On this week's Things Unseen, I want to reflect together with you on the subject of preaching.

We've sometimes thought about that in passing on the podcast, but this week we're going to do it each day. It's a subject that's relevant

to all of us, whether we're preachers, or as all of us are, preachers included, whether we're

listeners. And no doubt we've all got our own opinions about preaching and about the preaching

that we regularly listen to. So it's important

that we don't just react to preaching in a I like it, I don't like it kind of way or take it for

granted, but that we think about it, what it is and what it should be. And apart from anything

else, that should help us to do what Paul asked the Ephesian

Church to do, to pray for the preaching of the mystery of the gospel. I wonder if you do that.

But first a question someone asked me quite recently, how important is preaching? Here's something interesting in the shorter

catechism. If you're not familiar with it, it's the old catechism that begins with the famous

question about man's chief end. Later, in Question 89, the catechism asks this question,

how is the word of God made effectual to salvation?

That is, how does it point us to Christ and then transform our lives?

And the answer is very striking.

The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching of God's Word, an effectual means of convincing and converting

sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation.

I wonder if you yourself would say that bit, especially the preaching.

I get the feeling that many Christians today think that their own

Bible reading, or the home house group that they go to, makes a far bigger impact on their Christian

lives and therefore is far more important to them than the sermons they hear. So, when the men who wrote the catechism wrong or just living

in a different season? Was that true in their day centuries ago, while we live in a different

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