All the news attention yesterday and throughout today has been on the President’s State of the Union address. This happens every year in January and it serves to be a good reminder of the President’s accountability to the other branches of government.

This occasion provides more than a civics lesson. It also helps the church think about preaching.

We have heard experts decry preaching as outdated, irrelevant, wastes of time. We cannot possibly expect people to listen, engage, and retain what they are told during a 45 minute sermon on Sunday morning. There is a better way we are told. Maybe we should have conversations or drama or finger painting or whatever.

I have it on good information that the government and in particular President Obama, is pretty good at technology. They also have spent a buck or two on surveys. Yet, they keep on shuffling out President Obama to give us a speech. And this is not a little 15 minute jokey speech, it is a full 1 hour speech.

So what can we learn?

1. People are not idiots. We can and should expect them to listen when we have something to say.

2. Persuasive presentations are still effective. Otherwise he would just blog the thing.

3. Preparation actually matters. Whatever you want to say about the POTUS and his teleprompter, guess what? He knew his speech. He had thought it through and had it down.

4. Thoughtful preparation matters. He knew who he was talking to and what he wanted to say.

5. Fear is healthy. Let’s face it, the President has a job to do and an election to win. He doesn’t want to stink it up.

If you are a pastor, keep preaching. And keep expecting people to listen. But, please, please, please, could you make sure that the sermon is actually in you before you give it? Make sure it moves you. Have convictions, be persuasive, get after it. What a shame it would be if the president was more thoughtful, diligent, and committed in his presentation to the people of the country than we are to our congregations before God? What an indictment this is to us who bye the lie that preaching is irrelevant. No, boring is irrelevant. And so is tired, lazy, unprepared, unmoved, wimpy  guys who have nothing to say.

Be encouraged or be convicted as need be. I know I am.