Hopefully this is the last in a series of long posts responding to John Dickson’s book “Hearing Her Voice.”
The other posts include:
- A bit of a thesis on what faithful “preaching” as the act of the gathered church looks like.
- My book review and an initial response
- An attempt to define preaching
If none of this interests you – have you watched this lip reading of NFL players? It’s funny.
A tl:dr;* introduction/summary of what follows
*too long, didn’t read
In what follows I argue that if the sermon is preaching (not teaching), and preaching, in the context of the gathering (not preaching outside the gathering – essentially to non-believers), is:
- a piece of cross-shaped persuasion proclaiming the crucified Lord Jesus and the message of the gospel,
- something of greater magnitude than the sacraments, in that the sacraments support the preaching,
- where God speaks through those he provides with gifts,
- so long as they too submit to the authority of Scripture, and their sermon is based on the authority of God’s revealed word.
If these points are true, then the sermon is the ultimate act of authority in the church, and at the center of preaching – which is a corporate activity of the church (not an individual act).
So if one is a complementarian the sermon should be:
- a clear proclamation of the gospel,
- based on the authority of God’s revealed word,
- given by a man who meets the Biblical ethos guidelines for a preacher (assuming they’re the same as those for an elder),
- who is appropriately gifted to carry out the logos and pathos elements of the delivery of a sermon,
- which sits in the context of a church gathering where all the members sacrificially exercise their gifts, as one body,
- to preach the gospel, corporately (in an act of worship).
And therefore, those who preach should be:
- Sacrificial in their approach to preaching,
- not speaking as an ego exercise, but a genuine act of service to others,
which means being mindful of who they are preaching to, and how their preaching style and content relates to and serves those in the gathering.
While the structure of the gathering, and the life of the church outside the gathering, should be such that all members of the church can function as part of the body and use their gifts in the preaching of the gospel (outside of the context of the gathering).
If you disagree with any of that, and want to tell me about it – feel free to jump to the comments and tell me why – this is another pretty big post. I feel like I can justify most of these positions from the Bible, and from various “authorities” throughout church history – but I haven’t always done this because some of the points assume things I’ve argued previously, and other times it’s just too hard to list all the proof texts, and I prefer proof vibe, and theological coherence and cogency, anyway.
Thinking about this issue has been fun because it has forced me to consider some things that appear to be contradictory in my thinking about church and ministry. I’m trying to reconcile the beliefs that all people are equal, but genders are inherently different, and all believers are “priests,” while some specific roles exist, and some of these roles aren’t available to sets of equal people.
On a simplistic level – if you’re comfortable with the idea that somebody who is tone deaf but passionate about singing shouldn’t be leading the singing at church, and that they might willingly forgo this role because they understand it’s for the good of others without losing any sense of their own value or the value of their singing to God, you’ve already started reconciling these tension.
Want to read more. Like 5,000 words more… then click the “read more” link…