Preaching Today

Much preaching today seems to be tepid, soft, and often meant to please the ears of the audience. In contrast, a great example for us today is Spurgeon who used to preach to people in a way that caused them to see the Lord with great fervor. He believed that preaching should never be boring, shallow, or lukewarm. He once said, "That is what you must do with your sermons, make them red-hot; never mind if men do say you are too enthusiastic, or even too fanatical, give them a red hot shot, there is nothing else half as good for the purpose you have in view. We do not go snow-balling on Sundays, we go fire-balling; we ought to hurl grenades into the enemies ranks."

He said further in his book The Soul Winner: "If the people are to be saved, it must be by sermons that interest them. You have first to get them to come under the sound of the gospel, for there is, at all events in London, a great aversion to a place of worship, and I am not much surprised that it is so concerning many churches and chapels. I think, in many instances, the common people do not attend such services because they do not understand the theological 'lingo' that is used in the pulpit; it is neither English nor Greek, but Double-dutch. No, brethren, we must preach in what Whitefield used to call 'market language' if we would have all classes of the community listening to our message."