The sermon aims at taking the main point of a text, delivering as best we understand it and calling people to change in line with God’s word. Laying out all the potential options rather than preaching what we understand the text to be saying blunts what we are aiming to do.

The bible is full of thorny issues that Christians disagree over. Many of us are familiar with various understandings of the opening chapters of Genesis, the mode and candidates for baptism, the scope of the atonement, the existence and use of spiritual gifts and dozens of other questions. We all know that Christians do not share a single view on these things, we recognise that whole churches have sprung up as a result of different views on some of these questions.

There is, of course, a time and place for having conversations about them all. It is absolutely right and helpful that we have books written laying out the case for the various views. It is certainly appropriate in a bible college lecture for the different positions to be discussed and explored. It is appropriate for Christians brothers and sisters to simply sit and chat about their various views on these things. There may be a few other places where it is appropriate. However, there is a place I am not convinced we ought to be laying out all the options; namely, the pulpit.

Some folks get worked up when a preacher presents a view in a sermon and doesn’t seem to give a nod to all the various other views. I have had people come up to me after a sermon miffed that I didn’t explain that there are other views nor did I spent any time outlining them. Am I not just riding roughshod over the other believers who hold a different view when I do that? There are several reasons—some of them more important than others—why I don’t think the pulpit is the place for doing that.

First, I think this is a misunderstanding of what preaching is and exists to do. Those who want you to lay out the options and explain that Christians may have a range of different views seem to be mistaking the pulpit for the lecture hall. I am not seeking to introduce you to all the different possible interpretations when I preach. I am not aiming to magnanimously insinuate our ultimate agreement with brothers and sisters elsewhere despite our disagreement on this particular issue (even though this remains true). When I preach, I am seeking to preach what I think the text and the author is saying. Unless the writer is laying out multiple options in the text, my goal is to preach what I believe the text is saying, not laying out all the options I do not believe it is saying.

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