Eight years ago I bought a Toyota Camry that has served me well in my daily commute to work. But I have discovered one downside: after several close calls, I've learned when changing lanes that I can check all my mirrors carefully and still miss a car that's right beside me. My car has a large blind spot.
I have had a similar experience with a movement I much appreciate: the spiritual formation movement.
Books on spiritual formation speak my language. I'm a pastor who wants to see people grow into strong disciples of Jesus Christ. Disciplines of any sort appeal to me—spiritual disciplines in particular. That's why as much as I respect those who have written on spiritual formation, I was surprised to find that they have a large blind spot: their view of preaching.
Read books on spiritual formation and you will be hard pressed to find anyone who lists listening to the preaching of God's Word as a first-order spiritual discipline. Granted, the writers typically are not attempting to provide an exhaustive list of spiritual disciplines. If asked, I'm sure they would unanimously say listening to preaching is a spiritual discipline. Still, the writers I have surveyed typically mention listening to preaching under the broader discipline of studying the Word—if they mention it at all.
Read books on spiritual formation and you will be hard pressed to find anyone who lists listening to the preaching of God's Word as a first-order spiritual discipline.Contrast this with the important description of the early church's spiritual disciplines in Acts 2:42–47. It begins: "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer" (italics mine). In addition, the importance that the apostles placed on preaching (in passages like Acts 6:1–4; 1 Tim 4:13; 5:17; 2 Tim 4:1–3) suggests that listening to preaching was a first-order spiritual discipline. Certainly the leaders of the Reformation felt that way. They placed primary attention on public teaching and preaching. Karl Barth, writing to the well-educated West, regarded the proclamation of the Word as one of the three fundamental ways that people experience the life-changing Word of God.
Granted again, Acts 2 describes a period when the church did not yet have the New Testament; in a sense the apostles' teaching was their New Testament. In addition, the rates of literacy in the first through sixteenth centuries differed from those of churches in the West today. Still, for Christians in the West, you tell me: am I on to something here? Do you believe listening to preaching has been treated like a second-order discipline in spiritual formation? Why or why not? And what is the unique value of the discipline of listening to preaching?
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Posted by Brian Lowery at 11:22 AM on November 24, 2008
Comments
I'm big on the "formation" lens/approach to making disciples of Jesus. And I consider preaching/teaching in weekly worship critical to formation, both on personal and corporate levels. To me, preaching/teaching is the single tool most at our disposal in formation on the congregational level (since we're not called to make singular disciples only, but also Christian community).
Posted by: guy m williams on November 24, 2008
Preaching should not be considered a second-rate spiritual discipline. The process of exegesis used in studying a text to prepare to preach is Bible study at a very deep level that would probably come up as a spiritual discipline listed in many books. I think that preaching is using other spiritual disciplines such as Bible study and prayer to prepare to communicate God's Word to God's people. It should be seen, therefore, as a display of multiple spiritual disciplines but not a second-rate discipline.
Posted by: Ben Birdsong on November 25, 2008
Excellent insight. Without question, listening to the preaching of the Word should be included as an important spiritual discipline. Not only important, but with today's technology it is as easy as sitting down at your computer, turning on the TV, grabbing your ipod or even your cell phone.
Posted by: Matt on December 30, 2008