Aug 30, 2016

Sermon Quality and Choosing a New Church

The Pew Research Center recently put out this study on what Americans are looking for in choosing a new church. This study is interesting at a number of levels but I was most interested in what it had to say about preaching. For example, "Among U.S. adults who have ever looked for a new house of worship, about eight-in-ten say the quality of sermons (83%) or feeling welcomed by clergy and lay leaders (79%) played an important role in their choice." Unfortunately, this survey did not indicate what people meant by "quality sermons." Some of those surveyed also noted that they were looking for churches that offered "preaching from the Bible." Which is both encouraging and disappointing. It is encouraging in that at least some are looking for biblical preaching. It is disappointing in that biblical preaching is not a given. In any case, to borrow from Mark Twain, the reports of the death of preaching seem to have been greatly exaggerated.

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