A Disappointing Book on Preaching

Recently, I read Doug Pagitt's book Preaching Re-Imagined. I didn't like the book. Here are some of his shocking statements about preaching:

• "Preaching doesn't work" (18)
• "Preaching is a tragically broken endeavor" (19)
• "Great preaching isn't sufficient" (19)
• "Preaching suffers from a relationship problem" (21)
• "We've become blind to the ways in which speaching damages our people and creates a sense of powerlessness in them" (22)
• "Do whatever is necessary to protect our communities from the significant problems speaching presents" (25)
• "Weekly speaching functions like a repetitive stress disorder for both preacher and parish. Occasional usage likely won't hurt anyone, but to make a regular practice of speaching may well be an act of relational violence, one that is detrimental to the very communities we are seeking to nurture" (25-26)
• "A move away from speaching is essential" (35)
• "The practice of applying Scripture to our lives is not the established Christian tradition but rather the product of more recent ways of thinking about church" (97)
• "The good news is not informational" (103)

I strongly disagree!

If Pagitt's book was written simply to encourage better interaction in small group settings, I would commend it as a thought-provoking guide. But it isn't. Pagitt's book attacks the Bible's imperatives to preach the Word, overlooks the numerous examples of preaching through Scripture and church history, wrongly redefines key theological terms, uses straw-man arguments, confuses the difference between preaching and fellowship, undermines the concepts of authority and truth, and dismisses contemporary examples of effective exposition.

For these reasons, I cannot recommend Preaching Re-Imagined as a resource for preachers today. I may share Pagitt's frustration with seeker-sensitive/mega-church methodologies which depend on slick communicators who preach weak sermons void of biblical content to entertain huge assemblies of people, but I will not go so far as to replace faithful exposition with progressional dialogue. This is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Rather, it would be better to allow Pagitt's book to guide us in thinking how we might enjoy more intimate Christian fellowship – although even in this, Pagitt seems to undervalue the Bible's role.