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Given: Preaching is only effective if it connects with people!

Given: Our culture has changed over the past 30 years.  Reaching them requires churches to change methods – this includes preaching.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The truth we teach never changes, but we need to communicate that truth in different ways.

I have observed 4 very common traps that keep preaching from connecting.  Anyone of them can thwart your efforts to reaching people who are far from God. 

Avoiding them, however, is tricky.  There is great pressure placed on pastor’s to yield to these traps.  When they do yield – SNAP!  The trap is sprung and preaching becomes paralyzed

Here are the 4 traps in no particular order:

1) The Theology Trap: A lot of pastors have been cornered, or conditioned, into preaching sermons that rival a doctrinal dissertation on theological discourse.  While long-time established Christians may view this as a gourmet meal, people far from God will miss it altogether.  More to the point, it will confirm to them what they already believe: the church is completely irrelevant for their lives.

2) The Biblical Relevance Trap: There is an unhealthy and overwhelming fear of preaching the relevance of Scripture.  Post-modern’s are not against finding out how to get to heaven, but what they really want to know is how they are going to get through next week!

People are beat up and run down by today’s culture.  If they are in your church they are looking for answers that work, because everything else has let them down.  They want to know if God, The Bible, even the church, has anything to help them survive tomorrow, and the day after that…

Does the Bible have anything to teach about daily living?  Sure it does!  In fact, it teaches us more about living our daily lives than it does about Salvation.  So why do we avoid connecting the Bible with daily relevance?

Suggestion: Try these themes for a relevant preaching series: sex, dating, relationships, marriage, personal finance, integrity, parenting, etc.  People struggle with these things on a daily basis.  The Bible speaks to every one.

3) The No Multi-Media Allowed Trap:  In order to connect with post-modern’s the use of multi-media is a must – no exceptions.  It is missionary thinking 101.  Communicate the gospel in the language and cultural context of the people you are trying to reach.  In 21st Century America that means multi-media.
Successful implementation of this is huge.  So much so, that I will dedicate my next post to the effective use of multi-media.

4) The Fear of “Dumbing It Down” Trap: Actual quote from a church leader (note the sarcasm): “Why would we ever want to corrupt the integrity of Scripture by associating it with the mundane things of daily life like fishing, or farming, or sand drawings, or lilies in the field… oops, I guess we just disqualified Jesus from preaching in our church!” Enough Said.

These are the 4 most common traps I see.  Are there any traps you know of that need to be included?



Alan Chandler is a Consultant Partner with Church Doctor Ministries, a full-service church consultation ministry dedicated to helping Christians and churches become more effective for the Great Commission, to make disciples of all people.  Alan can be reached at alanchandler@churchdoctor.org