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Question: Are search committees equipped to evaluate sermons? Do they have some sort of criteria they use?

Answer: Well, they are given some help in that area, but my feeling is that most search committees come down to the entertainment factor: when the man came in view of a call, was he captivating, was he interesting, was he entertaining? One of the last questions they ask is, “Was it a biblical message? Were we really fed the Word of God?” A consequence of that is that we are seeing more of the really well grounded preachers, potential pastors, lose opportunities simply because they are not good entertainers. That’s a real loss to the church.

Even if we have seminaries that do a great job training pastors, if the “gatekeepers” are not motivated then this kind of thing will happen.

Somewhere, we need resources that will teach and train pastoral search committees. This may need to come at the denominational level.

Again, start with the idea that they want good preaching. Then help them define what good preaching is – - and that expository/biblical preaching should not be boring.

Amen. What’s we’ve got to do is help people see that those are mutually exclusive categories. I’m sure you’d agree that “good” biblical/expository preaching is still revelant and engaging.

Good stuff, Chris.

You make excellent points. I agree that most search committees are more concerned with relevant/engaging preaching than with biblical/expository.

I believe that what is needed is to leverage the desire that search committees have for good preaching and then show them what good preaching should be. . . we need to convince search committees that truth intersecting life is anything but boring. Good preaching should never be dull, boring, and lifeless.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Chris.

The really don’t care about the Hittites or the Jebusites, but they do care about themselves. They need the Word and its truth, which is relevant to their lives. The expository preacher just has to show them how it is relevant, not make it relevant.

Churches, far too often, don’t value expository preaching, because most individual Christians don’t. They enjoy and appreciate engaging, entertaining messages that speak to their obvious needs. That’s why so many are popular just because they’re dynamic speakers.

We have to give them more what they need than want, but that may not grow the church as fast and we have to patiently teach and train the congregation to value the Word and to see its relevance across life’s grid.

Yet, there is a huge problem of search committees not knowing what to do or how to do it. They just like what they like and want it. I personally think the problem is compounded when the search committee is a group put together only for that purpose, but has no continuity before or after the process. This will also present a problem since they really like the candidate and most will go along, but the established leadership in the church and/or the people of influence may or may not be as sold and those are the ones the new pastor really needs to have in his corner.

A sermon should be truth intersecting with life – - a biblical bullet that comes into clear intersection with the life of the listener – - it should not be clouded with academic language etc. . .

The goal is certainly not to sound deep. . .

Haddon Robinson notes, “Sometimes what we call deep is simply muddy.”

Spurgeon makes the guilty cringe when he charges:

An average hearer, who is unable to follow the course of thought of the preacher, ought not to worry himself, but to blame the preacher, whose business it is to make the matter plain. If you look down into a well, if it be empty it will appear to be very deep, but if there be water in it you will see its brightness. I believe that many “deep” preachers are simply so because they are like dry wells with nothing whatever in them, except decaying leaves, a few stones, and perhaps a dead cat or two. If there be living water in your preaching it may be very deep, but the light of truth will give clearness to it. It is not enough to be so plain that you can be understood, you must speak so that you cannot be misunderstood.

Similarly, Joe Stowell observes:
most discouraging compliment I ever hear is, “Thank you for that sermon. It was really deep.” That usually means the person couldn’t understand it.

I think of women who have been thrown down stairs by their husbands, men living in their cars because of drug addiction, parents whose hearts are broken over adult children in trouble, business leaders facing complex choices. Such people do not need my slant on life or that of any other person. They hunger for a meal of God’s Word.

Really? Have you asked them? Now I agree that any sermon should be well researched and biblical, with “careful scholarship and organization”. But most congregations are not erudite and so don’t need or want erudite sermons which go above their heads and lack practical application. What they need and want, especially for the people in trouble whom you mention, is a sermon which, in a biblical way, “relates to their more immediate life concerns and engages them personally”. This is how Jesus and the apostles preached. If I were searching for a pastor, these would be my criteria. Why? Because I have seen how it is not dry preaching but relevant sermons which build up the kingdom of God.