by Gardner Hall<\/p>\n
In his book Reviving the Ancient Faith, historian Richard Hughes documents a noticeable shift in the content of preaching among “mainstream” churches of Christ in the 1960s and 1970s. The early 1950s featured speakers on the nationwide “church” program, “Herald of Truth,” who emphasized compliance with “the plan of salvation,” adherence to the patterns of New Testament worship, and the rejection of the false doctrines of evangelicalism and Catholicism. However, in the 1960s and 1970s, mainly because of the influence of Batsell Barrett Baxter, such themes “receded far, far into the background” to be replaced by subjects such as “peace of mind, how to develop healthy family relationships, and how to cope with anxiety and fear” (p. 241). The change in the preaching content of the “The Herald of Truth” program was widely copied. Thus, a whole new spiritual diet began to be fed to many “members in the pew.”<\/p>\n
Without doubt, some adjustment in the common spiritual fare of the early twentieth century was needed. Some old sermons, especially regarding “the one true church,” were presented with a decidedly sectarian slant, implying that “the church” was something like a network of faithful congregations with its accepted preachers, schools, papers, and parachurch organizations, and that one must be a part of that network to be saved. Teaching on the family, inner peace, grace, and confidence of salvation was probably underemphasized among some old-style preachers, but certainly not all. I especially think of the dearth of teaching against racism.<\/p>\n
However, any needed adjustments should not have involved a corresponding neglect of old themes that originated not so much with “old preachers” as with the scriptures: the conditional nature of salvation, the dangers of a presumptuous attitude towards God’s authority, the nature of apostasy, the dangers of compromise with faddish philosophies of the world, etc.<\/p>\n
I think I see a change in preaching styles among brethren I know. It’s not that more teaching on topics like the family, trauma, and inner peace isn’t needed. It absolutely is! The problem is a corresponding neglect of the old biblical themes mentioned in the previous paragraph. The fact that some preachers may have overemphasized one type of teaching content 75 years ago to the neglect of others doesn’t justify completely discarding it now.<\/p>\n
Ancient prophets like Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Amos gave graphic warnings about making concessions to the surrounding culture. Jesus, Paul, Peter, and John repeated them in the New Testament (Luke 8:14; II Timothy 3:1-5; 4:3-5; II Peter 2). Congregations that change their spiritual diet to downplay such warnings because they are distasteful to some, will be the first to make compromises with the popular trends in the evangelical world: entertainment-oriented worship, instrumental music, women in roles of congregational authority such as the eldership, and “open membership” (acceptance of all as members, without regard for whether they have obeyed the gospel).<\/p>\n
Batsell Barrett Baxter, named by Hughes for being a key figure in the change in “preaching styles,” was my father’s favorite teacher at David Lipscomb College and spent much personal time with him. He says that his old mentor would be aghast at how far “mainstream” congregations have evolved since the change in emphasis that he promoted on the Herald of Truth. Someone close to me says that the best notes he had for many years on biblical authority came from a class he took under Batsell Barrett Baxter. Such notes would be out of style today! However, coming generations often take what we feel are needed modifications much further than we could imagine.<\/p>\n
The remedy is the same as it was two thousand years ago: “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching<\/em>” (II Timothy 2:2).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Gardner Hall In his book Reviving the Ancient Faith, historian Richard Hughes documents a noticeable shift in the content of preaching among “mainstream” churches of Christ in the 1960s and 1970s. The early 1950s featured speakers on the nationwide “church” program, “Herald of Truth,” who emphasized compliance with “the plan of salvation,” adherence to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[192,536],"class_list":["post-92351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-liberalism","tag-preaching"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":61552,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/notes-on-preaching-and-evangelism\/","url_meta":{"origin":92351,"position":0},"title":"Notes on Preaching and Evangelism","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 25, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Preaching is a work within the church Men were called evangelists: Acts 21:8; II Timothy 4:5 Christ appointed some men as evangelists - Ephesians 4:11 The word translated evangelism comes from a Greek word used to describe bringing the joyous news of victory from the battlefront. It is often translated\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Notes","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/notes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":81228,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/preaching-jesus-is-confrontational\/","url_meta":{"origin":92351,"position":1},"title":"Preaching Jesus Is Confrontational","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 7, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Those who say that we should \"just preach Jesus and avoid all arguments or not try to reason with people from error to truth\" are themselves unaware that they are making an argument with far-reaching implications. When Paul preached Jesus, it was always met with controversy.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":58794,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/preach-and-teach\/","url_meta":{"origin":92351,"position":2},"title":"Preach and Teach","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 7, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"by T. Pierce Brown The following statements are made in a bulletin by one who claims to be a part of the body of Christ: \"There is no biblical evidence that anyone ever preached the Gospel to those who had already received it. Preaching is always associated with evangelism in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":97417,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-worker-with-no-need-to-be-ashamed\/","url_meta":{"origin":92351,"position":3},"title":"A Worker with No Need to Be Ashamed","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 20, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Edwin Crozier Text: II Timothy 2 \"I want to be a worker for the Lord!\" I've sung that since I was a teenager. Perhaps you've got a long memory of that song as well. \"I want to\u2026be busy every day in the vineyard of the Lord.\" Paul talks to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55898,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-hard-preaching-pay\/","url_meta":{"origin":92351,"position":4},"title":"Does “Hard” Preaching Pay?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Fanning Yater Tant For several years there has been a discussion within the brotherhood as to the relative merits of \"hard\" preaching in comparison with \"persuasive\" preaching. By this latter is meant the type of preaching that never refers to a denominational church by name, uses the Dale Carnegie\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54067,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/excellent-job-in-preaching-the-truth-in-love\/","url_meta":{"origin":92351,"position":5},"title":"Excellent job in preaching the truth in love","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 30, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Greetings brother in Christ! Just wanted to let you know I stumbled upon your site while doing some Bible research. I appreciate your Q&A section and articles. Excellent job in preaching the truth in love. Answer: Thank you for the encouragement.","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92351\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}