Wapangyingla Ao, Nagpur We always say that Preaching is all about declaring the love of God to the believers and their duties as God’s children. It helps believers to understand the love of God and let them do the same by carrying out the mission and the ministry Jesus have entrusted. Every believer is expected to be filled by the Holy Spirit and live according to God’s will and the societies they live in are expected to be a harmonious one.Regardless of the expectations, what one can see is only a chaotic and disordered society where most believers are being pampered by sin.The lives of the believers are filled with discriminations, injustices, and deceptions be it in economic, political, social, cultural, or in church, institutions, ministry and mission. For example, (a practical example) the peace and order that the Bible talks about is nowhere to be found in our society and churches today, except that it can be found in the books and the words that comes out from the mouths of the people. The word PEACE and ORDER has now become almost a trepidation in the ears of the common people. The idea behind this example is that, all the contextual issues related with the Creations of God are being addressed from the pulpit. Preachers seem to be working hard in their part, and the listeners seem to understand what the preachers are delivering, however, one cannot ignore the fact that there is a big gap between the preaching-understanding-doing. This leads one to ponder on the impact of preaching, focusing on both preachers and the congregation and their relatedness in bringing progressive outcome in the church as well as in the society. This is an era, where people are failing to put up with the sound doctrine, having itching ears to listen to their own desires, turning away from the truth and wandering away to the myths (II Timothy 4:3-4). Our era needsdrastic transformationin whole and preachers have to continue to work on this holistic transformation, provided, they also stick to the word they are preaching, i.e., following the concept of proclaiming the fifth gospel. The demand for pulpit reformation and prophetic preaching should be felt deeply by the preachers. They should be able to keep up with the changes of time, speak out without fear according to the will of God, persistent in proclaiming the message of God, convince, rebuke, encourage the listeners with utmost patience in teaching (II Timothy 4:2), and making use of all the available resources and skills that one possesses in order to enhance the congregation, and to draw them closer to God. Preaching, in order to be effectivealso depends on the listeners/or the hearers. Most importantly, it purely depends on one’s attitude of listening and reaction. One should possess the mindset of taking in the words of the preacher’s preaching and realize that what the preachers are proclaiming is the truth and the words are strikingly true to one’s own character. We should not take it as preachers encroaching our space, and ends up holding a personal grudge towards them. We must realize that a person or a society or a church cannot transform until and unless we allow our personal space to be invaded by God’s Word. One must also not sit with the aura of judgement and the holier-better than thou attitudes or go to the church out of habit or to showcase, etc.One has to realize that until and unless both the preachers and the listeners relay and relate with each other, there can never be any spiritual growth as well as holistic transformation, which is to say that PREACHING and GOING to CHURCH does not have any positive outcome or is not progressing. Let us always be reminded that if the word of God is not to invade the personal space of the listeners, or if we sit with judgmental attitudes, or are habituated church goers, we are proclaiming to the world that our Faith is impractical andour Bible is a lie, which means we are belittling and ignoring God’s love, sacrifice, commandments, and faithfulness.
