Be forewarned that I’m going on a bit of a rant today. No apologizes. I’d love to hear what you think.
A few days ago, I celebrated 65 years as a Christian. It’s been an incredible journey with Jesus, but it’s not over yet.
If I’m not dead, He’s not through!
I figure that I’ve heard in excess of 3,000 sermons during all all those years. I’ve been the recipient of verse by verse preaching, character studies, thematic preaching and sermons that focused on just a single verse. I’ve been a part of 20 different churches, so have heard lots of different preachers. I’ve heard the old preach, the young preach, the seminary grad preach, the businessman preach. I’ve regularly listened to sermons since I was 20 years old.
For the most part it’s all been good, but not good enough.
Allow me to explain what I mean.
I like to think of week-end preaching like the kick-off of a football game. It gets things started, but a kick-off by itself cannot win a game without lots of other things taking place.
Even the best of sermons, if not coupled with other things, will not produce maturing disciples.
Things like: Actually writing down ideas you hear during a sermon, thinking about what you just received, discussing with a few other people what you heard (a community group that is sermon-based), praying over what you heard and, in dependence on the Holy Spirit, applying something you receive to your life as you trust God for life-change and transformation.
Here is a simple formula I’ve used for a good number of years:
Information plus contemplation, plus conversation plus application leads to transformation.
For most Christians, Information, in and of itself, will not lead to transformation.
That’s the reason we have so many so called Christians in our churches who are not maturing and multiplying.
We’re told that if we just read this book, listen to this podcast, go to this conference, hear that well-known preacher, we would grow. It just ain’t so. We’ve been sold a bill of goods! We’re becoming information junkies!
I have a friend who said many churches are only interested in butts in the seats and bucks in the bank, or another way of saying it—noses and nickels.
If the room is full and they have lots of money in the bank, the leaders in way too many churches are happy campers. Matthew 28 tells us that Jesus commands us to make disciples, not just have lots of butts in the seats and lots of money in the bank.
The late seminary professor, Howard Hendricks, was visiting a church pastored by one of his former students. After the Sunday service, this pastor told Howard (Howie as he was often called) that “We had 800 this morning.” Howie responded with, “800 what?”
Did they have 800 bodies, 800 consumers, or 800 people wanting to be disciples of Jesus and make disciples, as He commands us to do? Good, but disturbing question, Howie!
One of the 20 churches I was a part of would say on a Sunday, “More happens between Sundays than on Sundays.” I believe that to be true in a good Church. Unfortunately many Christian pastors believe that the most important event in the church calendar is the week-end gathering, not what happens between Sundays! In many churches, an inordinate amount of money, time and thought is invested in the week-end worship experience to the detriment of the rest of the week.
If you were to ask pastors to name the one activity they would like their people to participate in (if they say they only have time for one) most would say attend church on the weekend. Believe it or not, one pastor to whom I put that question to said he would want them to attend the weekly small group—that pastor, in my experience, is very rare.
In many churches that I’ve been a part of, few have a Bible with them (the Bible is up on the screen), few are writing anything down, during the “Sermon” and few are actually taking time during the week to review and pray over what they heard, and discuss it among others with application in mind.
The Bible is very clear on not just hearing good truth, but doing something with what we hear!
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.”
~ James 1:22-24 ESV
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
~Matthew 7:24-27
I believe that the job of preachers and teachers is not to just share the truth, but to teach people how to respond and obey the truth they receive. People need help in both understanding and applying what they receive. I believe that Matthew 28:18-20 emphasizes teaching people to obey, not just hear.
We need to help people pray, think, discuss and apply not just listen and then forget.
So lets focus on the entire game, not just the kick-off!
Okay, rant over! What do YOU think? Love to hear from you.
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