DJW
Sunday, April 04, 2010 @ 10:31 pm.
From Tze Shien's blog:
I shall not be too cynical and critical about the speaker, but I must say that the speakers nowadays like to talk for ages, even though they only have very simple points. They should just state the points, give the relevant verses, give 1 or 2 examples, and finally, the applications for our lives. Maybe they don’t do that because they want to cater to non-Christians. I feel that the essence of the gospel is lost because of this. Sometimes the speaker keeps on talking, and at the end of his sermon, you don’t even know what his point is. Even the contemporary songs don’t have meaningful lyrics anymore. So what if we “see a near revival, stirring as we pray and seek, we’re on our knees”, followed by endless repetitions of “hosanna”?
Regarding the sermon, I respectfully disagree. Maybe it's because I go to New Creation Church (where sermons are two hours long), but the way I see it, if the gospel means good news, sermons should be filled with it; filled with joy, and hope for the future.
I guess I rebel against pastors who stand behind a pulpit with their eyes on their three-point sermons and bullet-point powerpoint slides and delivering the whole thing like a lecture. That was one of the reasons why we left PLMC. I felt like I was being condemned.
Personally, the reason why I see that Mr. Jeremy Seaward (?) was so effective was because people could see the effect of God's love and joy working on him and through him. And personally, the reason why NCC is so big right now is that people are tired of living under the covenant of the law.
I wouldn't be able to listen through a sermon written and delivered like a PEEL essay.
But I have to agree on the songs. I think I've posted about it before. Somewhere.