Sad Day for Preaching

The news article I read said that there were 450 people who left that day. 450 former members of the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida left that church and started a new church. Dr. James Kennedy was always one of my enemies. He was a Presbyterian minister who shared with me the name Christian and yet who stood for and promoted everything I was against. He was successful in the categories of the world. My father-in-law loved him. He had a t.v. program. He had more than 2,000 members and he was considered one of the bedrocks of the conservative evangelical Christian political block.

But he died and the church called a new minister. They called one of the grandsons of Billy Graham. They called a young man who had all of the same theological positions. The article said that there was not a hair's breadth of difference between the new minister and Dr. Kennedy. But more than 400 of the former members left to start a new church because they could not stand the new minister.

They could not stand the style of the new minister. It was all about style. Content did not matter. The new minister did not wear a pulpit robe. The new minister sometimes had not shaved for a couple of days. It is in all of the movies and television programs. The stars have a couple of days growth of beard. The new minister did not always stand for formality and traditions of the old church. The theology did not matter. It was all about style.

While I do not endorse or support the theology of that congregation, there is a great sadness that the content of preaching is here made secondary to the style of preaching. One would have hoped that people come to hear the Word of God preached to them and would rejoice if they have it preached to them. Regardless of whether it is in royal robes or a Bermuda shorts. But more than 450 members of one of the strongest conservative church believes that style is more important than content. Or so it appears from the newspaper article.

It would seem to me that it is a sad day for preaching.