Where is preaching that challenges heart?

Most of the time when I walk out of church, I speak very little about the sermon from that point forward. I don't think I am alone. Ironically, many at my church think that we have a very good preacher. And, by their measuring stick, I think he is. My stick, however, is how it moves people.

The fact is that he has built a large congregation virtually from scratch. I do not mean to disrespect him by talking so negatively about preaching. One of my favorite preachers, Mike Malone, from St. Paul's PCA in Orlando, had the same problem. Very few people would talk about the sermon after it was over.

Now, Courtney and I are strange, and having noticed this point, try, as much as we can, to discuss the sermon during the remainder of the Sunday. However, we find it very difficult to bring it up with others. It seems that there is some unwritten rule that you can only give a vague approval to the sermon, and that is about the end of it. Satan has deceptively immunized us from God's word by creating a taboo out of honestly interacting with the sermon. We must simply say it was a good sermon and move on. We might even comment on the jokes or the structure, but the content is strictly off limits.

Now, to be sure, the congregations are in part to blame. Our spiritual apathy is high. We, including myself, who ought to know better, are hardly ready to hear the sermon. We spend our Saturday nights up late watching movies or sports at best and wake up late and groggy for church. We rush to get to church and usually wound the heart of some member of our family in the process. Our minds are cluttered and we are not attuned to the Spirit through the practice of the spiritual disciplines. Instead, we are worshiping the approval of others or our own influence on those around us. No wonder God's word falls on deaf ears.

However, preachers will be held accountable. It seems that if preachers were really challenging the people to take down their idols and worship Christ, something would be happening. People would be leaving or coming. Maybe all the "right" people would be leaving while the "wrong" people would be coming. It is as if there is some sort of conspiracy going on between the congregation and the church. People continue to come and pay if the church stays inside its box. If it tries to get out, who knows. I am not saying this is purposeful. It is just the way we have grown up. It is our model. I don't know where we got it, but it is ingrained.

The great revivals have been when the church preached the Gospel. It blew the doors off society and changed the world. We preach to read your bible more and pray. People already feel guilty about that. People feel that God is irrelevant. Why would they care to read his word or commune with him? And yet, people want the church to pretend to be an important part of their life. Hogwash! It is not. For most, it is relegated to the important events of life like marriage and death. While it is true that evangelicals have broadened this, family and politics are still a small part. God and his desire to redeem the world to himself is more than morals and bigger than integrity on the job. It has to do with squelching the pride that causes us to judge and gossip. It has to do with reorienting our desires to him and his people rather than the latest fashion or the most comfortable earthly existence for us and our family alone. It has to do with waking us up from our unloving hearts and our wandering affections. It has to do with breaking the bonds that society puts on us and circumventing the plots of Satan to have people die in quiet sin or bitter acquiescence.

All I am saying is that there are few sermons that leave me feeling the way many good movies do. Granted years and millions are spent on many movies and the preacher only has a week, but the preacher has the very Words of God with which to work. The congregation should have at least some members filled with the spirit, ready to respond. I'd love to leave hearing people talk about the sermon all the way to their car. I'd love to have conversations throughout the week about the sermons that this person or that heard at their respective churches. It just doesn't happen. The prophets, culminating in Christ, inspired people to kill them. Preachers can't even get people to talk about their sermons.

Either we need better food for contemplation or we have, as many have suggested, checked our brain at the door. We pick it up as we leave, and continue just as if we heard nothing.

Maybe it is just my own cynicism and spiritual deadness I am detecting. If so, let one of my brothers or sisters correct me.