TILL HE COMES Blog

I used to think that the best way to evangelize was to preach in churches. I figured that most “Christians” were not actually “saved” and so needed to hear the “true gospel” (as preached by me), and once they believed it, they would then become “true believers.”

In other words, I thought that the most fertile soil for evangelism in the United States was among those who were already in churches. I saw the US as a mission field, and churches as the primary location to sew the seeds of the gospel.

As I have developed a missionary mindset, this thinking has changed. While I certainly believe that the US is a mission field, and while I do believe that there are many, many people who go to Christian churches who have not believed in Jesus for eternal life, I have found that the most common result of telling church goers that they might not be saved is a lot of angry church goers. 

I think that the average person in the average church, even if they don’t believe in Jesus for eternal life, are not very receptive or open to anything I might be able to tell them. If they don’t believe in Jesus, but they do attend church, they are likely to have a “Pharisaical” mindset, and therefore, it is almost a complete waste of time, money, and energy to pursue them.

The much more fertile soil in the US are those who would never darken the door of any church in the US. They are the ones I am hoping to reach, and who are receptive to talking about Jesus, and His promise of eternal life to those who believe in Him for it. Trying to tell this message to people in churches seems to do very little except split churches.

So who are you talking to about the free offer of eternal life through faith in Jesus? Are they primarily “churched” people? If so, how’s that working out for you? Have you seen any “conversions” recently? How about church splits and angry board meetings? I’d say that if as a result of what you’ve said, you’ve made more people angry than you have seen people come to faith in Jesus, you’re probably sewing seeds on the wrong soil.

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I did something today which I have never done before in my entire life, and I’m pretty ashamed of myself. And on Easter Sunday of all days! I feel so bad, I don’t think I will ever do it again. Maybe.

So, I figured “Where better to air my dirty laundry than on a public blog?”

What did I do?

I lifted a sermon. Stole it. Yes, I preached someone else’s Easter message.

I’m not going to tell you whose it was, where I got it, or what it was about. But one thing I do know, is that it was by far the worst sermon I have ever preached in my entire life. When I first read it earlier this week, I thought, “Well, that’s creative, interesting, memorable. Nice stories. Nice application. Nice three-point outline.” So I copy-pasted it into Word, made a few tweaks, and voila! my Easter sermon. 

But when I got up to preach it today, I was bored out of my mind within five minutes. And I could tell the congregation was too. I have never seen so many people looking back at the clock and checking their watch. I realized that it is impossible for me to preach someone else’s sermon, no matter how good it was when they preached it. I am not them, and cannot preach the way they do, and I have trouble getting excited or passionate about something that I didn’t research and write.

And the worst thing about it is that today was Easter! Attendance was up by about 50%, so there were several people in church who haven’t been there since last Easter. And today, of all days, I decide to preach the worst sermon in the history of the world.

So, I’m ashamed. I’m sorry, church members! I’m sorry, Jesus.

I’m sorry that on this, the most important day of the year, I failed.

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I have certain Bible teachers that I listen to all the time, some for the content, some for their style and delivery. But today, I found one who has it all. His sermon is 27 minutes long, and is on YouTube for you to view. It is in three parts, so make sure you watch all three!

After watching these videos, you will see that Seminary was a complete waste of time for me. Really, all I need to preach is the following things:

1. (Mis)read several Bible verses.
2. Say “Glory be to God Hallelujah” a lot.
3. Speak in tongues when I get tongue tied.
4. Tell Satan to get behind me.
5. Wave my arms.
6. Tell people they’re going to hell if they don’t tithe.

Well, I shouldn’t be too hard on the guy. It’s his first sermon after all. My first sermon was terrible as well. But still, if you ever wonder why many people think church is just a religious circus, it because of guys like this.

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I’m in my final semester at Dallas Theological Seminary, and wow, am I looking forward to being done! I love studying; I don’t like seminary. Maybe someday I’ll explain why.

But here is a hint: In my “Eschatology” class (study of the End Times), three different students who were interacting with the professor used the following terms: “ontological bridge,” “theological taxonomy,” and “epistemological center.” And yet we wonder why the average seminary graduate has a difficult time connecting with the average person on the street.

Thanks to seminary, I understood what they were saying, but all I could think was, “I hope those students don’t preach much.” If seminary is teaching us to talk like this, seminary is a failure. If you ever catch me talking like this, come burn my books.

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One of the things I love most about being a pastor is preaching the Word. For years, I have thought that a church can get by without music, without a building, without programs, without youth groups and children’s programs, but a church is not a church if it doesn’t preach the Word.

But upon deeper reflection, I think this is partly due to the fact that preaching and teaching the Word is my gift. I am a teacher, and so naturally, believe that teaching is the most important part of church. And better yet, I even have a verse! 2 Timothy 4:2 says “Preach the Word.”

But recently, I have undertaken the practice of questioning absolutely everything the church does in light of Scripture and effectiveness. (By the way, I define “effectiveness” as “making disciples.” Something is “effective” if it is helping people become more like Christ.)

And the stats and studies are in. As much as it pains me to admit it, preaching is one of the most ineffective ways of making disciples. So along with me asking “Why?” about every other aspect of church, I have had to painfully face that tough questions about my own passion as well. Why do I preach, especially when it is so ineffective? Should we abandon the sermon altogether?

So I set out to figure out what Paul meant in 2 Tim 4:2, and if it was meant as a universal command for all who lead part of church. For various reasons, I do think it is a universal instruction for all pastors. All pastors are to preach the Word.

