In February I re-posted this: Preaching, an impediment to missional church? The essence of the article lamented on the effectiveness of centering our church gatherings around the star preacher who took the bulk of the time. (I am thinking primarily of evangelical circles.)

The debate is heating up again, but this time centered around the core function of the church--to make disciples (Matt 28:18-20). The question: Does preaching make disciples or is it an impediment (Kinnon).

Ed Stetzer rightly notes, and most would agree (less those in the middle of all-star preaching), that Rockstars behind the pulpit may not be God's sent gift from heaven. At worst it deifies the pastor, at best it creates a sluggish listening audience entertained by fancy words and illustrations while mostly inert to formulating a response.

The result is the continued treatment of Sunday morning, and subsequently the gospel itself, as a business machine churning out consumable spiritual wares. The Gospel becomes something to be promoted rather than proclaimed.

Preaching is one of the reasons we've lost effectiveness in our churches. John Piper may cringe when I say it, but he laments that without a good dose of hell and preaching the pulpit (and subsequently churches) become powerless. But perhaps it's the other way around--the pulpit has rendered our churches powerless.

How so?

When the community gathers I don't believe we're centered around the talking head (multisite churches) or rockstar lead pastor. We're not driven by the musical worship. We don't come together to be taught. We don't arrive to be entertained.

When the church gathers together there is a mystical, spiritual, and communal component that seeks to celebrate what God is doing in the midst of community, and to offer worship to the Father. The center of this exercise is focused squarely to the Son as represented by the Table. That's different than focusing on the preacher.

The center of church gatherings is not the preaching or the pulpit, but Jesus Christ. And it's up to us to pay attention to his examples. Christ commissions the church to make disciples. He also gives us the example of rescue. Mission.

The mission of rescue requires participants. Participants require discipleship and participation.

To exclusively focus on preaching as the core element of our gathering times is to remove participation from the hands of people who must adopt mission, and it minimizes discipleship. Church then becomes a listening exercise rather than a spiritually formative one.

Never in my life have I met a wholesome Christians ready to disciple another who were themselves discipled exclusively by preaching. Sermons just aren't the right impetus to make disciples.

We've elevated the wrong thing in our gathering times.

I'm not advocating removing preaching. I am suggesting it needs to be a component of the spiritually forming objective of re-aligning within God's mission to redeem and rescue creation.