Thank you for this important discussion, Dan.

I admit I have not read the length of this discussion and so perhaps I am adding some thoughts that have already been touched on. I apologize if this is so.

I would like to chime in to agree with the helpfulness of our brother John’s analogy.

Of course meals change us!
The lack of meals make us die.
Healthy meals make us fit.
Sacchrine, fatty meals make us sick.

Change and meals go together.

If the analogy of meals and nutrition is unsuitable to discipleship, why would Paul use it in 1 Cor 3, or Peter in 1Peter 2 or the Hebrews author in Heb 5 or Jesus himself in
John 4?

If meals are not resonate of inner transformation, why is one of our sacraments a meal?

The Spirit is wedded to his Word. The Word is living and active. I believe transformation can happen every time this Word is preached. “Faith comes through hearing and hearing through the preaching of the Word.” Rom 10

Do not fault the means of grace found in the proclamation of the word because of our hard hearts and blocked ears. (Lord, chisel out my ears! Isaiah 50:4-5)

Jesus preached in the synagouges and houses, in the temple and on the roads. He showed that disciples made both through the spoken Word and the incarnated Word. That is how disciples are still made.

Was it empty talk when God promises His Word never returns to Him empty? (Isaiah 55; Matt 13.) Yes, just sitting there in a pew is not the be-all and end-all of discipleship. But don’t throw the pulpit out with the pew warmers! We need to constantly rehearse, remember who we are in a corporate setting, coming under the grace of the preached Word. We need to take it in, like a meal, and feed on it, and let change our thinking and our action.

Well, I’ve written too much.

Grace and peace to you all…

Yours,
Laura

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You might not pulpit preaching is the main discipleship-making avenue, but for many people in the Church, it’s not only considered the primary way, but nearly the only way.

Obviously, I don’t share that “only way” viewpoint.