There is no such thing as Sermon Block

It's going to hurt, and I hate to do it, especially with such a good guy. But I'm going to disagree with  David Cloake on the subject of "Sermon Block".

My thesis is this.

There is no such thing as Sermon Block.

This is not on the basis of faith - this is on the basis of sound evidence, scientifically gathered.

I have heard many preachers over a couple or so decades.

I have never, in all those years, seen a preacher stand up, remain stationary with his or her mouth opening and closing but nothing coming out, and then sit down again. Even at times of utter stress or total lack of inspiration.

I've heard some real rubbish, that's true.

I've heard someone say they don't agree with space rockets, because they go up into space - the implication being that's where God lives.

I've heard someone preach on the subject of "entropy" to illustrate "sin". The trouble being that (a) the average person in the pew/comfy chair/bean-bag understands "entropy" (which is a physics/chemistry term) far less than "sin" (which you can see all around you in your daily life) and (b) that it wasn't a very good illustration anyway.

I've never heard anyone not preach at all. Never.

My conclusion is that, no matter what agonies the preacher may have had, by 10.30 or thereabouts on a Sunday morning they have something they can preach. It's normally good stuff. It's sometimes brilliant. It sometimes descends to being boring, and occasionally - very occasionally - it's completely wrong-headed. But they always have something to preach. And, as I say, it's overwhelmingly often worthwhile.

You can call it glibness. You can call it the Holy Spirit. You can call it falling back on their ministry (preaching the word) and being blessed through that. But you never hear anyone totally failing to preach a sermon.

Obviously, you'll know otherwise. But I bet the experience was rare.