A few thoughts on preaching
I’ve noticed a very weird phenomenon within our churches. Preachers get up, drive home a good message and hold an altar call. Now what’s weird is the fact that the message generally will have nothing to do with the gospel. In fact, it won’t really have any relevance to non-Christians at all. Then the preacher vainly stares into the audience to try and spot a half-raised hand. Sometimes they get some people recommitting. Sometimes they get a couple of people. A couple rest on the fact every eye should be closed and just make it up.
Now before we get down this cynical road too far, we’d better take a pit stop and check our heading. There are anecdotes of people coming to salvation through really odd and unrelated messages; this would be quite typical of God. But let’s think for a moment – is your church bulging at the seams? Have you finally relocated to new premises to try and contain your congregation or are planning such a move? If not, you might to take a look at how you’re doing things. Does your church have leadership depth, or does it kind of lose its way when the senior pastor takes a break? Is the gospel being included in every sermon? Are you wondering why there’s a mass altar call at services like Greg Laurie? It’s not rocket science.
When I was a teenager, the church I attended never emphasised grace and how it cannot be earned. Thus I ran off trying to do good works; I never had a solid grounding. There’s something called the gospel, and it’s simple. And it’s the very core of belief. There are a few points I’d like to outline here. I’ll call it the foundation.
Works -What are works? Why won’t works get me saved?
^
Grace - What is it? Why is it free? What does it entail? On whose behalf?
^
Salvation – What is it, what did it cost, from what are we saved, why are we saved,
how are we saved?
^
Gospel - Who Jesus is, what He did, what He said, what setting, why He said it.
You start off with the gospel, then to salvation after that to Grace then finally to works. Each time you add a layer, you’re relying on the layers before it to provide strength and clarity. The last two are very key to getting things right, because so many people don’t understand grace – that it is a gift and if we could possibly earn our salvation we’d have lost it already. Then the definition of works being acts that show loyalty to a loved one, not a box to tick. If we miss something people fall into the trap of trying to earn salvation which leads to frustration, and not having a humble heart. You can’t lose your salvation because you never earned it; it’s only by the grace of God that you have it.
We don’t include these things in our sermons, even though they should be in every sermon. The gospel is very compelling – it’s God’s word. Let God use it. Don’t leave it up to mega evangelists to convert your church for you, do it every time you’re on the dais. God uses situations for His purpose no matter what, so why not make it easy for Him to reach the most people? Doesn’t that make sense?
You might be interested in an article on my blog at http://bonnieq.wordpress.com entitled “Grace: Times Seven.” I agree that grace is something most people do not understand, but it is due more to what is being taught from the pulpits than due to grace not being mentioned at all; and, it is also due to people not going to God’s Word for themselves, instead relying only on what “man” is teaching them.
While grace is free, the greek word also denotes action not only on the part of God but as well on the part of the recipient: “Faith without works is dead, and works without faith is dead; so you see it takes both faith and works.”
Love in Christ,
BonnieQ
Truth Seekers and Speakers, link in blogroll
Unicorn Haven, link in blogroll
See, you’re assuming that sermons are for the unsaved, who, a lot of the time are not even in church. Perhaps sermons are actually for edifying, training, educating the church so that they are then able to go out to where there actually are ‘unsaved’ people?
Perhaps the ‘altar call’ is a weird penticostal tradition which no longer has any thought behind it, but carries on because it’s always been done?
I’m assuming that sermons are for a mix of both saved and unsaved. If they were solely for the unsaved, its called evangelising. If it was solely for edifying, training and educating it would be called a lecture.
What I’m trying to say that the foundation should be included in every sermon, because its the bedrock and everyone benefits from knowing exactly what salvation, grace, works and the gospel mean. It doesn’t take long to summarise and gives a better base for an altar call.
“Perhaps the ‘altar call’ is a weird penticostal tradition which no longer has any thought behind it, but carries on because it’s always been done?”
Thats what I’m kinda meaning, that there isn’t thought being put into it sometimes.
Also, to bonnieQ
“it is also due to people not going to God’s Word for themselves, instead relying only on what “man” is teaching them.”
I couldn’t agree more
Of course, if one does “go to God’s Word for themselves”, that entails relying on what five hundred years-worth of English-speaking Bible-translators, and almost two thousand years-worth of theologians, and the people who’ve helped one form one’s theological opinions have to say about what the bible says…
Better that than relying just upon what the preacher tells you…
Acts 17:11
Hey Tony,
Was just thinking that the greatest gift the church can give is love and relationship. The truth is who will ever believe in a loving, forgiving, graceful God when they have no ability to understand that from this fallen world. You are totally right, the church does need to talk about Jesus more, they need to explain works, grace, salvation. But above all they need to role model christ, actually love and commit to people, love beyond themselves, that’s the gospel in action, not just talking about it…that’s a church I’d go too, Christ’s Church.