Doctrinal preaching teaches and builds up the body of faith through a deepened knowledge of God.
Introduction
By the simplest definition, doctrine means something that is taught. In more formal usage, it has more precise and binding implications. It consists of “a principle, or the body of principles in a branch of knowledge or system of belief.” There is an element of acceptance, authority, taking a position, recognition of a constraining or compelling point of reference. Doctrine sets the boundaries of belief and determines the direction and character of response to ideas, propositions, lifestyles, and philosophies encountered in the long stretch of human experience. In the formation of doctrine, there is a codification of interpretations, understandings, and convictions that supports and gives meaning to selected courses of action. It is a formulation that calls for affirmation, identification, loyalty, and propagation.
Some of the attitudes expressive of this sense of attachment and devotion are contained in such pronouncements as “thus saith the Lord,” “here I stand,” “we hold these truths to be self-evident,” and “for me to live is Christ.” For such expressions, there is a before and an after. The “before” aspect is a compounding of assurances and promises issuing from the ageless struggle with basic values and fundamental truths in the history of humankind. The “after” aspect is indeterminate. The validity of the declaration is attested in the fulfillment of expectations generated by the initial or altered, statement of faith.
It is important to recognize the potential for belief and unbelief, faith and non-faith, inherent in doctrinal statements. This is not a danger but a necessary alerting to the inevitability of taking sides, encouraging partisanship, and giving support to those contenders who are most confident that they hold the “keys to the kingdom,” or that it is they “to whom the truth hath been delivered, once for all.”
Deterrents to Doctrinal Preaching
Two potent deterrents to doctrinal preaching are the prevailing antiauthoritarian mood at the end of the twentieth century and the spirit of broad tolerance in matters of religious belief—the latter fostering a high level of individualized religious expression.
This individualistic temper tends to resist the authority of utterances emanating from the understandings of a historic body of believers. It appears to be congenial to the unilateral formulations of radical individualists for whom corporate deliverances are a stumbling block, and inspired consensus in the fundamentals of faith is an inconvenience. Thus emerges a proliferation of beliefs, a deluge of doctrines, and a pandemonium of claimants. Each claims to know what one should believe about God and what duty God requires. Each succeeds in releasing those forces that erode the foundations of the church as the body of Christ. This is done in the name of religious freedom.
Anti-authoritarianism, in reaction to statements of faith, is a defense against encroachments of “traditionalist” religion. The latter is symbolized in those confessions of faith transmitted through the centuries from church fathers, councils, and the continuous stream of ecclesiastical traditions. The language is awe-inspiring, but the luminous moment of apprehension rarely occurs. Doctrine is looked upon simply as something to be memorized and recited only at pivotal points in worship.
The sources of doctrine increase with the broadening and deepening experiences of the faithful in the life of the church. Consider the words of Paul to Timothy (2 Tim. 3:14–17): “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” And then comes the tutorial assurance that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” This admonition and assurance of Paul include sound doctrine derived from searching the Scripture under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. God’s revelation of himself is a continuing revelation, made real and present in Jesus Christ.
Doctrinal preaching is not popular preaching. It does not lend itself to the histrionics and acrobatics that prove to be such useful aids in creating certain effects and stirring certain responses in our hearers. The efficacy of doctrinal preaching is enhanced by the seriousness with which the minister and congregation attend to regular and systematic reading of the Scripture and studying the pilgrimage of faith and practice in the Christian community. They must become conversant with the genesis and refinements in the creeds, confessions, and social pronouncements of the church.
Doctrinal Preaching’s Essential Nature
The arena of debate has been electric with contention over the relationship between doctrine and decision-making in matters of war, peace, racism, sexuality, poverty, and hunger. Doctrinal preaching provides an opportunity for instruction in the faith that clarifies both individual and collective responsibility to God’s call.
In a sense, all preaching begins and ends in doctrine. The order of service and roles of participants reflect the understanding of the church about the sovereignty of God and the working of the Holy Spirit. All of these implications of doctrine are persistent reminders of how the whole structure is joined together and grows into the Lord’s holy temple.
