Listening to Ghostface Keller on Preaching Christ to a postmodern world talking about a common subtext in preaching - "Aren't We Good?"
This, he says, is ritual reinforcement, it is the setting of boundaries and the establishment of who's in and who's out.
The church community which tends towards this subtext doesn't actually want to be taught, changed and challenged. Instead they want to be reminded again of what they already believe. They want the jargon. They want the familiar. They want the critique of the outsider.
Many this is a sharp observation!
Sermon subtext: ritual reinforcement
