I’m not convinced we should never land on the specific sins and issues of particular people in our congregation. It seems to me, application that lands is application that is relevant. The broader your application, the less pointed it is and so the easier it is to distance myself from it. Can we really expect people to change in response to the Word as it is preached if we keep putting such distance between them and the text that they can only take some very broad principles and apply them broadly to their lives?

Hardly a pastor I know has not, at some point, been asked whether something they said in their preaching was aimed at someone in particular. More often than not, it is a disgruntled congregant who thinks something has been said with them in mind. At other times, it might be somebody taking offence on behalf of somebody else whom they perceive your comments to be directed toward (rightly or wrongly).

Usually, behind those sorts of questions is an assumption that the preaching should not ‘target’ particular people and their specific sins. We tend to worry less about using particular people as helpful examples of whatever positive thing we are preaching from the passage. The question is, is that assumption true?

Now, personally, I do think it a bit inappropriate if one particular person seems to be in your sights week in, week out. But the main reason that’s a problem is because there is a room full of other people to whom the scriptures also need to be applied. If you’re only ever applying it to one particular situation that doesn’t apply the vast majority of the congregation, you might be applying scripture for one particular congregant but you are failing in your duty to apply scripture for the whole church.

But I’m not convinced we should never land on the specific sins and issues of particular people in our congregation. It seems to me, application that lands is application that is relevant. The broader your application, the less pointed it is and so the easier it is to distance myself from it. Can we really expect people to change in response to the Word as it is preached if we keep putting such distance between them and the text that they can only take some very broad principles and apply them broadly to their lives? Surely, if there are issues within our congregation and the Word speaks to them, those are the applications on which we ought to land?

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