preacher and the life of the church. In such situations, if you have access to a church of similar doctrinal convictions with preaching that you and your family find challenging and invigrorating instead of boring, transferring membership is an option worth serious consideration.
Just my
Pergamum said:Is boring preaching an adequate reason to leave a church? And if so, how do you tell the pastor?
CS Lewis once prefaced an address to Divinity students by remarking that the approach he was about to take was that of "a sheep telling shepherds what only a sheep could tell them." On this question, perhaps the shepherds here need to hear our bleating.
In my view, the first thing we ought to to if we experience preaching as boring is to examine our hearts very carefully indeed. In my time following Christ, I have found that experiencing preaching as boring is an indicator that something might be wrong with my own Christian life. So when I find myself being bored by doctrinally sound preaching, I ask myself: have I somehow grieved the Holy Spirit, either by active sinning, a passive refusal to address something he wants addressed, or by denying to myself the reality that the actions of someone in my life have so deeply hurt or offended me that "love covers a multitude of sins" is insufficient and the Matt. 18 process must be engaged in so that reconcilliation may occur? Often my answer is yes to one or more of these questions but sometimes the answers have come back no.
A second point I need to ask myself is: have I made the best use of the preaching that I can? Do I listen carefully to what is said, so much so that I can recall it later? Do I ask questions of myself? or meditate on thoughts that did catch my attention? If I have done these things, even though the preaching may be "boring" overall, it is still feeding me and I am being helped by it.
Only after we have searched our hearts, resolved any issues revealed in the process, and made certain we are doing everything possible to profit from sermons can we go on to the next step: telling the pastor? Start by saying something like:
"I've been having a spiritual problem recently. It has caused me to search my heart and make sure that I am neither sinning actively against the Lord nor my brothers, nor passively refusing what the Lord wants me to do. Nor as best I know, am I in a state of offence against anyone. But despite practicing, as best I can, the disciplines of best profiting from sermons, and although I find your sermons doctrinally sound, there is a sense in which I find them boring. Somehow your preaching is not communicating to me the life that is in the word." After which preface, it will be easier to offer any positive criticism that you can suggest that you think may help the pastor improve.
Only after taking all the above steps and giving the pastor a measure of time to consider and improve his preaching may we consider whether or not we need to cease attending that church. Yet, even if the preaching is boring, there are other reasons to remain at a church: for example, one could be so committed to the particular evangelistic or service opportunities available to a particular local church and so spiritually helped by the fellowship within it that you can remain under preaching that is not helpful to you.
On the other hand, a stoic endurance of doctrinally accurate but personally unhelpful preaching for an extended period of time has its own dangers. Unless carefully watched, dissatisfaction with the preaching can become so settled that you find it driving you to become a critic both of the preacher and the life of the church. In such situations, if you have access to a church of similar doctrinal convictions with preaching that you and your family find challenging and invigrorating instead of boring, transferring membership is an option worth serious consideration.
Just my
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