The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser

Tag: Textual Preaching

  • What IFB Christians Mean When They Say, “I Am Not Being Fed”

    photo of a man in a red shirt feeding a baby
    Photo by Photo By: Kaboompics.com on Pexels.com

    I preached my first sermon at age fifteen. All told, I preached more than 4,000 sermons over the course of thirty-five years. I spent twenty-five years actively pastoring churches in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. I started out in the ministry preaching primarily topical and textual sermons. In the mid- to late-80s, I began preaching primarily expositional sermons — book by book, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. I love preaching expositionally. This approach forced me to be true to the text. For example, in the early 90s, I preached more than one hundred sermons from the book of John. I also preached through much of the New Testament, along with preaching sermons from Genesis, Exodus, Ecclesiastes, Psalms, and the major/minor prophets.

    Over the years, thousands of people heard me preach, both at the churches I pastored and at revivals, conferences, and special meetings. There were times when people disagreed with me on this or that theological subject or objected to my Calvinistic beliefs. These folks would grumble and complain to their fellow members, saying they were no longer being “fed.” In time, off they would go, looking for a new pastor to “feed” them. It was not uncommon for me to hear that they missed my preaching or missed our church, but rarely did they return. To do so would mean admitting they were wrong as to the reasons they left.

    That’s not to say that people were always wrong for leaving. No church or pastor can be all things to all people. I had certain beliefs that upset people. I completely understand why an Arminian Christian might be offended by my Calvinistic preaching. Calvinism and Arminianism are incompatible with each other, but I pastored more than a few Arminian Christians. They like me as a person or my family, so they ignored my Calvinistic beliefs, while, at the same time, accepting and appreciating my focus on holiness — without which no man shall see the Lord.

    One thing I never did was change my preaching to please people. Preaching expositionally kept me from chasing rabbits or letting my feelings dictate what text I would preach from. Congregants knew ahead of time what text I was preaching from. This allowed them to read and study the text beforehand, though, to be honest, I doubt that many members did.

    That’s not to say that Christians are never justified in looking for a church that “feeds” them. Some pastors are dreadful preachers, delivering rambling, incoherent, shallow sermons. After hearing such sermons, I don’t blame people for looking for a new church.

    Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comment section.

    Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

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    You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

  • Questions: Bruce, What Was Your Speaking Style During Your Preaching Days?

    questions

    I recently asked readers to submit questions to me they would like me to answer. If you would like to submit a question, please follow the instructions listed here.

    Sgl asked:

    Can you re-create an example of one of your fire-and-brimstone fundamentalist sermons (well, just a few minutes, not an entire sermon), the kind of sermon and theology you had at the beginning of your career? And a few minutes of something like your more progressive sermons that you gave before you left the ministry?

    Just curious because you say there are no extant recordings of your sermons. and from listening to some of the interviews you’ve done, your voice is too mild mannered for me to envision what I surmise that “fire and brimstone” is supposed to sound like. So it’s less about your actual theology, because you’ve covered that in all your posts, but about how you actually delivered this to the audience that I’m curious about.

    I no longer have the voice necessary to recreate a sermon from back in my Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) preaching days. Twenty-five years of preaching sermons has caused a good bit of damage to my voice, especially my singing voice. I used to have a pleasant tenor voice. Polly and I would often sing musical specials and for many years I led the congregational singing. Thanks to repeatedly misusing and overusing my voice, I no longer can sing.

    I started out as a fire and brimstone preacher. Loud, animated, and I moved around a lot, including coming down from the platform to where the crowd was seated. I primarily preached topical (choose a topic and find Bible verses to support your conclusions) or textual (start with a passage of Scripture) sermons. I remained a fire and brimstone preacher into the mid-1990s.

    Once I became a Calvinist, my style of preaching dramatically changed. While I could still be animated, I didn’t move around as much. I abandoned topical and textual preaching, and began preaching expositional sermons — sermons that are generally verse-by verse and allow the text to determine what is emphasized. I became more of a Bible teacher than a Baptist evangelist. I preached through numerous books of the Bible, including most of the New Testament. I preached over 100 sermons from the gospel of John (my favorite gospel). I also preached numerous sermons from 1 John, James, Hebrews, and Revelation (from a posttribulational, amillennial viewpoint). I suspect that the way I do interviews today is similar to preaching style post-IFB.

    About Bruce Gerencser

    Bruce Gerencser, 61, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 40 years. He and his wife have six grown children and twelve grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist. For more information about Bruce, please read the About page.

    Bruce is a local photography business owner, operating Defiance County Photo out of his home. If you live in Northwest Ohio and would like to hire Bruce, please email him.

    Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section. If you are a first-time commenter, please read the commenting policy before wowing readers with your words. All first-time comments are moderated. If you would like to contact Bruce directly, please use the contact form to do so.

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