"The Biggest Problem with Modern Preaching" Walther

The biggest problem with modern preaching, my dear friends, is this: these sermons lack point and purpose. And this fault is particularly noticeable in the sermons of our contemporary preachers who are believers. While unbelieving and fanatical preachers have a definite goal - too bad that it is not the right one! - believing preachers, as a rule, imagine that they have fully discharged their office as long as they have preached the Word of God.

That is about as correct a view as when a hunter imagines he has discharged his office simply by sallying forth with his loaded gun and blasting aimlessly into the forest, or as when an artilleryman thinks he has done his duty by taking up his position in the line of battle and merely firing his cannon into the blue. Just as the latter are poor hunters and soldiers, the former are poor and useless preachers because they have no plan in mind and do not take aim when preaching. While their sermons may contain beautiful thoughts, they do not have any impact. They may occasionally make the thunder of the Law roll in their sermons, yet there is no lightning that strikes. Again, they may water the garden assigned to them with the fruitful waters of the Gospel, but they pour water on the flower beds and the paths of the garden indiscriminately - and their effort is lost.

Neither Christ nor the holy apostles preached in that fashion. When they had finished preaching, every hearer knew: he meant ME...

Walther, Law and Gospel, p. 110.