Page 151 - A Dissertation for Doctor of Philosophy

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who no longer sows in the study will no more reap in the pulpit.” Recently, Sang Bok Kim
insisted that the Korean church needs strong preaching if she wants to experience a second

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revival. The time is right, then to emphasize the centrality of preaching in the ministry of the
Korean church ensuring a break through the current impasse and crisis of the Korean Christianity.

The Nature and Function of Preaching
One of the main reasons behind the current crisis in preaching is a shallow understanding

of the philosophy of preaching. Thorwald Lorenzen insists that the modern crisis in preaching

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needs to be interpreted as a theological crisis. The crisis of preaching in the Korean church is as
much a theological crisis as it is a methodological one. The predominant understanding of the

nature and function of preaching in the contemporary Korean church is to attend to human needs

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and to provide principles and obligations to be met for better and blessed living.

It is problematic, however, to understand the nature and function of preaching as a means

to promote human well-being. Such an attitude makes preaching overly anthropocentric; and the

Bible becomes a “secondary appendage to a sermon,” rather than holding its authoritative

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centrality to ask and answer human problems. Anthropocentric methodology inevitably leads
to a human-centered, utilitarian hermeneutic. The problem is foundationally theological. Eun

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C. H. Spurgeon, An All-Round Ministry (Pasedina, TX: Pilgrim Publication, 1973), 236.

7 Kukmin Ilbo (People Daily Newspaper) (Seoul), 21 August 2002. There was a “Forum
for the Second Revival in the Korean Church,” held in Daejeon, Korea in August 2002.

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Thorwald Lorenzen, “Responsible Preaching,” Scottish Journal of Theology 33 no. 5
(1980): 453-469.

9
Ki Kim, “Analysis of Korean Preaching,” 110.

10 William Willimon, Integrative Preaching (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1981), 16.