I wish I could tell you most pastors are preaching the Word. I can’t—some are not preaching the Word. So here are five things we may choose to do instead of preaching the Word.
1. Entertaining
“Music, drama and video, felt needs, topics, more stories.”
None of those things are wrong—unless they displace the preaching of the word of God. Some teachers will tell you you need to tell stories in your sermons or you will bore people. I’m not bored. If you’re not bored, no one is going to be bored. Can you take hold of the Word of God and take hold of a group of people and make them listen because you have something to say?
Are you bored? The greatest sin in ministry is to bore people with the Bible. Martin Lloyd Jones said: “Preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire. A man who can speak about these things dispassionately has no right whatsoever to be in a pulpit; and should never be allowed to enter one.”
You have to get the Word of God, let it grip your heart by the power of the Holy Spirit and drive over to church with something to say.
Now, if a story fits in, I might tell you a story before I sit down, but don’t make that your thing. If people come up to you afterward and say, “I love that story you told,” it should make you crazy. Really, that’s what I am? I’m a storyteller? The Gospel is the main story you should be telling.
2. Sharing
We hear a pastor say, “There are some things I just want to share with you today … “
Since when is the man of God some Dr. Phil and Oprah combo? You’re supposed to proclaim a message. If you’re not preaching, glory is not coming down. You have got to preach the glory down—people have to hear a word from God.
3. Wooing
“Careful, careful, don’t offend, always comfortable, never pressured, just a pinch of truth, when they’re ready to handle it.”
The preaching of the Gospel has become so watered down that the nonelect can’t even reject it.
If you don’t have people walking away from your ministry saying, “This is a hard word, who can accept it?” then you don’t have a ministry like Jesus had.
I just hate this notion that we can be so clever and sophisticated that we can remove the offense from the Gospel. It is foolishness to those who are perishing, it is the power of God to those who are being saved. It is the aroma of death to those who are perishing, it is the aroma of life to those who are being saved.
Listen, preacher: If you don’t want to be the aroma of death to those who are perishing, you can never be the aroma of life to those who are being saved. That’s why preaching is hard work.