As I studied what Paul might have had in mind when he told Timothy to “Preach the Word” I learned that preaching in Paul’s day was not much like “preaching” in our day. There are few (if any) accounts of a monologue sermon where one person gets up, and teaches for 30 minutes or an hour, and then sits down. ”Preaching” in Paul’s day was closer to what we would think of as “Teaching.” There was frequent interaction between the main teacher and the students.

When you read the Gospels and Acts, you see hints that this is the way Jesus, the apostles, and Paul taught. When you read the sermon transcriptions of the early church fathers, especially those of St. John Chrysostom (aka “Golden Tongue”) when he taught through books of the Bible, it becomes clear that while the “Teacher” did most of the speaking, there was a lot of interaction with those who were there to hear him.

And guess what? Those same studies that have proven the ineffectiveness of preaching have also shows that interactive teaching is incredibly effective. Interactive teaching engages the mind, helping the learner not only learn the text, but also how to study it on their own, and then apply it to their lives.

This is not to say that there is never a place for one person standing up in front of a crowd and delivering a monologue. In fact, that may be the only way to teach in some large-group settings (though even then, wise teachers may include a Q&A time after the message). But for the most part, I am convinced that some sort of interaction should be a normal part of “preaching.”

Looking back to the times I have taught this way, I now realize that it is in these interactive studies that I have most often felt the electric presence of the Holy Spirit. Do I love “Upfront-on-the-stage-in-the-spotlight” preaching? Sure. Who wouldn’t like that? But I love being used by the Holy Spirit to make disciples more.

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I preached my LAST seminary sermon today. Yay! Though I have learned a lot about preaching while I am in seminary, I hope I can forget most of it. If I had to preach for the rest of my life within the box that is the seminary sermon, I would quit the ministry. Sadly, I think most of my fellow students don’t understand that what they are providing here is a bare bones template, and we have to add in our own personality and creativity to make preaching come alive. Such students preach predicable three point sermons every week, boring themselves and their congregations into spiritual sterility.

Seeds of God’s Word are being flung out there, but the seeds are impotent to reproduce disciples. Part of this is because too many pastors get their sermons from a can, and present them to a sitting, smiling, and nodding audience (maybe they’re nodding off). Adding more stories and jokes is not going to help. It may help people pay attention, but keeping their attention is not the same thing as making disciples. Some have tried shorter sermons, while others go for longer sermons. Some go for topical series, while others do “exposition.” None of it seems to be working very well.

It’s a cop out to say (as I’ve heard some pastors say) that “Results are not up to us. We just need to preach the Word and leave the rest up to God.” This is an excuse to not face the hard questions.

So I wonder if it isn’t time to reexamine “The Sermon.” This is something I fear to do, because frankly, I LOVE to preach. Preaching is one of the aspects of pastoral ministry I enjoy the most. I am not sure I would enjoy pastoral ministry if I wasn’t able to preach (maybe that says something about my heart…).

But I’ll put off that examination until tomorrow, since I don’t want to face the music today.

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One question I have been mulling over recently is “Who is the church service for - believers or unbelievers?” Those who answer “believers” will often have church services that cater to the needs and desires of Christians. There will be an emphasis on programs and teaching that meet the needs of Christians. The sermons will often center on teaching Christians what they need to know to be better Christians. The songs will often use terms and ideas that Christians are familiar with. The programming will center around issues that Christians are dealing with. In the churches I have pastored, this is the approach I used. But we always did a poor job of reaching unbelievers, as do most churches who follow this model.

Unbelievers who visit a church that is focused on “making disciples of Christians” will often be confused and weirded out by what goes on: “What’s with all the teaching from Romans? What does ‘justification’ mean? You say Jesus is coming back? That sounds a bit like the legends that say King Arthur is returning. Why do I want to learn ‘Christian business principles’? I don’t really want to be ‘washed in the blood of the lamb’ or be the ‘bride of Jesus.’ ”

Some churches have understood that much of what the church does and says is a little strange to unbelievers, so they try to look at things from the perspective of an unbeliever, and make the church more “seeker sensitive.” They gear the church service not toward the Christian, but toward the non-Christian who knows next to nothing about the Bible or church traditions. This tends to attract lots of crowds, and even generates lots of new believers, which is great, but ends up allowing most of these new believers to remain in relative immaturity. Bill Hybels and Willow Creek have recently announced this fact for their own church. The “seeker sensitive” model, while it attracts large crowds, does a poor job of bringing those crowds to spiritual maturity.

Is there a balance or middle ground between the two? I think there is, which we will begin looking at tomorrow. We will see that the solution to the problem begins by reassessing who the church service is for.

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Learn why Preaching the Gospel is so important for Spiritual Warfare by listening to my new sermon, The Power of Preaching (Ephesians 6:19-20). If you prefer, you may read it here or download the audio to your computer by right-clicking here and selecting “Save file as…

Also, to download these automatically, you may subscribe to the free podcast.

After listening to it, or reading it, post your comments or questions here so I can interact with you on them.

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I came across this today, and thought it was a good reminder for all of us who devote our lives to studying and teaching the Word of God.

Martin Luther, in his lifetime, was not very popular. In fact, he was condemned as a heretic by the Catholic church. But here is what Martin Luther said about speaking for God. He said there are nine things every prophet, every teacher of the Word, every pastor should seek to do.

1. To teach the Word systematically.
2. To have a ready wit.
3. To be eloquent.
4. To have a good voice.
5. To have good memory.
6. To know when to make an end.
7. To be sure of his doctrine.
8. To engage body, blood, wealth and honor in the Word.

And 9th, this one is the key to it all, he should suffer himself to be mocked and jeered by everyone.

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