Thanks Mike,

Great questions.

Some quick cross-cultural comments first.
1) Thanks for the translation of 'skeptical' without which I would have been very confused (that's 'confuzed' to you).
2) As to whether people wear pants to church I can't say that I would know, though most of the men certainly wear trousers.
3) It would be good to have intros that are not pants.

Obviously you are correct that if people were TOTALLY disinterested they wouldn't be here (Even more so in the UK than the US, where we have less that 10% of the population in church on any given Sunday.)

However, in most of those churches there isn't a 40 minute sermon, and there isn't an appetite for it. I do feel that it is kind to help people to see the relevance of what they are going to hear ahead of time, rather than wading into 5-10 minutes of exegesis before they begin to see the relevance of it for their lives.

4 ways in which an introduction can help people all people, however interested they are to listen:

1. An introduction gets people thinking about a topic that will be addressed in the sermon.
2. It helps people to think application from the very beginning.
3. In that way it helps to give shape to a sermon.
4. It disarms the sermon-biber who loves to hear sermons without putting it into practice. I know even from my own quiet times that I must force myself before reading the text to think 'relevance' rather than merely 'comprehension' before I start to read. An intro is a kind way to help the whole congregation to think that way.

My sermon on Sunday had a brief (3-4 minute) intro. It certainly wasn't clever. But I think the sermon would have been poorer without it, as it was designed to get people thinking about how they set the whole direction of their life, and therefore people would come to the text with that question.

If you are interested, you can read it here.