How can a Christian seek out the best Homilists/Preachers?

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Accepted answer

By going to church. Period.

As one who has preached for a long time, I can tell you that fancy oratory, glitzy aids, cool programs, and all the best homeletics in the world cannot make up for a pastor who knows you like a shepherd knows his sheep.

Want to know why I stopped going to mega churches? Because I realized it was too easy to hide. I could be an anonymous consumer of great preaching, but all I did was get spiritually fat. I remember a mega church pastor telling me he felt like he was feeding cake to fat people. In a small church, when I neglect the gospel in my own life, I have four old ladies and several learned men who preach into my life in ways that Billy Graham or Billy Sunday could never match.

This is what is meant behind the often cliched phrase "life on life" preaching.

John Broaddus - almost universally considered "the father of homelitics" said this in "How can we help our pastor"

And when he begins to preach, cannot we help him to preach? Demosthenes is reported to have said (and he ought to have known something about it), that eloquence lies as much in the ear as in the tongue. Everybody who can speak effectively knows that the power of speaking depends very largely upon the way it is heard, upon the sympathy which one succeeds in gaining from those he addressed. If I were asked what is the first thing in effective preaching, I should say, sympathy; and what is the second thing, I should say, sympathy; and what is the third thing, sympathy. We should give our pastor sympathy when he preaches. Sometimes one good listener who does not care much about the gospel can put the sermon all out of harmony. The soul of a man who can speak effectively is a very sensitive soul, easily repelled and chilled by what is unfavorable, and easily helped by the manifestation of simple and unpretentious sympathy.

That sympaticos - the relational connection which drives home a sermon - can only be developed in person. Nothing else beats it.

So bottom line - want real preaching? Stop hiding behind "good preaching" and you'll find out how truly great it can be!

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I was a little surprised in finding the answer to this question, from a Catholic perspective at least, kind of reversed the tradition of parishes representing a contiguous geographical area.

One of the precepts of the Catholic Church is to provide for the needs of the church, the church being the universal church, the diocese and the local parish where one is a member. I don't have the old canon reference for it, but anyone over 50 will tell you that one is "not really supposed to a parish across town".

But, if this were true, it would still say this in canon law, and it doesn't.

This, is what canon law says about the laity's obligation concerning Mass

Can. 1247 On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are obliged to participate in the Mass.

Now, you're talking about homilies and sermons, other preaching and teaching is certainly up to you to find, but homilies and sermons would only be in the context of a greater form of worship and are definitely special creatures.

But, they're not the most important part. I don't know what the most important part of a protestant service is, but the most important part of the Catholic Mass is in the Liturgy of the Eucharist, not the Liturgy of the Word (which the homily is a part of) and that part, unless some profoundly illicit thing is happening, should have equal awesomeness wherever you go.

That being said a common complaint of apostates and other sorry folks is that, "they're not being fed" when they go to Mass. Well, in truth, unless they're avoiding communion, which I doubt, they are being fed. The problem is that they feel the preaching isn't reaching them. But, that's what G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis are for and those guys aren't even priests the priest has to talk about the scripture or some part of the Mass, he can't go off on a tangent every week about the horrors of p**nography.

So, before I go off on a tangent and write more than you want to read :), the best advice I can give is to go to Mass early and pray and occasionally go to a church where you know the preaching is on fire, but make sure you provide for the needs of your local church because they probably provide a lot of important services, besides preaching, which is vitally important to the needs of your, more immediate, community.

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