The Voice Of One Crying Out In Suburbia

Dr. Albert Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, made a great point at a recent luncheon reprinted in Southern Seminary Magazine. Dr. Mohler stated five characteristics we should seek in a new generation of pastors and the third one was the recapturing of expository preaching, preaching the Living Word of God. As Dr. Mohler rightly states, too many pastors use a verse of scripture as a launching point for their sermon and that is the last time God's Word is preached from the pulpit. Too many sermons I have listened too have focused on church governance and Christian living (which are important) and too little on the Word. The church has become too enamoured of The Purpose Driven Life and the Left Behind series, substituting second and third hand Biblical knowledge for direct preaching of the Word.

I know that conventional wisdom holds that you need to make sermons "relevant". At church last weekend, the youth pastor preached and as part of his sermon used a video clip from Disney's The Lion King as an illustration. Don't get me wrong, he is a great guy and a good youth pastor. However, it wasn't a very good use of video, the sermon was way off from an exegetical standpoint and he didn't seem to recognize the pagan viewpoint of Simba talking to his dead animal father at the bequest of a witchdoctor monkey. There comes a point where you have to let the Word and the Holy Spirit speak for themselves. We are in a sad state indeed when a Disney movie with talking animals is needed to make a point about a Biblical passage.

Charles Spurgeon filled the hall with thousands when he preached, and even a cursory look at his sermons shows a solid expository style and a reverence for the Word of God. He preached the Word and God took care of the rest. We too often feel that we have to carry the load when getting the message out. Preach the Word of God and He will see to it that the audience is there. It is true that we must be disciples, carrying out the Great Commission but we must also be servants and not assume that we have a better plan than God. To paraphrase another pagan themed movie, if you preach it they will come. Our goal ought not be to fill churches with hundreds of lukewarm Laodiceans. Better to preach the Word of God to 50 committed believers than to 500 casual "Christians". We are not doing them a favor or the church a favor by given them a watered down, more palatable Gospel. The Gospel is loving but it is also stern, and in an effort to not scare people away the church is in danger of losing it's very foundational truths, without which we see apostasy and falling away like the Episcopalians. Evidence shows that the conservative, Bible believing *GASP* FUNDAMENTALIST churches are the ones that are growing, not the liberal, go along to get along denominations.