Something that was pondered over at the Pyromaniacs recently was the question of how should we structure a Church service?As usual the post sparked some considerable debate, and as well as the expected variation across Churches in the way they do things, there was also a wide range of opinions on why they do things too.
So here is my big question, is preaching an essential ingredient in our Sunday morning service?
And the why behind that question is by far the most important part here. If you think preaching is essential, why do you think that? Where do you back that up in the Bible? How did you come to that viewpoint? Are other forms of service without a sermon acceptable (cafe-style Church where you basically run a seminar with lots of interaction for example)?
If you think that preaching isnt essential, then again why not and how do you justify that from the Bible? Also what alternatives are there? Do you still draw the line somewhere (i.e. there must be some sort of Bible teaching, it just doesnt need to be preaching)?
I guess integral to this question as well is the question of what we call preaching, so it might be helpful when youre thinking about your answers to try and have a clear definition of preaching in your mind to start with. Otherwise how can you tell preaching has happened in a service!
I will come back to this in a few days and try to express my answers.