Sunday 19 June 2011

Application-Based Preaching is Impersonal Preaching

To give someone a list of applications to do for this week in his life is at the heart of an impersonal gospel, with an impersonal Saviour

if I preach to 1000 people, which is the size of my church, who am I to state I know the 1000 life situations of their heart

I may get a general sense of things through the Spirit, and at best I can give corporate application to move the church in a single direction

but the Spirit of God searches the heart - therefore it is my duty simply to present Christ - the Spirit will personally apply this relationship to each individual as He sees fit

thus my sermons don't have to be 'remembered' but merely in line with the Spirit, moving people to Christ - regardless if they remember the exact words used - but only they are left feeling strangely moved to the Scriptures that they may seek Him - as He personally interacts with them

2 comments:

Glen said...

Amen Dev!!

Application is the lazy option for preachers who don't feel the force of Christ *Himself*. They feel they have to add a little oomph to make the sermon "connect". But if there's no "oomph" without such a "to do" list, what on earth have they been on about??!

yemsee said...

what do you think about connecting with the church as a corporate entity then?

as in how do you make corporate transitional steps?

let's say we've all been impacted by Jesus that we need each other to remind ourselves of Him - thus the 'corporate application' - is we're moving towards cell groups?
and encouraging people to join one?