England, of course, is the nation that once gave us preachers the likes of Charles Simeon, Charles Spurgeon, and Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Now, with the rare and blessed exception of some faithful evangelical churches, preaching has fallen on desperate times.
Some observers of British life now estimate that in any given week Muslim attendance at mosques outnumbers Christian attendance at churches. That means that there are probably now in Britain more people who listen to imams than to preachers.
This raises an interesting question: Is the marginalization of biblical preaching in so many churches a cause or a result of the nation’s retreat from Christianity? In truth, it must be both cause and effect. In any event, there is no hope for a recovery of biblical Christianity without a preceding recovery of biblical preaching. That means preaching that is expository, textual, evangelistic, and doctrinal. In other words, preaching that will take a lot longer than ten minutes and will not masquerade as a form of entertainment.
Fortunately, England still has Nicky Gumbel and Alpha.
[i]Indeed, preaching is the central act of Christian worship, [/i]
No, that would be the Eucharist.
Jim
(Note: I am NOT saying preaching is not important, it definitely is, and I’ve been tempted to leave more than one service due to the quality — or lack thereof — of the preaching.)
(Elves, please delete my two comments above. On thinking about it, this is a better comment)
‎[i]”Indeed, preaching is the central act of Christian worship, “[/i]
The author is clearly not a member of any Liturgical Church (actually, he is Southern Baptist), but preaching or rather the exposition of God’s Word, is very important in Christian Worship, but I would hold that for the liturgical church that would be the Eucharist. We can hear preaching at any time (and should be more than just on Sunday mornings) but the Eucharist is reserved for our corporate worship, and for the liturgical Christian, is what helps “conform us to the image of Christ” and gives us strength for our journey.
In Him,
Jim <><