No Excuses for Preaching Bad Sermons: Wednesday Share

It's Tuesday evening as I write this, and I am currently sitting here in the hospital (I'm writing on Tuesday, but will post this tomorrow, which for you will be today?). Why am I here, you ask? Well, a couple of close friends of mine are about to have a child, and frankly I wanted to be here, too.

That said, I'm just sitting in the waiting room at the moment, and figured I should probably make good use of my time, hence getting a jump on tomorrow's (today's?) post.

I scanned Tim Challies site, as I haven't posted anything of his for a bit, which is a shame, as he is a good writer. But I came across this post where he talks about the helps that modern preachers have; helps that mean there really is no excuse for a bad sermon.

I picked this because he used photography as a segue into the topic. In our current age of YouTube, learning photography really isn't all that hard, at least to get to a place where you're able to take a decent shot. But the problem is that it can be easy to skip all of the fundamental aspects of the art form, and art itself.

In the same way, modern tools have made sermon prep "easy". But at what cost?

If I may "update" the idea, however. Artificial intelligence has taken this concept and multiplied it exponentially. It's too easy to type in a prompt for a message and get back a solid exposition of even the most complex text. Never mind what A.I. has done to photography.

But the foundational elements still apply. No amount of YouTube or A.I. can replace knowing your stuff, whether it be photography or preaching.

Anyway, it's a short post, but a good caution for us in this day, especially preachers, but really for all of us.