Worshipping the Speaker?

By Rev. Tan Eng Boo

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!

Give thanks to him; bless his name!” (Psalm 100:4)

(Photo of The Neo-Gothic Evangelical Church of Christ exists since 1863 in Lake Hallstatt, Austria)

Psalm 100:4 reminds us of the true purpose of attending church: we gather to worship the Lord. Yet, in reality, many distractions can subtly shift our focus away from God. One such distraction is an undue emphasis on who will be speaking on a given Sunday. 

This is often where the enemy quietly works, redirecting our attention from worshipping God to evaluating the preacher. When a favored speaker is scheduled, attendance may rise. But when that speaker is absent, some may choose not to attend or instead turn to online sermons by their preferred preacher. This reveals a deeper issue within Christendom today.

This is not to say that the speaker is unimportant. The preacher plays a vital role in the worship service as the Lord’s messenger. However, we must remember that no speaker, no matter how gifted, is the object of our worship. Some speakers are eloquent, others less so—but all are servants of God.

The apostle Paul himself acknowledged Apollos as “an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures” (Acts 18:24). Even in the early church, believers struggled with attaching themselves to particular preachers.

This raises an important question: is our worship centered on man or on God?

The psalmist calls us to enter God’s house with thanksgiving and praise, not because of who is preaching, but because of who God is. If our motivation for attending church depends on the preacher, then we need to re-examine and correct our perspective on worship.

An illustration captures this well:

“A visiting minister was substituting for the famed pastor Henry Ward Beecher. A large audience had assembled to hear the popular pastor. At the appointed hour, the visiting minister entered the pulpit. Learning that Beecher was not to preach, several began to move toward the doors. The visiting minister stood and called out, “All who have come here today to worship Henry Ward Beecher may now withdraw from the church! All who have come to worship God, keep your seats!” No one then left.

(Illustration from Paul Lee Tan)

This account challenges us to examine our own hearts.

Jesus declared,

“You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve….” (Matthew 4:10).

To place undue focus on a speaker is to drift toward idolatry, which Scripture clearly warns against (Exodus 20:3).

At the same time, the Bible teaches us to honour those who faithfully preach and teach God’s Word (1 Timothy 5:17).

Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. (1 Timothy 5:17)

Yet honour is not the same as worship. Worship belongs to God alone.

How can we recognize man-centered worship?

1. After the service, do our conversations revolve mainly around how impressive the speaker was, rather than how God’s Word convicted or transformed us? 

2. Do we begin to treat the opinions or personality of a speaker as equal to, or even above the authority of Scripture? 

The Role of the Speaker

The preacher’s role is to faithfully unpack God’s Word and direct the congregation’s focus towards Jesus Christ. The preacher is not the focus of worship, but a fellow worshipper, guiding others to fix their eyes on God.

Let us therefore come to church each week with our hearts prepared  not to admire a speaker  but to adore our Saviour. True worship is always God-centered.