Hiya BB!
Just some general observations. One of the black baptist churches in our neighborhood has a WONDERFUL Xmas carol service. They did a silent night you would not believe! And at the end the pastor said something like, “We’re Baptists, and this is what we do,”and then gave a very nice “invitation.” Who am I to cavil at the traditions of another Christian fellowship?
When I preached, ... heck, in the pulpit in the “practice chapel” at seminary there was a big sign: “Woe is me if I preach not the gospel.” So when I preached I made very nearly every sermon “evangelical” in structure and in main message. I thought then and I think now that there’s a kind of double aspect to ‘accepting Christ.” In one sense, there’s that moment (summer of 1971 for me) when you say, “OH! You LOVE me! Amazing! Include me IN!”
But then in another sense, it seems to me when things get tense or our enemy conducts an especially wily attack we find that though we SAID, “Be Lord of my life and of all that I have and am!” we’re actually holding out — in ways of which we are scarcely aware.
SO, I guess you could say my sermons were like, “Here’s another aspect of our lives in which we need to hear of the saving love of God, and here’s what he proclaims to us. to that part of us that’s still holding out.”
I still think that I mess up (sin) the most when I forget the Love of God in XP IHS and all that he is for me AND thee gift of the Spirit. So I don’t mind being reminded in season and out of season.
“Sermon” may mean ‘teaching,” but “preaching” means “proclaiming.” So I guess a good sermon has a little teaching and a little news in it. That’s how I think of it anyway.
I believe you must have been a very well-liked pastor. What I am trying to get across here, and don't seem to be successful with a few, is NOT that the Gospel (the plan of salvation) has no place in a Sunday sermon - of course it does. What I experienced (only one or two pastors) was using that same sermon EVERY Sunday. Not as part of the sermon - which I think it SHOULD be always proclaimed - but THE sermon being the same, repetitive thing. Believers - once they ARE believers - need to learn the meat of the word of God and I think you will agree, the Christian life entails a lot more after a person comes to saving faith than before.
So, yes, "Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel", but woe is my flock if they learn nothing BUT the Gospel. And, again, when I say "Gospel", I am not speaking of the life and words of our Savior as told in the gospels of Matthew,Mark, Luke and John, but the "good news" that Christ has come to save us from our sins.
Take care!