Is preaching today becoming watered-down in a movement toward nondenominational churches or an emphasis on mere spirituality?
In one sense, I don’t think preaching is becoming watered-down. Most of the fast-growing nondenominational churches are preaching-centered churches, as opposed to sacramentally oriented churches or meditative churches. In fact, for the first time in generations, the average sermon length in the US is growing longer rather than shorter, essentially under the influence of the 30-minute teaching sermons of the megachurch preachers. So, in this sense, the sermon is even more important in the broad swath of American Christianity than it once was. On the other hand, we are observing a real shift in preaching method and content in our generation. Over the past 50 years, the old preaching style of “three points and a poem” was replaced by an essentially narrative approach. The telling of powerful stories, biblical and contemporary, has marked American preaching for a half century. Preaching has become more artful and literary. But now, again with the megachurches taking the lead, the old teach
