# Alistair Begg on Market-Driven Preaching



## Marrow Man (Sep 9, 2009)

The following video is from a conference message delivered by Alister Begg more than 10 years ago. He rightly analyzes the problem with popular entertainment-driven “worship” services in that they fail to make proper use of preaching as God’s chosen way of communicating the gospel.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYs4AF8S0oA]YouTube - The Gospel In Contemporary Culture (Alistair Begg 1998)[/ame]

Here's a quote:



> People … have assumed that preaching is analogous to a marketing exercise, and what you have in the preaching event, we’re told, is a product, namely the Gospel; consumers, namely the congregation; salesmen, the preacher. And the job of the preacher is to overcome consumer resistance and persuade people to buy his product. And many, many, many younger men have begun to labor in pastoral ministry with that as a model.
> 
> It is a recipe for the worst kind of disappointment, eventually. Because what do we discover when we turn to the Bible? We discover that according to Paul there is one overwhelming reason why the analogy is no good. And that is because the preacher doesn’t overcome consumer resistance. The preacher cannot overcome consumer resistance. 2 Corinthians 4 says that the Gospel is veiled to those who do not believe.
> 
> ...


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## 21st Century Calvinist (Sep 10, 2009)

Thanks for posting this, Pastor Tim.


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## KMK (Sep 10, 2009)

I would add one thing to what is written above and that is this: Those churches who hold back the gospel in order to attract unbelievers are actually yoking themselves with the unbeliever. They enter into an unspoken covenant which says, "We won't offend you with the Gospel and you will give us your attendance and offerings."


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## Marrow Man (Sep 10, 2009)

Excellent point, Ken.


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