The Disembodied Preacher: Why Streamed in Preaching is Bad

Many churches are moving to a multi-campus system where the main pastor’s sermon is streamed in to various campuses every week. Even those churches which cannot do this often wish they could. But I believe it is a serious and devastating pastoral error to assume that a man on a screen can shepherd a church. Streamed in preaching is detrimental to the church of God because it substitutes electronic images for a flesh and blood man thus severing that crucial geographical and physical connection a minister is to have with his people. We are called shepherds for a reason. I am not criticizing learning via video, though there are drawbacks to this as well. I am particularly criticizing preaching via video. Here are some of the problems with streaming the main pastor’s sermons instead of having an on-the-ground man doing the preaching every week in person.

First, the man who is streamed in has become a preacher, not a pastor. I understand that this can happen at any church. In fact, it probably happens at a lot of churches. The failure of men to shepherd their flocks is epidemic in the American church. We preach. But we do not shepherd. Our hands are not dirty. Our flock sees us once a week. But the “remotely connected” model makes a virtue out of it. Pastoring is impossible if you are one place and your congregation is in another. Of course, preaching is part of shepherding, (and in some Protestant circles takes center stage during the course of the Lord’s Service) but it is not the whole.

Second, streaming in a man’s sermon is a celebrity act. We do it, not because it is biblical, nor because it is logical. We do it because the pastor is famous. While being famous is not necessarily a bad thing in itself, why use the main pastor instead of one the elders who shepherd the church Monday through Saturday? The answer is that people want to hear the main pastor. He is the celebrity preacher they come to see. By streaming him in we buy into a celebrity oriented cultural mindset that is detrimental to the life of the church.

Third, it makes preaching a disembodied act where the congregation’s response plays no part in the preaching of the word. When a man stands in the pulpit he should scan his people to see how they are responding. Preaching is a dialogue between the pastor and his sheep. The main pastor can do this at his church. But he cannot at the other campus churches. R.L. Dabney talked about understanding the temperature of your congregation when you get into the pulpit. Are they flat? Then you need to gradually bring them up to the right heat. Are they too excited and inattentive? Then you need to keep up the heat, but focus it. Charles Spurgeon said that if he felt the congregation’s interest waning he would throw in an illustration to get their attention back. A streamed in pastor cannot interact with the congregation, which is an essential part of preaching. This makes me wonder if streaming in a man is preaching in the classic sense of the term.

Fourth, this model assumes that what happened from Monday-Saturday in a church is irrelevant to Sunday morning preaching. The streamed in pastor cannot know what has happened in all the campus churches. Again, this is probably the case in a lot of churches. The pastor does not know what happened to the Hayes family this week or to Mr. Johnson. But that does not make it right. Shepherding means understanding what has happened in the life of the church during the week. He does not need to know every detail, but he should know generally what has gone on. What if one church had a tragic car wreck and another church had wedding on Saturday? What if an elder just resigned for sexual infidelity? What if the community just experienced a great tragedy or triumph? Are these things irrelevant in the preaching of the Gospel on Sunday morning? I am not saying that the sermon must be dictated by the events of the previous week. But those events give context to the preached Word. When preaching is streamed, the Word becomes decontextualized.

Fifth, it keeps good men out of the pulpit. Many churches that stream in their pastors devote a lot of time to training leaders. They do this through books, conferences, video, hands on training, etc. If this is so, why not put these men in the pulpits of these campus churches? Why does the main pastor have to be the one preaching? Is it beneficial in the long run for these campus churches to orbit around one man? I think this goes back to the second point. Streamed in preaching is a celebrity act.

Sixth, it makes watching the main pastor impossible. A congregation is supposed to observe their pastors. Paul appeals to his behavior among the members of the church. They watched him. (See Acts 20:18, I Thessalonians 1:5-6, II Thessalonians 3:7-9). There is also the general admonition that the people are to watch their leaders (See I Timothy 4:12, Hebrews 13:7, I Peter 5:3). A church body should be able to observe on a regular basis the attitude and actions of her leaders. Leaders should not just interact with staff and elders, but with the congregation. Some might object by saying these churches get to watch their other leaders, just not the main pastor. To which I reply, then the other leaders should be preaching to them, not the main pastor.

Seventh, it assumes that every church has the exact same preaching needs. Now in one sense every church does. We are all sinners saved by grace who need to be taught the whole counsel of God so that we might grow in holiness. But churches are not clones. Each congregation has a different personality, which comes from their history, the collection of people Christ has brought to the church, their leadership, and the community they live in. Is the congregation mainly 20-40 year olds? Is it ethnically diverse? Is it in the city, the country, or suburb? Is it an old church that has been around for many years or a church planted two years ago? Is it mainly new converts or transfer growth? Are most of the members factory workers or business men? Is it in a college town? The way these questions are answered will affect the way a book of the Bible is preached. Two pastors can both be preaching through Ephesians and yet apply the text differently because of their congregation’s needs. Of course, some points will be the same no matter what. But the application can and should vary depending upon the needs and personality of the congregation. This also applies to what a pastor should preach. One church might be struggling with legalism. Galatians should be put on the menu. One church might be struggling with members leaving the faith. Put Hebrews on the list. But in a “remotely connected” model the assumption is that all churches are struggling with the same things at the same time.

Here are few questions to consider:

What is the rationale behind multi-campus churches where a single man preaches to numerous congregations in different geographical locations? Why do we think this is necessary and good? Does the Bible give us a paradigm for doing ministry this way? How is this model not a capitulation to our celebrity culture?

Why do we not stream in the worship music? (I think I got this question from Carl Trueman.)

Is it possible to faithfully shepherd a local body over many years without knowing that body? Can a minister preach sermons that apply to the people in front of him if he does not know the people who are in front of him? Can a minister faithfully preach the word on Sunday if the only people he ever meets with Monday through Saturday are church staff and other elders?

What is the long term effect on churches when a pastor is streamed in? How does this practice affect the planting of other churches and the raising up of leadership? How does it affect the congregation’s view of the average preacher? Does this model feed certain sinful hungers in American culture that we would do better to avoid? How does the disconnect between the week to week shepherding and the Sunday morning preaching influence the congregation?

Can a minister be incarnational, in the best sense of the word, if he isn’t even in the same town as the church?<>klimentovoразработка дизайна стоимость

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