I read Christian family commentator Laura Higgins this morning on the voice of the church in the culture. She said this:

“We live, and move, and have our being in a culture that Neil Postman described as a place where “imagery, narrative, presentness, simultaneity, intimacy, immediate gratification, and quick emotional response” reign supreme and where “logic, sequence, history, exposition, objectivity, detachment, and discipline” resonate little. This means that those who can create compelling stories that pack an emotional punch will win the hearts and minds of Americans. Those who must rely on logic, exposition, and objectivity are at a distinct polemical disadvantage.”

If this is true, are we as communicators facing a requirement to re-craft how we communicate, the very process of how we preach? Many in the postmodernist “anti-preaching movement” would insist so. Or should we instead take this as a call to consider returning to Biblically sourced, expositional preaching precisely because of how God has structured His Word. I don’t know about you, but my Bible is full of imagery, narrative, and intimacy when I understand it as a collection of stories from the heart and mind of a pursuing Creator. And as to immediacy? Well, the brooding presence of the Spirit over every preaching moment should assure any Bible teacher of that. He can break through anytime, anywhere His Word is opened, with life changing influence.