Can You Have a Church Service Without Hearing a Preacher Speak?
My wife and I recently visited a church. Though we didn’t know it before we walked in, their service would be different that week. There was no sermon.
The church used the normal sermon time to talk about the missionaries their church supported.
They explained each missionary’s focus and updated us on their status. They shared the joys and concerns of their missionaries.
People on the mission’s committee prayed. Then the service ended. The lead pastor didn’t say a word.
Several people apologized for there being no sermon and invited us back to hear their minister speak.
I shook my head. “Don’t apologize. This was better than a sermon.”
But they didn’t get it.
From my perspective it was a profound, meaningful service. We need more like this.
As I understand it, the Reformation removed the communion table (The Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion, the Eucharist) as the focus of the Sunday service and replaced it with the sermon.
I get why they did it, but it was a mistake – a grave one.
Frankly I see more biblical support for celebrating communion every Sunday than I do for giving a lecture (that is, delivering a sermon) as part of our Sunday meetings.
Though the New Testament does talk about giving messages to local congregations, I think it is always a traveling missionary who speaks on his way through town.
I don’t recall an instance in the New Testament where a local pastor (an elder) gives a talk every Sunday.
I can’t remember any commands to preach a sermon to the believers during each weekly meeting.
Yet we view sermons today with the conviction that it must happen. We select ministers for their public speaking ability. And we expect to listen to a lecture each Sunday as we sit passively in our pews.
Most people feel cheated if they go to church and don’t hear a sermon. Never mind that few can remember it by the time they reach home.
This fixation on the sermon is wrong.
Though instruction has its place, teaching doesn’t facilitate community. It doesn’t allow us to minister to one another (as we should), and it doesn’t serve the world around us (as we ought).
While listening to an overly educated person detail the minutia of scripture every week may have intellectual appeal, it does little in a practical sense to deepen our community and advance our faith in action.
Let us dare to envision a church service without a sermon. Let us reimagine our weekly gatherings as a place to foster spiritual community and promote the love of Jesus to those outside the church.
It starts when we kill the sermon. Will you dare to do it?
My wife and I visited a different Christian Church every Sunday for a year. This is our story. Get your copy of 52 Churches today, available in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
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