The force of doctrine is conditioned by an awareness that the worshiping community is called by God. The community has a covenant relationship based upon the gift of deliverance by God. Unbroken fidelity to God is necessary for the believer to be a continuous recipient of that gift. Doctrine becomes, and is, a delineation of the character of the giver, the substance of the gift, and the requirements of the respondent.
Teaching and preaching from the perspective of the covenant is a process of “in-house” consciousness-raising regarding the divine-human pledge. Erosion, diversion, and watering down the demands of the gospel, as conveyed in doctrine, lead to a comfortable intoning “Lord, Lord,” without any conscious intention of becoming a true disciple. The preacher may feel the necessity to be on the frontier of broad human concerns, to delight, entertain, chide, or titillate the egos of the influential members of the church. He or she may neglect the “the more important matters of the law” or minimize, by silence or infrequent reference, the stern reminder that “straight is the gate and narrow the path that leads to eternal life.” In the wisdom of our predecessors, and by the working of the Holy Spirit, crucial concepts have been set forth regarding God’s being, purposes, actions, and promises.
Within a cosmic context, the preacher seeks to lay hold on the truth about the existence and destiny of persons created in the image of God. As the scenario unfolds, there are glimpses of an abiding presence in terms of whose activity the whole drama has meaning. The church, as the unique manifestation of this presence, attempts to interpret, explain, and embody what has happened, what is happening, and what is yet to come. The codification of these understandings is refined and amplified as the community of believers seeks more diligently and responds more faithfully to the Maker of heaven and earth and all that is in them.
There is a measure of audacity in doctrinal preaching, just as there is the exercise of preference in the formulation of doctrine. No ecclesiastical body can lay claim to the exclusive understanding or articulation of God’s Word and will.
In moments of greatest uncertainty, the preacher is aligned with Paul’s assertion in 2 Corinthians 4:1–6, with comforting resort to the assurance that “we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.… For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake” (vv. 2, 5).
The audacity of the preacher is rooted in the essentials of the faith and is sustained by his or her knowledge of how ideas of Creation, sin, redemption, resurrection, the Holy Spirit, the body of Christ, and eternal life inform and influence the behavior of the believer, and how these concepts affect the whole mission of the witnessing community. In an age when a high premium is placed upon diversity, pluralism, ethnicity, freedom of conscience, and personal autonomy, it is urgent that the “community of faith” have a clearer conception of what it believes and what it is called to be and to do. An open-ended stance is untenable for those who profess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The doctrines are designed to confirm in the life of the church the certainty of its hope and to provide guidelines for a pilgrimage of faith. In this endeavor, the preacher does not lose heart as he or she recalls the admonition of Paul to Timothy (2 Tim. 4:1–4):
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside myths.
The scriptural sources of doctrines are overwhelmingly convincing. In essence, the whole Pentateuch resounds with: “Hear, O Israel,” this is what God has done and this is what he requires of you. Paul’s letters to the Corinthians are replete with doctrine. Those who had “ears to hear” were convicted by the authority of his message.
The preacher would do well to remind himself or herself of the charge of God to Israel through Moses: “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates” (Deut. 6:6–9). And the opening paragraph to the Directory for the Worship of God provides:
God binds together as a people those whom he has called to be his children through faith in Jesus Christ. This community of faith is the Church, whose life is sustained by the power of the Holy Spirit, not by the power of the people.
Those within the Church are called by God to honor him. Acknowledging their own sin, they are the more to acknowledge the power and love of God in overcoming sin by the gift of Jesus Christ the Savior and to offer their lives in thankful devotion in his service.
God, having established the Church had also commissioned it to be the means by which his redemptive love may be extended to all humanity. The Church is, therefore, to declare the wonderful deeds of him who calls people out of darkness into his marvelous light, and who in his grace reaches out to pardon, redeem, and empower undeserving humanity, through Jesus Christ.
This is the subject matter of doctrine. God alone can give perceptiveness sufficient to understand and the power boldly to declare for the edification of all who have ears to hear.