Page 180 - A Dissertation for Doctor of Philosophy

One suggestion is that Korean preachers need to restore and maintain the priority of preaching

throughout the entirety of their ministry. In order to prioritize the preaching ministry, it is

incumbent on them to allocate sufficient time dedicated to studying, meditating, and praying

6
over the text and context. Another suggestion is that Korean preachers must reconsider their

philosophy of preaching in terms of the nature and function of preaching. Preaching should be

7
kerygmatic before didactic or therapeutic. They need to overcome the insidious anthropocentric

understanding of preaching.

The Third suggestion is that Korean preachers need to be certain of their fundamental role in

preaching. Their roles are those of a prophet and a teacher. As the one standing between God and

human, the preacher should have a divine Word with a heavenly ethos to deliver to the waiting

congregation. Social consciousness of a prophet should be cultivated and expressed by a

preacher. At the same time, the preacher is a teacher of the Scripture. If preachers are seriously

confused about their basic responsibility, it is evident that the church suffers.

The forth suggestion is that Korean preachers should reconsider the nature of authority in the

pulpit and restore the fundamental attributes to it. In order for the message to be recognized and

accepted as the Word of God to bear fruits in the lives of the congregation, the preacher’s

authority as a servant of the Word is more than necessary.

6
John Killinger, The Centrality of Preaching in the Total Task of the Ministry (Waco, TX:
Word Books, Publisher, 1969), 21. He describes the need of good preaching, “people are not
tired of preaching but of non-preaching, of the badly garbled, anachronistic, irrelevant drivel that
has in so many places passed for preaching because there was no real preaching to measure it
against.”

7
Wilder, Early Christian Rhetoric, 21. Wilder asserts that “The basic character of the
Gospel…is revelation, not persuasion.”