Word: offing
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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The Word became flesh," says John's Gospel of the incarnate Christ of Bethlehem. In Christmas sermons before some 75 million Americans this week, words about Christ will become flesh in the person of the preacher. Through their strange and marvelous craft, Christianity has been transmitted and reshaped for...
For many American churchgoers, though, a Sunday sermon is something merely to be endured. Many preachers and parishioners alike think that passionate and skillful preaching has grown rarer and rarer in individual congregations in the postwar years. The chilling of the Word is a major contributor to the evident malaise...
For Roman Catholics, the sermon has not been as important, but rather a kind of spiritual hors d'oeuvre before the Eucharist. Otherwise, as Catholic Columnist Rick Casey explains, priests might become mere "performers" like Protestants, and "upstage the Eucharist." In Protestantism, however, the sermon is virtually raised to...
One man tempted to think that American preaching is a dying art is George Plagenz of the Cleveland Press, who writes an oft acerbic "review" of a local church service each week, complete with restaurant-type ratings. Instead of cuisine or ambience, he rates worship service, music, sermon and friendliness...
Plagenz blames this in part on the backwash of the 1960s. "A lot of men went into the ministry for reasons other than preaching. They were interested in social action, so now we're stuck with them." It seemed only natural that in 1969 The Pulpit, venerable sister magazine...