The people ain't as dumb as you might think...
Another excellent program from the White Horse Inn, Shallow Waters, talking about why Christianity has become such a shallow, emotion over truth endeavour.
One of the best lines was from Michael Horton when he spoke of the condescending attitude from a lot of pulpits, assuming that people in the pew are too dumb or at least too ignorant to get the important things of God. It is little wonder that Christians are so theologically shallow when so much of what they hear on Sunday morning is as nutritious and filling as whipped cream.
It is not an issue of being arrogant, but of not giving people enough credit. People sitting in the pews are often a lot more knowledgeable than you might assume, and many lay people know a lot more of the Word than some preachers.
The analogy that came up was a kindergarten class, and having the teacher say that she would teach the children at alphabet but none of them know it yet, they aren't there yet. The response would be, well yeah that is why I am sending my kid there. And that is why people come to church in part, to learn and be fed and they need to hear the deep truths of the Gospel, not just the superficial stuff designed to make them feel good.
1 comment:
You know, I thought about this in relation to yesterday's message and decided against going here because (1) I wanted to address our church specifically, a church where the Word is preached and taught and (2) next week's text (1 Tim. 4:6-11) seems to address that issue more directly and it made more sense to addres it there.
Thanks for the recommendation. I listen to WHI every few weeks (a few podcasts at a time) but I'll have to be sure to check this out before Sunday.
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