Preaching: What’s Wrong with This Picture?

When I was a kid, I  liked the section of the comics that challenged the reader to identify the things that were wrong in a picture.  I admit that sometimes I still glance at the children’s section of the comics to see how quickly I can find the problems in the picture.  Keeps my mind sharp–questioning and thinking about the disconnects of life. Forgive me while I “rant.”

The “news” article was about a preacher that took his sermon theme from a pizza company mission statement.   The pizza company representative was quoted as saying, “It’s humbling that our values can be used for such a higher cause.” Sorry to be a naysayer!  “Is there something wrong with this picture?”

I have long suspected, after working with lots of students in sermon preparation classes and after reading lots of sermons online and in various publications, that a subtle shift (and sometimes not so subtle!) is occurring in how preachers go about the task of preaching. Lots of preachers just don’t know the Bible. They borrow (steal?) sermons. They find ideas and inspiration almost everywhere but in the Word of God.  I always enjoyed listening to Jim Bill McInteer.  I was amazed that he knew just the right Bible story to illustrate his point, many of them from obscure Old Testament stories.  Today preachers seem to get their illustrations from everywhere but the Bible.  Do we live in an age where our preachers get their sermon ideas from every place EXCEPT the Bible?  Is the church’s mission informed by God’s purpose or a pizza chain’s pledge?  Who should be influencing whom?

The article was titled, “Pizza a key ingredient in sermon.”  I guess that’s news.  Let me suggest something else that would be news in a lot of congregations:  “Word of God a key ingredient in sermon.”  Preachers! May God help us find our mission and purpose in life by tuning our lives to Him so that we desire his Word as did the Psalmist!