The lecture-style sermon, delivered every Sunday. File under “We’ve always done it that way.” But in the information age, has the sermon outlived its usefulness? David Murrow writes at patheos.com:
Just as universities are re-thinking the lecture, it might be time for churches to re-think the sermon. Thom and Joani Schultz polled churchgoers and found that just 12 percent could recall the topic of the last sermon they heard. Only five percent of men credited sermons as their primary source of knowledge about God.
So if sermons are becoming obsolete, what will take their place?
Discipleship. Our generation may be drowning in ideas, but we’re starving for real human contact.
The problem is, our churches are structured to deliver sermons and music. If there’s any energy left, we disciple people.
What if we could turn that around? What if there were a way of organizing believers around a weekly discipleship experience, instead of a weekly lecture-and-singalong?
Read full post here. What do you think?