Although it has taken different forms, the sermon has been a constant feature in the worship of Christian congregations from the very beginning. The most appropriate context for preaching has been seen as the worshipping community, with ‘God’s people assembled in God’s presence to hear God’s Word’. For it is here that ‘the living God is present, according to his covenant pledge, in the midst of his worshipping people, and has promised to make himself known to them through his Word and sacrament’.1
T he integral link between preaching and gathered worship perhaps offers a gentle challenge to some of our practices, and encourages us towards an enriched view of the place of preaching in worship for the spiritual and missional formation of God’s people.
AN ENRICHED VIEW OF PREACHING: PREACHING AS WORSHIP
In Preaching as Worship, Michael Quicke describes what many of us are likely to be familiar with – that churches often view a Sunday worship service in individual units of time, segmented into functional parts, each with their own outcomes. The sermon takes its place as one component alongside several other components. However, Quicke encourages us to look at the role of the sermon not as an isolated part of a service, but in the whole sweep of it, to understand that ‘preachers worship when they preach, hearers worship as they listen, and all participants worship as they respond’.2
