BOOK SUMMARY: WHY JOHNNY CAN'T PREACH - CHAPTER 1 - JOHNNY CAN'T PREACH

Most people are satisfied with bad sermons because that is all they have ever known and have nothing to which they can compare them.

ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE

The author realizes this line of argument is subjective; based on his experience.  He believes that only about 15% of the sermons he has heard in 25 years had a discernable point. Of that 15%, less than 10% based the point of the sermon on the text read.  No competent effort was made to show the point that God intended to impress upon the hearer. 

If the hearer is to submit to God's will, then the sermon should show from the text what God's will is.  The Westminster Confession refers to conscionable hearing of the Word. Hearing of the Word is an act of conscience which means we are bound to obey the God, not the minister.  

To talk intelligently about the sermon the author believes we need to answer three questions:

(1).  What was the point or thrust of the sermon?

(2).  What this point established by the text of the sermon?

(3).  Were the applications of the sermon derived from the point of sermon?

If you can't answer the first question then how can you be sure that the point of the sermon was derived from the text and thus the applications are correct?

THE TESTIMONY OF A RULING-ELDER ROTARIAN

Upon hearing ministers that couldn't preach, he asked a ruling elder in his church, why the presbytery hired ministers who couldn't preach.  The ruling elder replied that nobody can preach. As member of a pulpit committee he explained that they look for ministers who are orthodox or gifted elsewhere even if they can't preach. Of course there were exceptions, but the general observation was correct. Most ministers cannot preach.

THE COMMON (ALMOST UNIVERSAL) EVALUATION OF MINISTERS BY THEIR CONGREGATIONS

In visiting many churches the author asks the church people what they think of their minister and the common reply is that he's not a great preacher.  

DABNEY'S "CARDINAL REQUISITES" ARE MANIFESTLY ABSENT

Robert L. Dabney authored Lectures on Sacred Rhetoric. This is a homiletics book.  Homiletics is the art and science of writing and preaching sermons.  

Dabney has seven requisites, minimal requirements, for good preaching.  They are summarized in the introduction summary since they are mentioned in passing.

(1).  Textual Fidelity - The preacher must preach the mind of God, thus the point of the sermon should be faithful to the point of the text of God's Word. Exposition with a singular main point should be the goal. 

(2).  Unity - Is the text's main point expressed in the sermon in such a way that the majority of the listeners can tell you what the sermon was about? 

(3).  Evangelical Tone - Is there a zeal for God blended with concern for souls that are dying apart from Christ?

(4).  Instructiveness - A running commentary is not the same as instructiveness. Truth must be present. The mind must be engaged to know Truth and since Truth is a person, objective truth from God's Word enables us to know God. Will the hearer rethink his view of God, society or himself?

(5).  Movement - Sustained progress.  Is the sermon moving towards, building towards some finality?  

(6).  Point - This refers to the overall intellectual and emotional impact of the sermon. A compelling weight should be placed upon the hearer as a result of unity, movement and order. If it encouraged one, did it tend to encourage all? If it troubled one, did it tend to trouble all?

(7).  Order - Organization is what this refers to. Proper arrangements of the parts is needed in a sermon. Could the hearer produce similar notes or an outline?
Rarely will you hear a sermon with all seven of these minimum requirements or requisites.

THE ALMOST UNIVERSAL DESIRE FOR BRIEFER SERMONS

When something is well done people do not complain about length.  When a public speaker has something important to say and it is well ordered and put together, people to do not check their watches, turn on their phones and think about leaving. Instead, they get lost in time and perceive the power of the God's Word.

The author does not believe that attention span is the primary problem. The problem is bad preaching. It is insufferably long even if brief in time. 

Ministers find it too easy to blame the lack of attention on the hearers versus examining their own inability to preach.

THE CONTEMPORY AND EMERGENT CHURCHES

Contemporary and Emergent churches tend to discard valid liturgical practices in favor of experience.  For a better understanding of the emerging church/emergent church movement of the early 2000's, you can read D.A. Carson's book here.  They downplay preaching over experience-based worship because it doesn't appear to nourish the soul. They are correct in that there is a kind of preaching that doesn't nourish the soul. But it is just really bad preaching.  

The Westminster Shorter Catechism teaches that "the Spirit of God makes the reading, but especially the preaching, of God's Word an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up on holiness and comfort, through faith, unto salvation."

Not everything that is called preaching is true preaching. 

THE ANNUAL REVIEW

Almost no church does an annual review of the preaching or pastoral staff.  It is likely out of fear that the pastor will be told his sermons aren't any good. Honest assessment is needed.

ARE THE SEMINARIES AT FAULT?

There are good seminaries doing good work in equipping men to preach. The problem is the condition in which young men arrive to seminary. The culture has shaped them. A culture formerly dominated by language is now dominated by images.  Printed communication has given way to photography. 

"Advanced literacy is a specific intellectual skill and social habit that depends on a great many educational, cultural, and economic factors. As more Americans lose this capability, our nation becomes less informed, active, and independent-minded. These are not qualities that a free, innovative, or productive society can afford to lose." - Dana Gioia

Proper expository preaching requires attentiveness to language and texts, not images. This cultural shift has made it nearly impossible for men to be good preachers. They have been shaped by culture. 

Our culture is becoming aliterate. They can read, but do not. Though they can, they are unwilling. Johnny can neither read, nor write, like people did in the early 20th century. Thus, Johnny cannot preach. 

Human sensibilities are shaped by social environment. But it doesn't have to remain this way. You can purposefully and mentally exercise and reshape your sensibilities.