At a recent MTS Training day, Col Marshall explained some of the potential risks of the church that’s sermon-driven…
– potentially limits the audience to those who can deal with that type of sermon
– potentially limits the maturity of some people, because you’re trying to make it suitable for a wider audience
– potentially limits the servant attitude of people, who are only spoken at and not encouraged to speak encouraging gospel words to each other
– potentially leads pastors to be sermon focused, rather than sermon-hearer focused
They are good reflections I think. They aren’t conclusive, as the word which is preached is able to cross all these limitations. But humanly speaking they’re right.
The interesting thing is that Col’s conclusion was that churches need to make sure they run really good gospel-shaped structures around the Sunday sermon to alleviate these risks.
Vine-Growers always start with great seedlings and brilliant trellises.