This morning I got an e-mail from Strang media Group, advertising SaddlebackResources.com, where, they promise, one can "Find sermons written over the last 30 years to help feed your soul and ease your preparation." In fact, "...the Saddleback teaching pastors will lend you the tools and encouragement to become more effective in your ministry and maybe save you a littel time." Time that could, perhaps, be spent running spell-check to determine that "littel" is not a word.
But that really isn't my beef with this. I dearly love to hear teaching that springs from 15 minutes spent in the unveiled presence of God. And, any more, I can barely endure sermons developed during hours spent in books and online references. In the past few days this comparison has been especially heavy on my heart. And then I read this ad.
I am not against study. I am not opposed to teaching that involves study. But I am beyond sick of poisonous teachings that do not have their roots in a God-encounter. But, can't we find God during study of a book? Certainly we can, if we leave room for that encounter. But we will almost certainly fall short of a God-meeting when it is our intention to pick up the books and come up with a message. This is a short-circuit approach, intended to replace the perceived uncertainty of a God-encounter with the comfortable sureness of our study process. We are even less likely to run in to God when we employ study tactics designed specifically to save a "littel" time.
If we hope to encounter God in our books, then we need to open them with that goal in mind, rather than aiming to simply prepare a message. Maybe a teaching will come out of the God-encounter, or maybe he will simply say, "Time for you to be still." Maybe God will plant a word in the good soil of someone else's heart, where it will spring up, flourish, and, given a voice by virtue of our silence, bear much fruit. Or maybe he will just expect a congregation meeting to silently wait upon him.
And now, here's the kicker - the unintentional punch line to an unconscious joke that is simultaneously hilarious and painful - there is a link in the e-mail that allows you to download a message by Rick Warren, entitled Learning to Hear God's Voice. That is either the most clueless or most ballsy juxtaposition of ideas I've seen in a very, very long time. "Visit our site, where we'll sell you sermons to preach, including a powerful message on how to hear from God." Maybe he should have called it No Time to Wait on the Lord? Let Us Tell You What He Said. Or, Why Spend Only a Minute Telling Your Congregation That God Didn't Speak to you This Week, When, With Our Help, You Can Take 45 Minutes to Prove it?
Thanks for the offer, but I think I won't be buying any.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Mike, this is like a tourist photo of the great train of evangelicalism in midair plunging from the bridge into the river.
A friend of mine once said, "Truth that has not been lived in is stolen." In other words, if truth hasn't boiled your own guts and damn near killed you, don't preach it.
A Methodist minister once told me, "I have exactly 52 sermons. I've been preaching them for years. No one has ever commented that they've heard that before." Makes me gag.
I also gedt a kick out of animal plural names. I've been using them for years as a fun quiz in my prison ministry.
When a significant part of your salary is "earned" from preaching (to essentially the same group of people week after week, month after month, year after year), it is probably wise to get "canned" sermons than actually hearing what God might be telling you to do.
Maybe this is why so "littel" kingdom stuff gets done in meetings centered around a dude standing behind a desk yapping at people for 45 minutes or so.
But, you get what you pay for sometimes, eh?
one of my friends pastors a 2000 member church. He has been getting his sermon material from Rick Warren for 15 years. Ed, I'm glad a bailed off that runaway train a few years ago.
Timothy: I totally agree!
I found your blog through a friend....
I love God encounters... can't live without them now... though I didn't know how to have them years before.
I wonder now how many years did I rely on others to tell me about God. And how many of those people telling me about God were actually speaking from their own encounters with Him? How many were just trying to come up with a "good talk" about a scripture to deliver because that's what the job description dictated?
Though I do love a good message filled with truth.....
Wow - it looks like my reader base has increased dramatically - from 6 to 9 in one fell swoop! ;-)
Ed - what a great metaphor. Like a train wreck, most people can't tear their eyes away from the ongoing evangelical disaster. Unfortunately, many watch because they are not yet aware that trains can't fly.
Welcome to my little trail in the wilderness, John, Joseph, and Julie. Julie - I love a good message filled with truth, as well. My entry today has a little to say about that journey.
Post a Comment