I just finished reading a wonderful book by T. David Gordon with the interesting title Why Johnny Can't Preach. Frankly, before I read the book I thought it was going to be a book about the need for a seminary education prior to ordination as a Minister of the Word. Reading the subtitle likely would have helped my ignorance. The book is subtitled "The Media Have Shaped the Messengers."
This book impressed me for two reasons. First, it impressed me because Gordon gave a spot-on critique of modern preaching and the lack of good, Christ-centered expository preaching. Secondly, it impressed me in the sense of convicting me of some of my own weaknesses in preaching or at least the temptation to fall into a couple of different traps in preaching. In this review I hope to summarize the book and then offer a bit of further analysis from a personal point of view.
The book begins with Gordon, who is a University professor, lamenting the preaching he (and his wife) have sat under in the past 30 years. He gives a number of reasons why the preaching he has heard has made him "disgusted" (page 20). The biggest weakness of sermons he has heard in the past from Presbyterian and Reformed pulpits is the lack of a discernable point of the sermon. Most sermons are an aimless wandering. On page 18 he says, "I would guess that of the sermons I have heard over the last twenty-five years, 15 percent had a discernable point; I could say, 'The sermon was about X.' Of those 15 percent, however, less than 10 percent demonstratably based the point on the text read. That is, no competent effort was made to persuade the hearer that God's Word required a particular thing; it was simply asserted." This is the type of criticism that Gordon has of modern preaching. He claims he is not alone in his assessment and that after many discussions with elders of vacant churches, he found that they sought to call the man who was the best of the worst.
Gordon continues and says that the 7 requisites of Gospel preaching taught by R.L. Dabney 130 years ago are nearly absent today. They are: 1. Textual Fidelity 2. Unity 3. Evangelical Tone 4. Instructiveness 5. Movement 6. Point, and 7. Order. He fleshes these out, but I will allow you to read the book and see for yourself.
He makes three more points defending the thesis that modern preaching is in a world of hurt. He argues that there is a continued desire for briefer sermons. A public speaker cannot keep the attention of an audience, that is fed image after image daily, for a speech of one hour or more. He says, frankly, when the sermon is uninteresting, without a clear point, unity, order, etc. 20 minutes is too long to listen.
Next, he mentions the emergent church movement and its flight from anything "churchy" or "how things used to be done." He says what these churches fail to realize in response to "moribund" churches they have thrown the baby out with the bath water. He says, "What the contemporaneists and emergents have not yet considered, however, is the possibility that such moribund churches are so not because they are doing the wrong things, but because they are doing them incompetently. (page 32)"
Finally, he mentions the lack of an annual review of the preaching in a local church. He claims that ministers do not want to do it and officers do not want to hurt the feelings of their pastors. If you begin to dig deep into the preaching in an annual review, how weak the preaching is might become very clear. He says that the Christian ministry is about one of the only arenas where you will find opposition to an annual review.
In the next section of the book Gordon, after having laid out the problem, digs into the reason that preaching is so poorly done today. The first reason that Johnny can't preach is because Johnny can't read (texts)(chapter 3). This was probably the most interesting chapter to me in light of the culture we live in. Allow me to summarize his point. Today we read for information. People speed read, people pick out important words, etc. People today read the Bible like the newspaper and this is a problem. Gordon claims that if writing lasts beyond the generation it was written, it likely is more becuase of the way something is said than what actually is being said. Take Shakespeare's sonnets...they are read today because of their poetic beauty, not because of their content so much. But, we read today for imformation.
This has also led us to no longer be able to distinguish between what is significant and what is not. In defending this, Gordon cites writers like Neil Postman (Amusing Ourselves to Death) and David Denby (Great Books). Gordon mentions things like an "in-depth" news story is about 5 minutes long at the most, but anything worth looking at closely will certainly take longer than 5 minutes, but that is all the time North Americans will allow before we lose interest.
The second large reason that Johnny can't preach is because Johnny can't write (chapter 4). People rarely write letters anymore. Modern technology has made them nearly obsolete. The telephone was the first to replace writing letters. On the telephone you cannot sense someone's body language and since it is awkward to have silence on the telephone, any gap in conversation is filled in with babble until we are to the point where very little is said over the phone or anytime for that matter. He said that if you took a transcript of a phone conversation it would likely be 5 times as long as a hand-written letter giving the same "important" information. We have changed from a literate (reading and writing) culture to an alliterate one, where the image and sound clip reign. In the footnote on page 97 he says this about television and distinguishing the significant from the insignificant. "Television-watching prohibits such discernment. One cannot simply regard the significant as more important than the insignificant, and then plop himself in front of a television for two to three hours and evening. The only way the conscience can survive such a colossal waste of human life is for the individual to refuse to entertain the question of the difference between the significant and the insignificant."
In the final chapter of the book, Gordon says that Johnny can learn how to preach (chapter 5). He lists four ways to help improve the situation. First, to conduct and annual review, either among a council or even to enlist members of the congregation anonymously to fill out questionairres.
The second way is to cultivate a sensibility of reading texts closely. This happens long before a future minister enters seminary. Teach your children to read and read well. Poetry trumps prose in this area.
Thirdly, cultivate the sensibility of composed communication. The art of communication is largely lost, but it can be regained. He suggests ministers join the rotary club or something like that to hone in their speaking skills and listening to professionals speak in an articulate way.
Fourthly, cultivate pre-homiletical sensibilities: Johnny can learn to preach. Here, Gordon suggest that student major in their undergraduate work in English literature rather than Theology or Religion. He encourages the study of pre-WWII lit. Thankfully, Gordon ends with a positive by suggesting ways to improve.
In critique of this book, I have nearly only positive to say. Gordon gets to the point and argues for Christ-centered preaching. He does this in light of preaching which is "moralistic", "how-to", "introspecitve", and "social gospel/so-called Culture War" (pages 78-88). Those 10 pages are worth the price of the book.
As a preacher who preaches twice every Lord's Day, I found this book helpfully critical. I saw myself in some of the criticism. In a day and age where the people of God want their hand held and are want to be told what they can and cannot do, as a minister (who has a mind full of opinions on nearly everything), it is easy to give in and become moralistic/legalistic/or how-to, and then of course, add 2 minutes on at the end that we do this because we love Jesus. Gordon mentions that 2 minutes about Jesus at the end of the sermon will not make up for 30 minutes of moralistic preaching. Right on!
Frankly, just about every minister thinks he is a better preacher than he is. I think some honest evaluation needs to be done. Next month at our consistory meeting my elder will have an opportunity to constructively critique my preaching over the last quarter. My prayer is that it will be helpful for me, for them, and ultimately for the flock I am called to serve.
My biggest issue I had with this book is what was not said, but then again, it is only a 100 page book and he even mentions that he plans to follow it up with other books (e.g. Why Johnny can't sing hymns, publ. 2010).
I have other personal reflections on some of the points Gordon drew out in this work, but I will leave those for my personal journal and maybe share them with my wife.
This is a must-read for everyone who has a genuine care and interest in the heralding of the good news that Jesus Christ came to seek and to save the lost. To use a bit of Romans 10, how can they hear if the preacher cannot preach? Enjoy the read!
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