 
PREACHING TO THE WRONG GENERATION
Those who proclaim God's Word face a continuing challenge to present the truth in such a way as to save the lost and build up the church. Observation shows that some faithful men are successful in their work and some are not.
We ask, Why? It is possible to preach gospel truth and yet be irrelevant and out of touch with the real world of today's people. When this occurs, nothing happens. The preaching fails to accomplish its intended purpose. Consider some examples.
I. A man may have a style of delivery suited to another generation. A hundred years ago two hour sermons were common. They fit the life-style and pace of that distant age. The brother who preaches two hours today will soon have few if any to hear him. A frontier missionary with a coarse, pugilistic style of preaching could win multitudes and plant many churches in the 1880s. If a brother resorts to that style of preaching today, he turns people away. Why? Because his contemporary audience is not made up of coarse, uncultured frontier people. Once an uneducated man could do a successful work for the Lord. Of course most of his hearers were of his same educational level. Today he would not be suitable for the average congregation. Does this mean that today's Christians are inferior or superior to yesterday's? Not at all. Like Paul, we who preach must be willing to be all things to all men in order to save them (I Cor. 9:20-22).
II. A preacher may present good Biblical lessons, yet they may not address the problems that men face and the questions being asked today. A sermon establishing the scripturalness of using multiple communion cups does not help the couple whose marriage is about to disintegrate. People being bombarded by Jehovah's Witnesses do not need a sermon on the Errors of Shakerism.
III. The illustrations one uses may label him as obsolete and out of date in his hearers' minds. To speak of Hupmobiles and rumble seats was relevant in the thirties. Many of today's young adults and children never heard of such. I once used an illustration of a submarine deep in the heart land of Africa. It had been very effective back in the Tennessee, but an African brother raised his hand and asked, "What is a submarine?"
IV. It is possible for a preacher's vocabulary and syntax to be obsolete or at least out of place. If one reads religious books dated in the 1800s he is often overwhelmed by page long paragraphs, paragraph long sentences. Add to that the quaint, unknown religious words of that age and bewilderment is the result. A similar style of speaking will affect your audience the same way. A brother who rambles on with incomplete sentences and dangling modifiers leaves the same impression on his hearers. If the proclaimer serves his audience strange words from the world of the seminary, the philosophers and the ancient Greeks and Hebrews, the will soon be numbed and brought to sleep.
V. A preacher will fail if he depends on the methods of the past in doing his work for God. Brush arbors just don't fit in the 21st century. Once a tent meeting brought out its own crowd of seekers; not so today. In the past a great orator would pack a meeting house. Of course, he did not have to compete with T.V., modern transportation, organized and professional sports and shopping centers open till 9:00 p.m. Today a different method is demanded if we would succeed. There was a time when men often responded to powerful gospel lessons. Today, most converts come through home Bible studies.
We don't need a new gospel for this new age, but we do need the wisdom to make our outreach relevant to the current situation so we can reach lost sinners with the saving gospel (Luke 16:8). What is a preacher profited if he spends his whole life preaching to an empty auditorium while all around him, souls that could have been saved perish?
"O Lord: Grant us the needed wisdom to take your divine message to every lost soul about us and never to allow our handling of your truth to turn men away from it. In Jesus name."
JHW
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