Am I going about this wrong?

For the second week in a row I find myself lacking a serious task to tackle. I find myself lacking a challenge to hang onto. It is kind of perplexing.

This last week I listened to my lifelong friend, Ben Rushing, preach at Rhapsody Church. While I must say he did very well, was inspiring and encouraging, I still left without action. There was an implied action given: be good soil. In other words, be ready to hear and respond to those things that God is doing well. I suppose I could take that as my application, but it feels kind of vague.

As I work through this year of doing everything I'm asked to do in a sermon, I can't help but wonder - am I doing it wrong?

The scripture talks about preaching as proclaiming, announcing, heralding the news about Jesus. So, Biblical preaching is really to tell people about Jesus. Biblical preaching has little to do with my task list that I am compiling, or attempting to. In fact, it is all about Jesus. Helping people know and follow him. I suppose that "what you do to follow" aspect is what I am looking for. Yet, I am finding myself mostly doing little or nothing in response to these challenges - not out of laziness or a lack of motivation, but because nobody is calling me to do anything.

I believe the Church is the hope of the world. People sent by God to serve and save everyone. However, I hear very little preaching of that message. Where I do see it, oddly enough is in bulletins and announcements. "We need people to serve this homeless shelter," "There is an opportunity to serve children," etc. There is culture within a church to do those things that Jesus did and made us to do. Yet, I wonder if much of our preaching hasn't changed to be more like a pat on the back to keep doing them. Would that necessarily be a bad thing?