John Stott, in his lecture series "The Bible and the Christian Imagination," that when Paul was in Ephesus, he preached for five hours a day, for three years. This comes out to over 3,000 hours of preaching. And Acts tells us that all of Asia heard the Gospel.
It is easy to just give Stott an amen! and argue that what we need is longer sermons and more in depth Bible study. As valuable as this may be, it's hard to imagine how any such conversation could take place in 21st century America.
We're the culture of the soundbite, and 15 minutes of fame. TV has trained us with 30 second commercials and 30 minute sitcoms. Churches respond by priding themselves on the 17 minute sermon and 30 minute worship (http://www.30minuteworship.com/) How is it when politician have to express their views in a few sentences, that we can hold people's attention long enough to unpack the deep truths of the gospel?
There are signs of hope. Emerging generations tend to show up in droves, with pen, paper and Bible in hand, to listen to guys like Rob Bell, Louie Giglio and Mark Driscoll preach for over an hour. Academics theologians like N.T. Wright and John Stott, and even more "pop" writers like Bryan McLaren and Donald Miller are reaching huge audiences. So, it is too soon to give up.
But the question remains, in a culture where people are trained to be shallow, how do you teach the deep truths of Jesus Christ?
1 comment:
Here's a couple questions for you:
Can deep truth be articulated clearly and concisely?
And if so isn't there always advantage in doing so verses lengthy teaching?
Thoughts?
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