It is very faddish in our day and age to mock Christ's Church, even as Christians.
Those who do not believe in Jesus will talk about why they don't like the Church--usually having to do with hypocrisy and judgmentalism. Of course, a critique of this critique is that when mankind had Jesus Christ in the flesh--the true Judge and was perfect in every way, and thus not hypocritical.
In the same way, Christians tend to bad mouth the Church as well (as if they're not a part of it). They too complain of the hypocrites, though in their vague condemnation of others' sin, they are proving themselves to be hypocrites. They likewise diagnose the "problem" of the church in a hundred different ways, again ignoring the fact that the're part of the problem
We think attending church services is a convenience, though it is God who calls us together and addressses us through His Word (more on that in a moment). We prefer a "personal spirituality," though God calls us to accountability (Heb. 10:24-25). We refuse to become members, ostensibly because it's not biblical (though it's the obvious implication every time Paul writes a letter to a specific local church). We struggle to submit to the elders, though they are the shepherds and overseers of our souls (Heb. 13).
I mention all of this because this self-righteous battering of Christ's Bride carries over into our view of preaching. How many still know that the preaching of God's Word is fundamentally different from the reading of God's Word? How many remember that it is preaching that is considered essential for the salvation of mankind (Rom. 10)? As long as they remain faithful to God's Word, pastors in many ways wield the power of the prophets--able to claim "Thus saith the Lord."
So it is that preaching is by far the most important part of worship on the Lord's Day. The sacraments (baptism and the Lord's Supper) are also essential, and singing, a call to worship and benediction, and prayer are required as well. But all of these things revolve around the proclamation of the Word of God. The sacraments are "signs and seals" of the grace proclaimed from the pulpit. The call to worship is God's invitation into His worship, and the benediction is His blessing to His people for the week. We sing because we have the privilege of being addressed by God. And the outflow of all of these things is deep communal bonds. It is not the most important part of the Church by a long stretch, but if a Church is healthy, it will be reflected in these bonds.
Now, if preaching is indeed the heart of Church worship (Acts 2), then that means a number of things for us:
1) It should be the first priority for you and me when we look for a church. The singing may stink in my opinion, and the communal life might be pretty rough as best I can tell, but those can be accommodated as long as the Word is faithfully preached.
2) We must carefully scrutinize the preaching of a church. If a pastor cannot in good conscience say "Thus saith the Lord" as he preaches, then He is likely not faithfully preaching God's Word. God's Word is not good advice. Preaching should not be filled with illustrations and applications unless these are directly or implicitly drawn from God's Word or brings greater light to its truth. And when a passage is preached, people should come away having learned more about the passage, not about culture or the life of the pastor.
3) If "Christ and Him crucified" was sufficient to be the Apostle Paul's message, then it should and must be sufficient for us. Pastors must still be faithful to the Text and not impose their own views upon a passage, but Christ (Luke 24) and the apostles give us both the warrant and mandate to preach Christ from all of Scripture. That is our fundamental goal--to placard Christ (to use Paul's words) before the eyes of His people and a watching world.
4) It means, as the Westminster Confession of Faith reminds us, that we should prepare ourselves for the preaching of God's Word. I confess that I often get distracted in during God's worship. I think of finances, food, good experiences, goals, sources of anxiety, and how to best try to disarm somebody who busts through the door and opens fire on the congregation. How do I prevent these distractions when God is addressing me? I prepare my heart in prayer, asking for God's blessing upon His ambassador in the pulpit and for His blessing upon my stubborn heart. I pray that I would be attentive to His Word and that I'd be convicted of my sin and comforted by the Gospel (Acts 2). I pray that I would not only hear the Word, but do the Word by His grace (James 1).
And if, in my normal ADHD-induced stupor, I still struggle to focus, I will take notes and/or sit closer to the front. And I'll have my kids do the same. If I'm already teaching them to pay attention to their teachers and to not interrupt their elders, then you better believe I'll teach them to pay attention to their God when He is speaking to them (and hope they do a better job than I did).
