I was moved this morning by the following quote from Stuart Briscoe in Fresh Air in the Pulpit: Challenges and Encouragement from a Seasoned Preacher:
"The problem for the preacher who rightly aims at relevance is that the more the preaching moves in the direction of the hearer's interests, the greater is the danger of the preaching being irrelevant. It is the unique distinctiveness of the gospel which makes the difference in people's lives. But if the preaching has become so 'relevant' that it differs little from the kind of discussion that fills the weary hours of the talk shows, questions people may legitimately ask are: 'Why should we bother with this message called the gospel, which seems to be little more than a religious-version of talk-show babble (57)?"
