I find the following thought extremely hard to digest. I am compelled to meditate on what could be a critical principle, even though my convictions thus far were on a very different tangent. This helps me to better understand why the busy pastor often goes into eisegetical sermons.
But here's the implication: how well do we know the Bible such that we can exegete from a passage to directly speak to the congregation's need without doing violence to Scripture to bring our per-determined message across? How long would it take for us to first study and then be able to preach/teach? I reckon decades?
From Page 291 of The Seven Laws of the Learner
Ask the average person who sits in our churches and schools, "do you feel most preaching and teaching is relevant to your needs?" Less than 20 percent of those I ask say yes. The other 80 percent feel like we are teaching 1 Chronicles 1-9 to them.
But we teachers blame our students for not paying attention. We preachers blame our congregation for not wanting "good preaching" anymore. In reality, they are screaming for good preaching. They are pleading for preaching that is good-for them! It's what meets their real needs.
Believe it or not, the Bible does not have a need to be taught. Only people have a need to be taught, and it is their real need that should determine our teaching and preaching calendar.
If you sense I feel strongly about this, you have sensed correctly. Because I have my ear to the ground across the country, I am aware the widespread frustration that exists in students.
The teacher is off teaching about something that is useless to life-and doesn't make the link that at that moment he is also useless to his student. The preacher is off preaching about something irrelevant to his congregation-and won't realize that the declining attendance is proof that he's missed the mark so many times, his sheep have left for greener pastures. They were starved and went in search of food.
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