Will the Real Men of God Please Stand Up?
5/18/10 – I need to clarify something with this article so that I’m not misunderstood. This blog post is a general observation of today’s evangelicalism and the steep decline it’s on with regards to the seeker-sensitive movement and the abandonment of sound doctrine in the church. I wasn’t targeting anyone in particular, just pastors who are smitten by method, tactics, and managerial books more than they are the Word of God.
What I’ve written isn’t news really; many, many other pastors, certainly a lot more qualified than me, have been sounding the alarm for years. I’m just banging the gong because I feel it’s my duty to make a little noise on this issue this side of the world.
I am very grateful and in awe of pastors who pour their lives into their ministries and congregations and who preach the Word fully, clearly, and decisively. I’m blessed to be part of a church whose leader is sacrificial, holds the Bible in ultimate esteem, and is seeking to help his flock grow in the Word and in Christ. It’s a tremendous thing and I thank the Lord for allowing me to be part of a body that has this kind of leadership, that believes in the Scriptures and yearns for the truth.
Oh that pastors the world over who prize fame, pragmatism, and personal awesomeness over sound doctrine and self-sacrifice would return to their Savior and ground their ministries in the Word.
That’s the reason I write this.
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There are today too many motivational speakers disguised as Christian preachers. These men maintain an engaging Christian veneer but are weak and petty in their approach to truth. They are more concerned with meeting the felt-needs of their congregation and welcoming unbelievers into the fold that they downplay the Bible and sound doctrine in favor of fun, lighthearted, and inoffensive sermons.
Douglas D. Webster has observed that much of today’s preaching is not “God-centered, sin-exposing, self-convicting and life-changing” but composed of “light, informal sermons that Christianize self-help and entertain better than convict.” He goes on:
There are so many illustrations in today’s market-sensitive sermons that the hearer knows the pastor better than she knows Christ; so many human-interest stories that listening to the sermon is easier than reading the Sunday paper; so practical that there is hardly anything to practice.
No wonder nominal Christians leave the church feeling upbeat. Their self-esteem is safely intact. Their minds and hearts have been sparked and soothed with sound-bite theology, Christian maxims and a few practical pointers dealing with self-esteem, kids or work. But the question remains: has the Word of God been effectively and faithfully proclaimed, penetrating comfort zones and the veneer of self-satisfaction with the truth of Jesus Christ?
Indeed. This kind of man-centered approach to Christianity dominates today’s Evangelicalism. And we’re all the worse for it. Until pastors reclaim their duty to preach the Word (2 Timothy 4:2) we’re doomed to eating spiritual cotton candy. And we all know how that goes.
Wake up pastors! How long must we put up with you? How long until you abandon your humanistic rhetoric in favor of sound Biblical truth? When will you trade in your anemic illustrations and fortune cookie one-liners for the pure and nourishing meat of the Word?
Stop riding the Saddleback stagecoach; quit slurping from the Willow Creek fountain. Forget taking surveys to inform your ministry technique; cease tailoring your message to make non-Christians feel at home in church. Get back to the Bible, the sure prophetic Word (2 Peter 1:19). Exalt Christ, preach His atonement, explain the Resurrection. Trace the Redeemer and His mighty acts as recorded in the Word and set Him firmly at the center of your preaching.
Many will despise you for it; you might even lose half your church as the tares leave in search for less provocative sermons (John 6:60-66).
But at least you’ll be obedient to Christ.
There is no room in ministry for life coaches who speak Christianized psychobabble fueled by worldly, motivational technique. The sheep need shepherds (1 Peter 5:2) who will feed them the Word. Because only when preaching is meaty and devoid of fluff can the flock begin growing in earnest.
Gospel Knowledge
I may not be a trained speaker, but I do have knowledge… (2 Corinthians 11:6a)
I am not a gifted speaker.
As much as I wanna be like Charles Spurgeon or John MacArthur, I’m faaaar from that mold.
