I’ve known preachers to scratch their heads at more “theological” sections of scripture wondering how they’re going to “apply” the text. Show us Jesus, that is application. If people leave seeing and savouring Christ more than they came in, you have achieved very practical application for their lives. Don’t let the need for application rob you of the riches of the text.

If people agree with my concerns about what I’m calling the discipleship crisis, it’s fairly common that they finger our preaching as the culprit. I think there’s something to this, which is what this post is about, but I also think it’s an easy mark. Not only is there some great preaching out there, but I don’t think it directly correlates to more fulsome Christian formation.

I have a high view of preaching, it is encountering the living Christ in the pages of the texts as your Pastors expound the words to you. Preaching is not primarily about instruction in the faith, though that is one of its secondary purposes. I also think we’re naïve if we think half an hour of instruction every week will cut through a bombardment of messages. That’s not how formation works (more on that in the future).

But we can accuse our preaching as a culprit. I’ve sat through preaching that was ‘thin’ or essentially a TED talk, or more of a testimony. That’s not great, but my concern today is with the way we think about application: we both over and under apply the text, because we get application in the wrong position. If application is the cart we place it before the horse.

Overapplying

I don’t mean in the wrong position within a message, but in our thinking. Essentially, I mean this: preaching is not about application, it’s about seeing Jesus. Our preaching should show people Jesus in the text—and I won’t get into it here, but we should find Jesus where the text intends us to find him rather than pasting on a turn at the end—but I think we often are thinking about how to apply this to people in front of us.

“There wasn’t much practical application,” we might critique. That can be a problem as I’ll turn to in a moment, but my biggest concern is this: if you make Christ look glorious that is practical application.

We need preaching to open our eyes to the truths of the world, the most central of which is the beauty of King Jesus. Don’t just tell people he’s wonderful, show them he is. Wonder teaches us to see, and our ability to see the truth will grow and be shaped by seeing Jesus.

I’ve known preachers to scratch their heads at more ‘theological’ sections of scripture wondering how they’re going to ‘apply’ the text. Show us Jesus, that is application. If people leave seeing and savouring Christ more than they came in, you have achieved very practical application for their lives. Don’t let the need for application rob you of the riches of the text.

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