This book is right on time… I was recently talking with a preacher friend and we were discussing the lack of preaching that’s going on in many pulpits across America.... and the sad thing, most congregations don’t know when a preacher is preaching… the text today is hardly preached… not only is there failure today on the part of the preacher… but many congregations put their stop watches on when a true preacher takes his text… 15 minutes sermons aren’t sermons… I’m eager to see the time when true preaching comes back to the pulpits… for the preacher’s who are rightly dividing God’s Word of Truth… this book would encourage you to stay on the journey…

this book posed so many weaknesses…
ex. how many books do the average preachers read monthly? (Besides the Bible)

Just last week I had a rather heated discussion with a United Methodist pastor over this very issue. The departure from scripture, the lack of sound exegesis, and the refusal to preach anything about repentance for fear of ‘beating people up’
So very sad…

Several years ago William Hurt played in a movie called “The Doctor.” His character is an arrogant surgeon who has no bedside manner whatsoever. When he is diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his throat, he is forced to become the typical patient (forms to be filled out, long waiting lines, the indignity of hospital gowns, insensitive nurses, doctors in a hurry, etc.). The experience changes him, and the movie concludes with him admitting his medical students into the hospital for a stay so that they can experience what their patients experience.

There was a time in my ministry when I was between pastorates for about four months. During those months, my wife and I visited a different church each Sunday morning. I was forced to listen to far too many boring, poorly organized, poorly presented sermons. It would have been really hard for me to be a member of those churches and have to sit through such preaching week in and week out. I’ve often thought that my experience was sort of like Hurt’s in that movie. I know that it made me strive to be a better preacher, a preacher who has something to say and says it well. I haven’t read Gordon’s book, but I don’t have a doubt that its conclusion is accurate. Perhaps the problem could be solved if we pastors got back to the Acts 6:2 mindset: “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.” Cancel some meetings, let somebody else handle most of the visiting, turn off the cell phone for a while, give the golf clubs a rest, log off the internet, don’t touch the t.v. remote, get in your study, open the Bible, stick your nose in some trusted commentaries, buy a book of illustrations, and get back to your caling.

Amen!  As an encouragement, since the new year we have been preaching through 1 Corinthians - exegetically.  Yeah, every week a controversial topic that the modern church ‘gurus’ say we should stay away from or lose people.  Guess what?  We’ve been growing in health, attendance, visitors and offerings every week!

Just preach the Word and Christ crucified, brothers!

I have not read the book.  I might just pick it up.  I think something that must be considered is that preaching has changed because how people learn has changed and culture is continually shifting. 

What we have added to our vocabulary is amazing in the past few years.  We have an entire generation of people who are almost completely illiterate concerning the bible, Christ and the church and what they do know came from a media report or a soundbite in the local news. 

To make such wide ranging statements about preachers is a bit over the top for me.  I just removed a guy from a teaching role in our church because his work was sloppy and he cam in unprepared week after week.  He was invited to be discipled and trained but did not want to apprentice under other gifted teachers.

I would love to see an apprenticeship program for preachers.  Not just seminary where homiletics is taught and not a few classes in hermeneutics.  But a real apprenticeship that teaches how to study, to wrestle with a text, discern ones own conviction verses that of the Holy Spirit,

word of God in order to wait on tables.” Cancel some meetings, let Ugg SALE, ugg SIZES. Only the UGG Crochet Boots ,UGG Sandals and CasualsUGG Australia brand are actually UGGs. Buy direct from the original online retailer. cheapest boots now.
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Last time I checked, Jesus took complicated truths and made them simple. 

Why on earth then would we who are preachers take simple truths and making them complicated?

I study the Bible as methodically as anyone I know, even using diagrammatical analysis as I do it, but I only do it so I don’t miss the point of the passage, not so I can point out stuff that doesn’t really matter.

I’m sure if nothing else, it will be an interesting read and cause us to continue to think about preaching.

My first reaction was like most of what I’ve read “How does he KNOW what preachers across the country are preaching?” or “Who does he think HE is?” I’d like to know more about how he arrived at this conclusion, but I don’t know if I want to know bad enough to read his book.
Vitality in the pulpit is a pressing concern for me, but I can only directly affect the vitality in MY pulpit.  As my Daddy used to say “You won’t have time to mind other peoples business if you are busy minding your own.”

I agree with you dKopka; I am a pastor who headed back to cemetery, oops, I mean Seminary in the DFW area. I have had a chance to visit a lot of churches & the teaching & preaching is horrible, and there are about 7 or 8 Divinity schools in this area. There’s a lot of religion here though, & they have that down packed.