Believe it or Not, People Still Go to Church for the Preaching

Last updated on: April 26, 2017 at 8:37 am by Kyle Roberts

Believe it or Not, People Still Go to Church for the Preaching 2017-04-26T08:37:36-05:00 Kyle Roberts

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The primary reason people give for going to church may surprise you: Good preaching and teaching.

CCO Public Domain via Pixabay

At least, that’s what Gallup found in a recent poll (March 2017).

The poll listed common activities of church, asking respondents whether they rank as a major factor, a minor factor, or not a factor, in their reason for attending church or other place of worship.

Sermons and teaching ranks highest in importance. 76% said it was a major factor, whereas music (“good choir, praise band, cantor, or other spiritual music”) ranks last in importance. Only 38% said music was a major factor). Also perhaps surprisingly, only 49% said that “social activities that allow you to get to know people in your community” was a major factor in why they attend church.

Not surprisingly, Protestants ranked the importance of preaching higher than did Catholics. The importance of preaching is in the DNA of Protestants. Nonetheless, Catholics still ranked sermons highest in importance of all the factors, but at a lower level (between 62-67%) than Protestants (between 80-83%).

A recent article reflects on that Gallup poll finding. The author asks why many churches spend so much time and energy on the musical aspect of church worship, if what people really come to church for is the preaching and teaching?

I suspect the answer to that might be something like: Surrounding the sermon with music enhances the experience and creates a more engaging environment for the teaching to be heard. So even if the sermon is much higher in importance than the music, the teaching would lose some luster without the music to support it.

In any case, the results of this poll surprised me somewhat, but not overly. Years ago I took an informal, very unscientific poll, asking friends what part of the church experience means the most to them. Most of them said the preaching and teaching.

As a seminary professor, I sometimes hear that preaching isn’t really needed anymore. Many students seem much more interested in other aspects of seminary education: leadership skills, change-agency, cultural engagement, theology, social justice, etc.

I don’t blame them. Frankly, each of those things seems more important to me than learning how to preach or teach. And theoretically, the more you learn about theology, Bible, culture, ethics, social justice concerns, (etc.), the better your preaching and teaching should be, anyway. But if seminaries under-emphasize the basic skills of communication, both preaching and teaching in our curricula, we do our churches and their congregants a disservice.

I heard a fantastic Easter sermon at my church last Sunday. Our pastor compared the Christian hope in the resurrection to technological attempts to extend life and defy death. A theology of Christian resurrection expects death to arrive, but holds out hope that, the “morning after,” death will not have the final say.

Technological and scientific efforts to defy death and create immortality on their own strength will likely end in failure–and will probably serve to further frustrate life by not accepting death as a reality.

I’ve been thinking about that sermon on and off all week. The sermon works for me as a timely illustration for why people rank preaching and teaching at the top of the list.

So yes, people still go to church for the preaching and teaching. But everyone knows that fewer and fewer people attend church services these days. Better preaching–or more good preaching–isn’t going to turn that tide, but it’d be worth giving it a shot anyway.

Previous Post

April 19, 2017

The Virgin Birth and Christianity: Is it All Or Nothing?

Next Post

June 1, 2017 A Charge to Seminary Graduates (Demian Wheeler)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month December 2020 November 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 December 2018 July 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz