7 Secular Sermons You Might Have Heard This Week

Inundated with Messages

As Christians, we often think of sermons as something exclusive to Sunday morning church services. We view sermons as a special type of expository exhortation, in which a pastor, standing in a pulpit and with a Bible open, delivers a spiritual instruction to a congregation. But this limited view prevents us from recognizing the countless other types of “secular sermons” that are being preached to us daily through our screens, advertisements, and entertainment.

Writer and researcher Kevin Simler offers a usefully broader definition of a sermon, which he describes as “any message designed to change or reinforce what a group of people value.”¹ By this definition, sermons happen everywhere, from Super Bowl commercials to Netflix shows, from social media feeds to corporate mission statements.

What makes these secular sermons particularly influential is how they create what Simler calls “common knowledge.” This isn’t merely information that we individually absorb; it’s an understanding that we know everyone else has also absorbed.

Scrolling Ourselves to Death

Brett McCracken, Ivan Mesa

Drawing from Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985) and applying his insights to today’s scrolling age, this book helps believers think carefully about digital technology and inspires the church to turn difficult cultural challenges into life-giving opportunities.

Think about a popular TV show that portrays religious believers as backward or hypocritical. The power isn’t just in how it might influence you personally but the fact that you know millions of others watched the same portrayal. You know that they know, and they know that you know. This shared awareness creates a powerful network effect that amplifies the message far beyond its initial impact.

Or consider when a major athletic brand releases a campaign featuring everyday people overcoming obstacles through perseverance and determination. The power of the message stems not just from inspiring you personally to purchase their products (though that is a main goal) but from your knowledge that millions of others also absorbed the same aspirational message. This shared understanding creates an unspoken social consensus that personal willpower and “just doing it” are the primary solutions to life’s challenges. The campaign functions as a secular sermon precisely because everyone knows everyone else has heard it, reinforcing individualistic values in ways that private, targeted advertising never could.

The moment we recognize this broader definition of sermons, we begin to see that our culture is filled with competing pulpits, each vying for influence over our values, priorities, and beliefs. A pastor may speak for an hour on Sunday, but secular voices are preaching to us for the remaining 167 hours of the week.

Here are seven secular sermons you might have encountered this week without even realizing it.

1. The Instagram Lifestyle Gospel

Scroll through Instagram for just five minutes and you’ll hear the persistent sermon that fulfillment comes through aesthetic perfection and curated experiences. The meticulously staged “day in my life” montages and sunset beach meditation posts preach a doctrine of self-actualization through consumption and experience-collecting. This secular sermon quietly challenges the Christian understanding that true joy comes from a never-ending relationship with God (Ps. 16:11) rather than endlessly collecting picture-perfect moments (Matt. 6:19–21).

2. The Corporate Brand Purpose Statement

Companies increasingly position themselves as moral authorities with purpose-driven messaging. Whether it’s a coffee chain promising community or an outdoor retailer preaching environmental stewardship, these brands are delivering sermons about what matters most in life. While the wording varies from one corporation to the next, the underlying message remains the same: ethical consumption is the primary way to effect change in the world.

3. The Algorithm’s Personalization Homily

Every time you open Netflix, Spotify, or your news feed, the recommendation algorithms deliver a sermon tailored specifically to you. The message it’s sending is that your preferences are sovereign and your individual taste should be your primary guide. This personalization subtly undermines the Christian notion of submitting to truth outside ourselves and joining a community with shared values rather than one based on “egocasting.”²

A pastor may speak for an hour on Sunday, but secular voices are preaching to us for the remaining 167 hours of the week.

4. The Celebrity Interview Confession

Late-night talk shows and podcast interviews with celebrities regularly feature intimate personal revelations framed as courageous acts of authenticity. These confessional moments preach that sharing one’s struggles publicly is the path to healing and that growth requires vulnerability but not accountability. This secular liturgy subtly replaces the biblical model of confession within community (James 5:16), transforming repentance into mere public disclosure.

5. The Superhero Film’s Redemptive Violence

The latest blockbuster likely contained an implicit sermon about how the world is ultimately saved through the right application of force by a morally righteous individual or group. This narrative of redemptive violence stands in stark contrast to the Christian story of a Savior who conquers through self-sacrifice and who commands love of enemies (Matt. 5:44).

6. The Health and Wellness Scripture

From supplement companies to fitness influencers, the wellness industry preaches a gospel of salvation through physical optimization. These sermons promote the idea that with enough discipline and the right products, we can achieve bodily transcendence and avoid suffering. Their not-so-subtle message is a direct challenge to the Christian understanding of various aspects of our physical life, such as mortality, respect for the elderly, and hope in a bodily resurrection (1 Cor. 15:42–44).

7. The Political Talk Show Liturgy

Whether left-leaning or right-leaning, political commentators deliver powerful sermons about who belongs in the moral community and who stands outside it. These secular liturgies form our understanding of neighbor-love more effectively than many Sunday sermons. Many ignore the commands of Jesus, such as the call to love even our enemies, and even attempt to reframe anti-Christian positions as biblical requirements.

Recognizing the Sermons Around Us

What makes these secular sermons so effective is that they rarely announce themselves as moral or spiritual instruction. Instead, they slip past our defenses through entertainment, convenience, or utility. As the late media critic Neil Postman warned, these messages can profoundly shape our theological plausibility structures—what we consider reasonable to believe about God, ourselves, and the world.

But we are not helpless to respond to these messages.

The first and most necessary step in countering their influence is simply recognizing them for what they are. When we understand that we’re being preached to through our screens, products, and entertainment, we can begin to critically engage with these messages rather than passively absorbing them.

Paul encouraged believers to “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5). In our media-saturated age, this means actively identifying and interrogating the secular sermons bombarding us daily. What values are being preached through your favorite shows? What vision of the good life is your social media feed subtly endorsing? What doctrines about human nature are embedded in the news you consume?

By naming these messages and examining them in light of Scripture, we reclaim our spiritual discernment. We’re called not just to avoid being “conformed to this world” but to be “transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rom. 12:2). This renewal happens when we recognize competing gospels, actively counter them with biblical truth, and surround ourselves with fellow believers who help us see the water we’re swimming in.

The secular pulpits may be louder and more numerous, but they are not more powerful than the timeless truth of God’s word. As we become attuned to the sermons around us, we can respond with wisdom rather than being unwitting disciples of the culture’s ever-changing gospels.

Notes:

https://meltingasphalt.com/here-be-sermons/
https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-age-of-egocasting

Joe Carter is a contributing author to Scrolling Ourselves to Death: Reclaiming Life in a Digital Age, edited by Brett McCracken and Ivan Mesa.

Joe Carter (MDiv, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) is a senior writer for the Gospel Coalition, the author of The Life and Faith Field Guide for Parents, the editor of the NIV Spiritual Habits Bible, and coauthor of How to Argue Like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from History’s Greatest Communicator. He also serves as an associate pastor at McLean Bible Church in Arlington, Virginia.

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