Detailed question
Greetings in the Lord brothers. As a general principle, does “dry preaching” exist? Is this merely a subjective thing? Or is there an objective standard by which we can determine dryer preaching? For instance, Sometimes you hear a sermon and to you it’s dry. But to the person beside you that was the best sermon they heard.
Secondly, is there such thing as a regenerate pastor preaching a sermon but it is not anointed by the Spirit. Or in a particular sermon it is not done in the power of the Spirit. I’ve heard Spurgeon and Lloyd Jones mention this phenomenon on several occasions.
(Ps. I don’t think my local pastors preaching is dry. Just curious about the general principle.)
Common myths about preaching
“Dry preaching is always bad preaching.”
“Powerful preaching must be passionate or loud.”
“If a sermon feels boring, the preacher failed.”
“Good preaching is purely subjective—it’s all about what resonates.”
“Spirit-anointed preaching always feels powerful or emotional.”
“Preachers don’t need to grow if their theology is solid.”
“Application isn’t necessary in preaching.”
“The fault always lies with the congregation if the preaching isn’t received well.”
“Preaching should follow a rigid structure (e.g., three points, same format every time).”
“Preaching is only about teaching.”
Summary
Is dry preaching a real issue—or just a matter of taste? In this episode of Ask FGBC, Pastor Jim Butler tackles a listener’s question about so-called “dry preaching.” With straight talk and pastoral wisdom, he explores whether preaching can lack power even when it’s doctrinally sound, what role the Spirit plays in the pulpit, and why clarity, conviction, and progress matter in a preacher’s ministry. From steak-and-potatoes analogies to reflections on unction, this conversation will challenge how you think about preaching. Watch the video to hear Pastor Butler’s full answer.
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Transcript
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Dry preaching, objective standard, regenerate pastor, exegetical responsibility, public speaking, practical Christian life, anointing, preaching manner, convincing, rebuke, exhort, pastoral ministry, performance expectations, Bible questions, theological progress.
SPEAKERS
Pastor Jim Butler, Pastor Cameron Porter, Wim Kerkhoff
Wim Kerkhoff 00:08
This is a okay question, does dry preaching exist? Bit of a longer question, but greetings in the Lord as a general principle, does dry preaching exist? Is this merely a subjective thing, or is there an objective standard by which we can determine drier preaching? For instance, sometimes you hear a sermon until you use dry but to the person next to you, it’s the best sermon they ever heard. And is there such a thing as a regenerate past of preaching, a sermon, but it is not anointed by the Spirit or in a particular sermon, it is not done in the power of the Spirit. I’ve heard virgin and Lloyd joins. I mentioned this on several occasions.
Pastor Jim Butler 00:48
I have a few thoughts on that, but you can go ahead.
Pastor Cam Porter
No, you go ahead if you have a few thoughts.
Pastor Jim Butler
Well, I think in terms of dry preaching, I should, you know, just, just a couple of thoughts from the hip here. Yeah, I think there can be dry preaching, but I’d rather have dry preaching that’s accurate and Orthodox than fiery preaching that is heretical, right? I mean, I think the primary emphasis in preaching is to make known the Word of God. So exegetical responsibility in handling the text and making clear accurately what the Scripture says, what the Scripture teaches.
Now, in terms of how that is done, if you go home and you cook a steak and a potato, and you pull it out of the oven, it will nourish you, it will satisfy you, it will sustain you. But if, when you’re cooking that steak, you throw some onions and some garlic and some mushrooms, and then when you pull that potato out, you throw lots of butter and salt, it sustains and nourishes, but there’s something about it that’s just even more desirous.
I think preachers should labor to be interesting. We are dealing with the most interesting content, content on the face of the earth that Hollywood or cartoons captivate the imaginations of people for an hour and a half. Preaching has the best subject matter, and I think that preachers should labor to be interesting. The Apostle says that to Timothy, let your conduct be known to all, or your progress, rather, be known to all. I don’t think that just means in theological acumen or ability, but also in preaching, preaching is an act of public speaking.
I remember, you know, hearing about President Obama, what a great public speaker he was. I always struggled with that, because he says, Huh, and um, a lot. And I just don’t think that’s great public speaking. And I think if part of our you know, part of the task of preaching is to make known the truth of God’s Word. Do it in such a way that the people want it, rather than choking down a dry piece of ham, you know, throw some gravy on there. Make it, you know.
And I’m not saying make it your own or be innovative. Accurately, preach the text with the boldness that you believe what the text means, and with a clarity that the people can get and respond to. So when it comes to manner, I think that’s there. Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and teaching.
So the teaching deals with, yeah, that’s what you do. You teach what the Bible says, The manner in which you do it is convince, rebuke and exhort. Now, it doesn’t mean you have to be a loud preacher. It doesn’t mean you have to, you know, scream at people. Some people are louder, some people aren’t. It’s not that. But convince, convince, rebuke and exhort.
