Reformed. Christianity. Evangelism. Modern Culture.
Apparently there are topics that more than half the pastors wont even bother preaching on. They will try tooth and nail to dodge them and use every excuse to avoid some topics. Well you see…
As reported [a while ago] in Your Church magazine, 55 percent of pastors can identify one or more topics on which they would not preach at all or only sparingly, because the sermon could negatively affect their hearers’ willingness to attend church in the future. Among them are politics (38 percent), homosexuality (23 percent), abortion (18 percent), same-sex marriage (17 percent), war (17 percent), women’s role in church and home (13 percent), the doctrine of election (13 percent), hell (7 percent) and money (3 percent).
This is one reason why I love expository preaching. Going one verse after another forces the preacher to preach the whole counsel of the Lord. And if the Bible teaches something, you have to face the text and preach on it….even if the bible calls it sin and your local congregation calls it a lifestyle choice.
Of course if you are a mega church pastor or seeker sensitive pastor, your self preservation instincts revolve around your ability to keep every one happy. In which case, at all costs avoid expository preaching and simply stick to mundane movie sermon series, self motivation leadership conferences and pizza parties. [Republished from July 2011]
A Twisted Crown of Thorns ® 
gosh ive preached on all those just within the past year. guess i need to look for another job
And you wonder why there’s graffiti always on your back wall? 😉
I preach expositionally – and have touched on every single one of those topics in the last 12 months! When you go verse by verse people know what is coming next…
Outside of seeking a large payroll, I’m trying to figure why any church leader would avoid faithfully teaching the entire counsel of God. While I’m sure our pastor receives his share of grief from the religious crowd, he has a supportive group of truth-seekers that hold him accountable to declaring everything God’s Word decrees. How pitiful it is that not only has the church of this nation become one prone to the itchy-ear syndrome, but that those who proclaim to be called by God to exhort the truth have yielded to their requests. Thanks for your posts that never lets our foolish desires become precedent doctrine without biblical consideration.
I know a pastor who preached “expositionally” through 1 Corinthians and still managed to avoid all those topics!
Wow…I’m not the only one to note that my church has gone through these things recently…I hope that despite the fears of these pastors they still go ahead and preach and teach the Biblical view on these subjects.
Know what else they won’t talk about? Apostasy, sneaking cleverly into the Bride of Christ through false movements, popular books and trendy “Bible” studies.