Complacency is killing the American church! More and more, modern preachers are trading their responsibility to challenge their people for the much more comfortable job of encouraging their people. Here's how it goes: Soldiers in the Christian army show up at church to hear a sermon; then they are sent home from church each Sunday encouraged, but completely unprepared for the battles that await them that week. It is a desperately sad situation! What is going on? These soldiers have not been challenged.
We could learn a valuable lesson about challenges from any military boot camp. Boot Camp, we understand, is not comparable to a summer youth camp, with ice cream breaks, melon marches, and bonfires. No, the soldier's Boot Camp experience is a series of dangerous, sweat-drenching, intense challenges which are intended to properly prepare young soldiers for a battle. The Drill Sergeant barks orders and pushes the troops through mind-boggling pain and fatigue. Through everything, he is challenging his young men constantly to perform well. Obviously, the intention of this "awakening experience" is to open the eyes of these young soldier's to the realities and difficulties of war and the need for discipline of the body. While Boot Camp challenges are certainly not fun, it would be unfair and even cruel to send an undisciplined soldier to war. An unprepared young soldier would find himself in a state of shock at the first confrontation, and would get the gut-wrenching realization he was never told about how to endure this part of the battle.
Pastors continue to preach soft, inspirational messages, but they leave out the challenge which asks people to lift their level of spiritual commitment. Then the same preachers shake their heads in disbelief at the daily defeats they see in their congregation, and they wonder why their people have no victory in their lives! It is a contradiction to preach a soft gospel and expect a real Gospel to live out in the lives of your people.
Have you ever been to a ball game and watched a nervous pitcher attempting to purposely walk a hard-hitting slugger? Here's what happens: the pitcher is way too nervous to toss the ball straight over home plate (that would result in a home run, probably), so instead he proceeds to pitch the ball well outside, up and away from the batter's reach and comfort zone. Four pitches later, the slugger grins, shrugs his shoulders, tosses his bat, and trots to first base. The crowd groans and boos at the pitcher's obvious hesitancy. The whole transaction seems just too easy. It's a trade-off -- the pitcher gives up first base, but the slugger misses his potential home run.
Preachers all over America are "walking" their entire congregation, and then stranding the whole group on first base, every Sunday. These preachers are too nervous to preach a practical sermon, a sermon that really "comes home" and digs right into the heart of where their people live. They worry that kind of message may offend, and worry that someone might "strike out" on such a hard message. Of course, they don't want anybody to strike out. That would be unfair; that would be harsh; that would be graceless. So instead, the preacher pitches everybody to first base (which is the simple basics, the bare-bones minimum of Christian living), and then he is content to leave everyone stranded there.
But did you know "striking out" is part of life? And how fair is it to never give anyone something they can hit, to never throw a fastball down the middle? If a soft-hearted preacher is too soft-hearted to throw "over home plate", do you think any of his congregation will ever hit a home run? Not off his sermon pitching, they won't. If they ever do succeed in the Christian life, it will have to be off their own pitching.
Preachers, in our sermons, we need to "put the ball" in reach, straight over home plate, every time, all the time. This is a dirty, discouraging world. Our people give us their valuable time each week -- and they need something practical, something they can hit. Whenever we lob a sweet, encouraging sermon and leave out the challenge, we give everybody listening a "free walk" to first base: nobody in the congregation strikes out ; but -- guess what? -- nobody hits a home run either.
Our people need practical teaching. I'll say it again, our people need practical teaching. Let that pitch cross home plate all the time, every time. Sure, we can throw at different speeds, we can change up our style of preaching -- but certainly our people deserve to get a hittable pitch every time.
I believe in being challenged personally -- I need to be challenged. I need it regularly. Challenges strengthen me as a soldier.
I need God to throw it straight over home plate for me. When I open His Word, I need Him to convict me and challenge me in the area that needs improvement.
The greatest and most practical challenges come directly from the voice of God. Preachers should be the mouthpieces of God, delivering His challenges to His people -- but even when preachers fail to speak, challenges are not left unspoken. God can find others ways of delivering His message loud and clear.
We understand that primarily, God challenges us through His Word. The unchallenged Christian, the one who feels no conviction in his life, the one who hasn't felt a fastball come whizzing in directly at him in a long time-- is a person who either is not hearing God's Word regularly in its pure, raw form , or is not reading God's Word for himself, or is not meditating on that spoken and written Word.
Do you want to be a Strong Christian? Do you want victory? Let God build you up through challenges.
When was the last time you felt a challenge to your heart, directly from the Lord? Would you ask Him to challenge you today -- to speak to you about something so loud and clear that you know He is talking directly to you?
No comments:
Post a Comment