As I listened, I found several common threads (click here for the complete notes from every sermon). These threads will make up most this article—a state of American preaching, if you will. Most of it will be negative. But first: what positive feedback would I give these sermons?

What’s the preaching like in America’s biggest churches? That’s the question I set out to answer.

I listened to four sermons each from the country’s nine biggest evangelical churches: Church of the Highlands (Birmingham, AL), North Point Ministries (Alpharetta, GA), Gateway Church (Southlake, TX), Crossroads Church (Cincinnati, OH), Christ’s Church of the Valley (Peoria, AZ), Saddleback Church (Lake Forest, CA), Christ Fellowship Church (Palm Beach Gardens, FL), Elevation Church (Mathews, NC), and Southeast Christian Church (Louisville, KY). With an average sermon length of about 30 minutes, these reflections are based on approximately 18 total hours of material.

As I listened, I found several common threads (click here for the complete notes from every sermon). These threads will make up most this article—a state of American preaching, if you will. Most of it will be negative. But first: what positive feedback would I give these sermons?

Several pastors mentioned the importance of diversity in the church. Chris Hodges made sure to let his congregation know that God values unity amid diversity in his sermon, “No Pain, No Gain.” He highlighted the work of Martin Luther King Jr. and called for their church to cultivate unity in diversity across racial/ethnic lines. During his first sermon in the series “People Over Politics,” Brian Tome of Crossroads Church pleaded with his hearers not to put their hope in any party, presumably to have them set their eyes on God instead (“Don’t Panic”). Here, their emphasis on the goodness of unity amidst diversity should challenge  us. As some in my theological circles warn against speaking a word about race and ethnicity, I was proud of Hodges and those who like him mentioned God’s good design for a diverse people.

Rick Warren talked a lot about their philosophy of ministry, and while I certainly would not agree with everything Saddleback does as a church I found a few things he said to be very helpful. In one sermon, “The One Family that Will Last,” Warren said church membership is a biblical imperative and that we enter the local church through baptism. In language reminiscent of Bobby Jamieson’s, Warren calls baptism the wedding ring of the church; it’s how the Christian pledges themselves to the visible body of Christ. Warren eschews our twin-cultures of individualism and consumerism when he states simply that we can’t be the church on our own—we need other Christians.

Were I sitting across the table from these pastors, these are the kinds of encouragements I would offer. I would also offer the following pieces of constructive criticism.

1. The gospel at best assumed; most of the time, it’s entirely absent.

Let me begin with the most important observation: in 36 sermons, the good news of Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection was unclear 36 times. Often, some or all of these facets of the Christian gospel were left out. “No gospel” became a common note. (Here’s an answer to the question you’re probably asking: What content is necessary in order to communicate the gospel?)

I don’t mean to say various elements of the gospel weren’t occasionally mentioned; they were. Todd Mullins (Christ Fellowship Church) mentions in his sermon series, “What Do You See Next?”, that faith is believing in what Jesus did for you—carrying the cross, rising from the dead, etc. But none of those elements are articulated or explained. It’s unclear exactly why we need Jesus to do anything for us. Furthermore, it’s unclear exactly what he did by doing the things Mullins mentions. Isolated phrases here and there without much reference to how the Bible puts them together was the norm.

In his sermon, “The Robe of Righteousness,” Robert Morris (Gateway Church) provides a happy exception. He mentions the doctrine of imputation, stating that we aren’t worthy of God and are in need of a “balancing (of our) . . . account.” Morris goes on to say that in the gospel we get Jesus’ assets while Jesus receives our debts. That’s as close to the gospel that any of these sermons gets—and even in this instance, the true things Morris mentions are isolated from the rest of the truths that make up the gospel message. (Neither God’s holy judgment, sin, nor repentance is mentioned.)

But here’s what’s even more disheartening: in his next sermon, Morris says the Jesus who accomplished all this for us “lays down all his divinity” (“The Ring of Authority”). Conspicuously missing from Morris’ explanation of what he calls “substitutionary, propitiatory, blood-bought salvation” is the response one must have to this message in order to be saved, which leads us to our next observation.

2. Repentance rarely comes across as something urgent and necessary; instead, it’s either optional or not worth mentioning at all.

Repentance was mentioned only a handful of times in the sermons I listened to. Kyle Idleman (Southeast Christian Church) mentions repentance as a way to grow in Christian maturity. Morris says his daughter repented once and she was healed from migraines because the open door the enemy had in her life had been closed by doing so. Steven Furtick (Elevation Church), when speaking of the prodigal son, quips that the prodigal wasn’t repentant, just hungry. In explaining how brokenness precedes breakthroughs, Chris Hodges (Church of the Highlands) mentions repentance but doesn’t explain what it means or what it looks like to actually repent. In fact, Hodges hints that nominal Christianity—what he calls “fire insurance” Christianity—while not optimal, is all you need (“Mirror, Mirror”).

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