The modern obsession with “user-friendly” ministry has stoked the fear of preaching into a pervasive phobia. Seminaries these days train men to be storytellers, entertainers, and motivational speakers – and discourage them from dealing with profound of difficult theological concepts from the pulpit.

Suddenly “too much Scripture” is deemed a greater homiletical faux pas than a whole sermon with no reference to Scripture whatsoever! Seriously, in some circles it is perfectly acceptable to give a motivational lecture of comedy routine practically devoid of any biblical content, but a verse-by-verse exposition of Scripture would automatically be deemed too weighty and (this is the unpardonable sin) insufficiently “relevant.”

Meanwhile, real preachers, men willing to stand in the pulpit, open the Word of God, and proclaim it with authority and conviction, are in seriously short supply. It seems the whole church is seized with a fear of preaching.

– John F. MacArthur Jr. (in Whatever Happened to the Reformation, edited by Gary L.W. Johnson & R. Folwer White, p. 270.