4 Problematic Defenses of Preaching Monologue Sermons During Church Gatherings

[*WARNING: This post is somewhat negative in tone. The point is to diagnose a serious problem in the life of the church. My desire is to follow this up with other posts that positively focus on solutions.]

Regardless of denomination, worship style, or size, almost all churches gather together weekly for some type of worship service. One of the main aspects of this gathering is the monologue style sermon. I'm referring to one person, usually a pastor, preaching to the church body for 20-60 minutes. His speech is generally carefully planned and uninterrupted.  Only he speaks.  There is no verbal interaction with the congregation other than "Amens" and things of that sort. When he concludes, the service moves on to something else such as an "invitation," song, prayer, or dismissal.

I've consistently run into four primary (and problematic) defenses of this type of sermon. The four defenses are as follows:

1. "There was preaching in OT Israel, so there should be preaching in worship services today." Those who give this defense usually point to passages such as Nehemiah chapter 8, stressing 8:8, which says, "They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading."

2. "There's been preaching throughout church history, so we should have preaching of sermons in our worship services." In particular, people point to the Reformers who said that preaching was one of the signs of the true church.

3. "In the New Testament we see much preaching to lost people. Therefore, we should have preaching of sermons in worship services." There are all sorts of places, especially in the book of Acts, where we can see people preaching the gospel to unbelievers. Famous accounts are Peter's sermons in the early part of the book and Paul's sermons on his missionary journeys. Paul's gospel proclamation in Athens at Mars Hill may be the most well known.

4. "Timothy was specifically told by Paul to preach the word.  Therefore, there should be preaching in worship services."  This reference is from II Timothy chapter 4.  The common thinking is that since Timothy preached to the church, today's church needs preaching in its gatherings.

To review, the four primary defenses of monologue-style preaching during church gatherings are OT Israel, church history, NT preaching to the lost, and Timothy preaching to the church in Ephesus.

Something fascinating is going on here.  None of these defenses comes from an actually gathering of the church (none comes from a "worship service" because that was a foreign idea to the NT church).

Please let me emphasize this again: none of the primary defenses for the monologue sermon come from an actual church gathering.

OT Israel is not the church.  Israel was a nation in covenant with God, but they were not the community of the redeemed.

Church history is important, but people are faulty. History must fall under the authority of scripture. Even the Reformers made multiple mistakes. Dare I say that Calvin and Luther could have been incorrect? Their views are not scripture.

NT preaching to the lost is exactly that: proclaiming the gospel to lost people. By definition that is not the church. We should all (not just "preachers") be regularly preaching the good news of the gospel to lost people. However, this isn't what happens when the church gathers.

Paul's charge to Timothy to "preach the word" to the Ephesian church nowhere says anything at all about it taking place during church gatherings. Rather, it seems to be an overarching statement to proclaim the truth of scripture to the church. It is likely that false teaching was a problem that Timothy had to confront. There is no suggestion in II Timothy that Timothy preach sermons about this during a church gathering.

All four of these defenses fail to provide actual biblical support for the preaching of monologue sermons in church gatherings. This is stunning and troubling at the same time. For many churches, the high point of their weekly worship service is the sermon. This practice has no biblical support. Something is seriously wrong.

I'll state it again: there is no biblical support for the way many churches today "preach" during worship services. Rather, it is a man-made concept and practice that has been foisted through tradition upon the church. Those seeking to justify this practice resort to the above four defenses. All four fail to make even an adequate case for what we see so often today.

So now what? If monologue sermons do not follow any sort of biblical pattern in church gatherings, what should we do? We certainly know that teaching was important in the life of the church. How did that happen? Where does preaching come in?

If sermon preaching is unbiblical (in the sense that it does not follow a biblical pattern or example), what could we do that more closely conforms to what we read in scripture? What did the early church think was important in their gatherings?

These are all important questions that need to be discussed and understood. I'm going to try to tackle a few of them in the days ahead. Many who read this blog have already thought through these issues. I encourage you to read the posts - if they seem interesting. More importantly, I'd like your comments about what you think about this issue, why you think it, and what your church does when it gathers. I'd also like to know how you handle the command to "preach the word."

All this comes from a person who has preached many monologue sermons but will never do so again.