That indicates that this is more than just a lecture, or it’s more than just some teaching time. You know, preaching is teaching, but with the hope that the spirit affects the will of the man with the word, so that there’s change wrought, whether from death to life, or whether from, you know, not too great of sanctification to more sanctification.
And then I’ve always thought Matthew 7:12 [the “golden rule”], you know, I always have tried to preach the way I want to be preached to. And you know, the the way that we structure the ministry in our church. We go through the Old Testament on Wednesday night, gospel oriented stuff, gospel of John on Sunday morning and more teaching practical Christian life stuff on Sunday night.
I didn’t develop that out of any other way than knowing that as a Christian man, as a member of a church, I’d want to learn the Old Testament. I’d want to be tethered into, you know, Jesus, life and ministry. And I’d want to have some practical Christian admonition. So, you know was, it’s just a matter of, what do people need? Again, the chef or cook analogy, you got to provide nutritious meals for people, or they’re not going to be, you know, healthy and well.
And then the thing about the spirit, anointing or not, anointing or regenerate person, I don’t understand that. I think that if a man is set apart to preach the Word of God, and he does it accurately, I think, and I’ve known this in my own preaching, there’s times where I have felt, and I know that sounds subjective, more help than than others, but never have I ever felt alone in the pulpit.
It’s like Lloyd Jones said, I don’t know how to define unction. I don’t know what unction is, but I know when I don’t have it. So now I can, you know, in my time preaching, I can never say God left me alone. But has there been times where I have sensed more of His presence and power? Yeah, this past Sunday, honestly, I felt more in the evening than I did in the morning. But I don’t think the morning, not that there was an absence of God… You know, preachers are men too. You got a lot of thoughts. You got a lot you don’t just have the subject matter of things that you need to preach. You got people, you got family, you got your own stuff, you got your own life, you got all these things.
And I have seen a pattern in my life when it comes to a teaching time, I clam up around my wife. I’m thinking more about this podcast this morning. I’m thinking more about the Sunday morning. I’m thinking more about Sunday evening. And thankfully, she’s a wife that, you know, gives me space and doesn’t say, Well, you know, why are you mad at me? Well, it has nothing to do with that. There’s a lot going on in the head of a guy that’s going to preach the word
Wim Kerkhoff 06:58
yeah. Just what came to mind is, objectively, is like I reviewed a sermon for brother recently who was starting to preach, and there is a rubric, right? Here’s a survey can go through. Said it is an objective thing, right? So was Christ preach? Was the text preached? How did he handld addressing the congregation?
Pastor Jim Butler 07:14
So yeah, there’s an objective criteria, but there’s not, you know, preaching is a probably, and I say this as a preacher, so I’m probably biased, it’s the most interesting thing in the world. You know, when you look at the book of Acts, you see similarities in terms of preaching. But so much of what we know of preaching is what we know of preaching has to be three points. Has to be, this has to be. That has to be, you know, there’s not that kind of a framework.
So there’s the objectivity. Make clear what the text is saying, make it relevant in so far as you can to the people of God so that they can grow. And, you know, couple of observations, Barcello said he didn’t like application, I don’t know what we’re calling it these days, but some practical uses. That’s how the Puritans would address things, you know. So the practical uses, how do we take this doctrine from this passage, and what does it mean to me fom for my personal use?
Not only do I not think that’s that’s a wrong approach, I think it’s a good approach. I think that, you know, good preaching, but application needs to be connected the text. You know, sometimes these kinds of things, these concentric circles, get pretty far afield. You know, when you drop a rock in a pond, it goes, you know, I try to keep the lines, or keep the circles close enough to the rock hitting the pond.
You know, I mentioned this at a Bible study recently. It’s interesting with pastors, pastoral ministry. You know when, when it’s about time clocks and performance and expectations, it’s a job, but when the pastor asks for money or benefits, but that’s your calling, that’s your vocation. Don’t you do that for souls?
And I’ve often thought, and I’ve been at this now for a few years, and I think about the pastoral ministry and the connection to other jobs, and that one thing I remain convinced is pastors need to perform. And by perform, I don’t mean you know Joel Osteen type. I mean let your progress be evident to all, growing in your understanding of Scripture, growing in your knowledge of theology, and being able to preach so that the people of God under your charge are growing and learning.
I would feel terrible if somebody came to our church, and you know, a majority of the people couldn’t answer basic Bible questions. That indicates a failure. At some point we can blame the people, which typically happens with preachers. Oh, it’s the people. Man. Could be you too. Maybe you’re not making it clear, maybe you’re not accurate, maybe you’re not, you know, convincing, rebuking, exhorting, as you ought to do.
So, you know, this tendency to always blame the people for their deficiencies. I just, I don’t appreciate that. I think it’s, you know, it’s kind of like being in Congress or in Parliament, you can do anything you want, and there’s no accountability. You don’t ever have to perform. You don’t ever have to produce, and yet you get raises. I don’t know. I just think that we need to make sure that guys who are preaching and teaching regularly are progressing.
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