I spent $155 at the book store and the one worth the whole amount is a slim paperback written by a Pennsylvania college professor: “Why Johnny Can’t Preach”. In the preface he confesses: “I’ve always feared to state publicly that, in my opinion, less that 30 percent of those who are ordained to the Christian ministry can preach an even mediocre sermon…”
His tradition is northern, evangelical, Presbyterian, but he could have been listening to the same preachers I have listened to in Kentucky for almost two decades. The quality of preaching is so low we all have come to accept mediocrity as the norm.
Why can’t Johnny (and Sally) preach? In his book, T. David Gordon faults a decline in reading (especially classical languages and poetry), a preference for phone conversation as opposed to face-to-face dialogue, and the absence of attention to the person and work of Jesus Christ in preaching and a preference for mere morality (a la the culture wars). The first two, he insists, are ways the culture has re-shaped communication in general and preaching in particular. The third represents the eventual triumph, even in conservative and evangelical circles, of the theological liberalism that emerged in the 19th century.
Consider this quote: “Even when one can discern a unified point in a sermon, it is sometimes a point hardly worth making and certainly not worth making in a Christian pulpit during a service of worship.” Which is reminiscent of the observation I once made of a preacher: “He preaches second-rate sermons on third-rate themes.”
I, of course, despair even of my own preaching and am generally relieved that I do not have to listen to myself week after week. Many of the criticisms Dr. Gordon makes could have come directly from sitting in the pew in front of my pulpit.
But I don’t necessarily agree with him as to the causes of this calamity. Preaching does not attract the quality of persons as it has in former years, largely because talented and committed people have lost the conviction that preaching is a socially significant vocation. Also, preachers as a public voice must compete with a range of more interesting, more competent, and often more compelling interpreters of life and history.
All of this is part of the reason we launched the Academy of Preachers. We trust that what we are doing will make a difference, that a decade or two from now, people in the pew might mutter to one another, “Johnny’s doing better, don’t you think?”