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Against Cultural Christianity
Oct 20, 07:23 PM
Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God. 2 Corinthians 2:17
It is becoming increasingly evident that by in large the American church has abandoned Biblical faith in the God who created all things and has substituted a quasi-intellectual religion whereby American cultural values are wrapped in Christian language and preached as if they were the Gospel. Nowhere is this more evident than the American pulpit which has become a veritable platform for ministers who like to tell entertaining stories, perform pseudo-psychoanalysis, and generally make people feel good about their lives. Some of this is driven by the preacher’s own need to be liked and admired and some of it is motivated by the desire to draw and assimilate the constituency necessary to maintain their ministries. It is a welcome and rare occurrence to find a pastor in an American church who faithfully executes the office by adhering to the Biblical mandate and caring ultimately about the eternal fate of the parishioners and the state of the community in which they serve. It takes courage to preach truth with love these days. People are being fed artificial, nutrition-less, fast-food instead of the solid food of the Word of God.
Ultimately, it is not the preacher’s thoughts or opinions which matter – the Biblical text must be the central focus of the sermon. As Thomas Long puts it, “Regardless of the starting point, then, preaching is biblical when the Biblical text serves as the leading force in shaping the content and purpose of the sermon.” It must be proclaimed with clarity and courage, with the underlying foundation of the loving heart of God which always hopes that people will hear, heed, and begin to shape their lives and identity around the revelation of God in Christ. Richard Mayhue writes, “Topical messages usually combine a series of verses that loosely connect a theme. Textual preaching uses a short text or passage that generally serves as a gateway into whatever subject the preacher chooses to address. Neither the topical nor the textual presents a serious effort to interpret, understand, explain or apply God’s truth in the context of the Scripture(s) used.” How often do you hear preachers share what they think about a particular subject while it is obvious that the Scriptures have had little influence in his or her thinking? Biblical preaching is not a matter of teaching personal opinions and looking for Bible verses to somehow back them up. Biblical preaching is more than an analysis of a particular passage. Biblical preaching brings the depth of Scripture to life and connects people to the larger story of God’s plans for all of humanity. Good preaching goes deep. It mines the depth of the heart of God as revealed in the Word. It arises from a deep reservoir of spiritual revelation, knowledge, and experience.
We are in great danger of producing a generation of cultural Christians who may know how to manage their money and raise their children but have no idea who they are, how they fit into God’s plans and what their eternal destiny is. We have so domesticated the gospel that it is generally assumed that to live as an American is to live as a Christian. As Lesslie Newbigin eloquently testifies, “It was only slowly, through many experiences, that I began to see that something of this domestication had taken place in my own Christianity, that I, too, had been ready to seek a more ‘reasonable Christianity,’ a Christianity that could be offered in the terms of my intellectual formation as a [twentieth-first century person] rather than something which had placed my whole intellectual formation under a new and critical light. I, too, had been guilty of domesticating the gospel.”
It is the pastors who need to be converted. They have been taught a religion without faith and life without the power of the Spirit. Their fear and insecurity has largely left them impotent in facing the challenge of the day. They are representative of a generation which has for the most part not been challenged in any facet of their lives so they have never really had to be strong or put their faith to work in the dire circumstances of affliction. I love what Calvin Miller says: “The issue is to preach the entire Bible with a kind of authority that leaves no doubt among the potential skeptics in the audience that the preacher at least believes it.”