Feed them bible truth: modern preaching critiqued

John Piper:

To begin with, the older I get, the less impressed I am with flashy

successes and enthusiasms that are not truth-based. Everybody

knows that with the right personality, the right music, the right

location, and the right schedule you can grow a church without

anybody really knowing what doctrinal commitments sustain it, if

any. Church-planting specialists generally downplay biblical doctrine

in the core values of what makes a church successful. The

long-term effect of this ethos is a weakening of the church that is

concealed as long as the crowds are large, the band is loud, the

tragedies are few, and persecution is still at the level of preferences.

But more and more this doctrinally-diluted brew of music,

drama, life-tips, and marketing seems out of touch with real life

in this world not to mention the next. It tastes like watered down

gruel, not a nourishing meal. It simply isn’t serious enough.

It’s too playful and chatty and casual. Its joy just doesn’t feel deep

enough or heartbroken or well-rooted. The injustice and persecution

and suffering and hellish realities in the world today are

so many and so large and so close that I can’t help but think that,

deep inside, people are longing for something weighty and massive

and rooted and stable and eternal. So it seems to me that the

trifling with silly little sketches and breezy welcome-to-the-den

styles on Sunday morning are just out of touch with what matters

in life.

PIPER