Violence in the Pulpit

A sermon is often a violent act,” says Doug Pagitt, a key figure among emerging leaders. “It’s a violence toward the will of the people who have to sit there and take it.”

To treat the sermon as an oratorical performance delivered by a paid and trained professional who claims to speak for God sets up an artificial power imbalance within the congregation, Pagitt says. It's hard for a congregation to practice the priesthood of all believers when the preaching perpetuates an image of the pastor as somehow more authoritative or spiritual than his or her listeners.

In an emerging church culture that values authenticity above all else, such an approach to preaching creates an artificial distance with the congregation.