To be honest, I have been in a very cynical mood about preaching as of late. What are we doing and why are we doing it!? Those two questions have caused me to go back and attempt to re-think this site and my work to this point. As I thought about these questions a saying came to mind…you might even call it a mantra. What is it?
Preach Something Significant!
Yes, please stop preaching what you saw on TV or what you heard on the radio! You know it seems, in many cases, that we preachers have become simply parrots of the prevailing order. We are “ditto heads” spouting the status quo.
Preachers Tell Us What Is Important
If one wanted to find the biggest problem in Christianity then listen to the preachers. Whatever most preachers are avoiding in their sermons. Whatever most preachers are not addressing. Those things are probably going to be the things that are most needed today.
Oh yes, we preachers often demonstrate what is important by our avoiding certain subjects to ensure our popularity. If legalism is the great problem of the day, then you will probably find a majority of preachers preaching against the evils of lawlessness and the need to “tow the line.”
What If Legalism Isn’t The Problem?
However, if the opposite is the problem. If lawlessness runs rampant. If people live as if Christianity has nothing at all to do with contemporary living. If we have our musicians thanking God for the strength to make music that demeans our women and glorifies the worst in our community while gyrating in scantily clad adornment. Then you will have preachers condemning as legalists those who see this mess.
In other words, you have what you have now! Preacher preaching against the evils of legalism and condeming the aleged “pharisees in the chruch” while not saying a mumbling word about the perveuyers of evil and wickedness in our church and community. That aint prophetic! That ain’t what you were called to do.
No…stop preaching what is easy. Stop preaching what everybody else is preaching! Preach the truth! Preach Something Significant!
The Truth Hurts
This is certainly gonna make some folks mad and angry, but if you are gonna preach something significant then somebody is gonna get mad. Change can’t come while you are kissing behinds. Significant Preaching requires letting people know the real demands of the God’s Coming Kingdom. Significant preaching requires letting people know how to become a member of God’s Coming Kingdom. Yes forgiveness is a part of Significant preaching but so are ethics. Yes grace is a part of Significant preaching but so is a changed life.
If your religion can’t change the way you live down here, why do you think it will translate you into paradise in the life to come? No, I want a religion that has the power to change me. I want to sing with the Hawkins Singers, “A Change has come over me!” I want to “look at my hands and they looked new, then look at my feet, and they did to!” Preach that! Preach something significant.
Stop telling the people about the cars and boats and houses I will get when I “plant my seed.” Stop telling the people about “getting their stuff back from the devil.” No preach the kingdom, and yes preach the kingdom!
The Famine
Amos 8:11 says
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
We are here now. We have preaching everywhere. It is on the internet, on the radio, and on the television airwaves. And in the midst of all of this too many of us preachers are contributing to the famine. Let us as preachers stop contributing to the famine. My sisters and brothers, that is where we are now. And it is time to stand up and start preaching it before it is too late.
Preach Something Significant!
