Preachers, Comedians or Regurgitators?

So, what is it with preachers these days? I understand they need to keep the "audience" attentive so they may be taught. The first problem is the use of the word "audience" to describe the congregation at any church. This is not exclusive to preachers, but has affected worship leaders as well. Audience connotes entertainment. Are preachers called to entertain the flock? No! Pastor-teachers as described in the Bible are to lead the flock they've been given. Teachers are kept to a much higher standards than those who listen. James says in 3:1 "Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly."

So why is it that so many pastor-teachers (PTs) have resorted to one-liners and anecdotes to keep the listeners attentive? Is it because you think we need a few laughs on Sunday morning to wake us up? Is that what they teach in Seminary these days? Anecdotes are necessary at times to relate a vague piece of Scripture to our lives. Other times it just seems like they're reaching, begging for a laugh. They'll tell the joke and do the dramatic pause to wait for the laughter. And what happens? The congregation responds and affirms that the PT is funny. Does he need that affirmation? Is he insecure enough that he needs the chortles of the stoic masses to validate his sermon?
Also, I'm glad that God has given wisdom to men to interpret His Word and to help us apply it to our lives. Our church has made it a point that the job of the pastoral staff, as well as the Elders and Sunday School teachers, is to equip us saints to study the Word and to spur us on to maturity in Christ so that we will be able to more effectively understand God's will and to be able to minister better in our sphere of influence. We are blessed, nay spoiled, to have such excellent teaching from the pulpit each Sunday from Matt, such caring and mature Elders to help lead us, and gifted teachers to help us apply the Word to our life stage. Grace is famously a Bible church, meaning that our main focus is on the Word of God and the expository teaching thereof. Everything funnels into that, so that Worship in Song--after all, worship includes singing and hearing of the Word--men's and women's ministries, youth and children's ministry, and missions are all based in what we get from the Word. I enjoy this greatly, because, many pastors today, even a former Grace associate pastor and the pastor of a church I visited a couple of weeks ago, like to tell us what others have said about God's Word. Again, many of these authors have been blessed with incredible wisdom and insight from the LORD. The former Grace pastor spent most of his time telling stories and reading quotes from books. However, I don't come to church for story time. I could go to a bookstore to get that.

I find it very hard to follow along with both the jokers and storytellers, which are often one in the same. I even find myself getting a little angry about it. "What a waste of a Seminary degree" I think to myself. This does not mean that these men are bad people. Far from it. These men have excellent character and engaging personalities. It's as if someone said, "Hey, you're a great talker; you should try the pastorate!" The point is this: I don't want you to spend the majority of your time telling jokes. I want you to spend the majority of the time on the Word of God. The aforementioned recently visited pastor spent about 10 minutes of his 45-minute "teaching time" on the Word. The rest was spent telling jokes and anecdotes and mentioning the Redskins-Cowboys game 4 times. I came away filling so unfulfilled I couldn't wait to get back home to hear Matt, who, although he throws the occasional joke or story in his sermon, spends 90% of his message time on the Scriptures.