I can’t instantly think of 5 different ways to say something to drive home a prominent point. I don’t have a deep reservoir of profound words that I can dip into every few seconds as I deliver a speech.
I don’t have one of those Richard Burton, auditorium-shattering voices.
I can’t make a morning reading of the Psalms sound like a Shakespearean soliloquy.
I have a very basic voice, the kind you hate to listen to when captured on tape and played over and over by an annoying sibling with a voice recorder.
I really don’t have anything in the way of oratorical power.
What I do have though is gospel knowledge.
And that, according to Paul, is enough.
You see, when you have gospel knowledge, you are in a position to devastate sinful lives with your words.
Why?
Because the gospel needs no embellishment. Its effectiveness isn’t rooted in a preacher’s oratorical skill. Its power is not dependent on human ingenuity or a man’s linguistic flourish.
The gospel is in itself “the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).
One need only deliver it and God the Holy Spirit will take care of the rest.
I don’t have a problem with this. Honestly, I love the fact that I don’t have to put on a show to get people to listen and respond to the gospel. Because if it were up to me, I’d do everything in my power to sound good, say all the right things, and be as attractive and personable as possible when preaching the Word.
Because as a human being, I tend to think I can influence a person’s response.
But the truth is I can’t make the gospel any truer than it already is. I can’t make the Bible any more powerful than it already is. The Word of God is active – it’s alive! (Hebrews 4:12 ) And when combined with the Holy Spirit’s regenerative work, it is the power of God for the redemption of all who hear and embrace Christ as Savior and Lord.
Consider Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5:
When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.
Paul didn’t rely on human wisdom and articulacy to preach the Word. In fact, he showed up in Corinth with trepidation. He was wary of the environment (Corinth was known for being a hub of Greek culture, highfaluting philosophies, and intense paganism) and perhaps he didn’t want to get embroiled in a superficial speech war with the city’s intellectuals.
Yet whatever Paul may have felt at the time, he knew only one thing – that his message would be Christ crucified. That would be enough to compel his listeners to salvation.
That’s not to say we can be shabby and ill-prepared when sharing the gospel. We ought to be presentable when preaching and we should choose our words wisely. There’s nothing wrong with being affable, clear, and enlightening when we communicate the gospel to others. In fact, we must make sure our presentation is coherent in order for people to properly understand the message.
But changing people’s lives, getting them to repent of their sin and trust in Jesus for salvation – that’s God’s job.
Our job is to simply preach the Word, even the hard parts.
And you know what this really means right?
It means more than a big slap in the face for people who pride themselves on worldly technique.
It means more than a fine argument against the error of contextualization.
It means, more than anything, that we have no excuse.
We are commanded to preach the gospel (Matthew 28:19-20). And with God making it abundantly clear that the gospel is powerful enough in and of itself to bring men to salvation, we really have nowhere to hide on this.
We can’t invoke the Moses Defense (Exodus 4:10-14). We have an obligation to Christ to deliver His good news to all people of the Earth and there’s nothing we can do to wiggle out of it!
But why fight it? We must not be ashamed of the gospel. For while it may not appeal to many men’s ears, there are thousands in this world who are destined to be saved through the cross. “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18)
And so brothers and sisters, let’s us not retreat from our calling but let us celebrate the fact that God can use all of us, whether we can communicate well or have difficulty expressing ourselves.
Let us be thankful for the many Christian men and women who are gifted with impeccable speaking skills and can wield language with precision. These people have been given by God to the church to lead us, strengthen us, and help us on our pilgrimage. We should seek to emulate them as we continue on our Christian journey.
And while we may never become as powerful a preacher as Paul, Spurgeon, Edwards, or any of our Christian heavyweight heroes, we can rest assured that in preaching the gospel, our words can and will be used by God to accomplish His plan of redemption (Isaiah 55:11).
As long as we have gospel knowledge, we can turn the world upside down.
Me
Writer, designer, father of two, husband of one. Armchair theologian. Inconsistent blogger and photographer. Still, I try.Tweets
