Evidence collected about the early church suggests that most of the preaching in hamlets, villages, and rural areas was done by uneducated but devout lay people. The apostolic preaching, as well as the writings of the apostolic fathers of the second century that have been preserved, stand as exceptions to this overall trend.
Informal Preaching
For the greater part of the period from a.d. 30 to 230, after the close of the events in the New Testament, we know very little of Christian preaching. The reasons for this almost entire lack of sermons remaining from the first two centuries are several, the chief one being this: The preaching of the time was, in general, quite informal. The preacher did not make logous, discourses, but only omilias, homilies, that is conversations, talks. Even in the fourth century, there was still retained, by some out-of-the-way congregations, the practice of asking the preacher many questions and answering questions asked by him, so as to make the homily to some extent a conversation. And in this period it was always a mere familiar talk, which of course might rise into dignity and swell into passion, but only in an informal way. The general feeling appears also to have been that dependence on the promised blessing of the Paraclete forbade elaborate preparation of discourses. And this feeling would prevent many from writing out their discourses after they were spoken.
Lay Preaching as the Rule
But we must by no means imagine that there was but little preaching during the first two centuries because no sermons remain. In fact, preaching was then very general, almost universal, among the Christians. Lay preaching was not an exception, it was the rule. Like the first disciples, the Christians still went everywhere preaching the Word. The notion that the Christian minister corresponded to the Old Testament priest had not yet gained the ascendency. We find Irenaeus and Tertullian insisting that all Christians are priests. We learn from Eusebius (History VI.19) that Origen, before he was ordained a presbyter, went to Palestine and was invited by the bishops of Caesarea and Jerusalem to “expound the sacred Scriptures publicly in the church.” The bishop of Alexandria, who was an enemy to Origen, condemned this, declaring it unheard of “that laymen should deliver discourses in the presence of the bishop.” But the bishop of Jerusalem pronounced that notion, a great mistake, appealing to various examples. It was still common in some regions to invite laypersons who could edify the church, to do so; this even when the sacerdotal feeling was growing strong.
In these first centuries, then, almost all the Christians preached. Thus, preaching was informal, and therefore unrecorded. Even of the presbyters at that time, few were educated or had much leisure for study. And, when some able and scholarly man became a Christian, however, he might occupy himself with profound studies and the preparation of elaborate works, as did Justin or Clement of Alexandria, Irenaeus or Tertullian, when he stood up to preach, he would lay his studies aside and speak impromptu, with the greatest simplicity.