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How to avoid idolatry and to make preaching better

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When there is good preaching, just as whenever there is anything good in a church (or in life of that matter), that good thing can become the ultimate thing. When it becomes the ultimate thing, we take our eyes off Jesus and onto that thing. But when we do that, we will find ourselves becoming frustrated with the idol, in this case a preacher. Even Tim Keller, my personal favorite, has “off” days. The same is true for church in general. The minute we look at a church and feel it is the “perfect” church, we will soon be disappointed, and eventually become angry. Jesus is perfect, but preachers and the church are a work in progress. Getting those two reversed, is simply idolatry, and has caused me unnecessary frustration over the years.
So on to the solution. How do you guard against good preaching becoming an idol?
1.) Resist the urge to give the sermon a “good” or a “bad” grade all the time. This is hard, I know. But instead of simply saying “good” (which often simply means you agreed with what was said) or “bad,” consider how the preacher pointed you to Jesus, and your response to His grace to you. Whether a sermon was “good” or “bad” really comes down to whether or not it pointed you to Jesus: for you to drink from the well of living water and then live differently because of it.
2.) Instead of telling the preacher “good” or “bad,” tell him what part particularly ministered to you. Or ask him to clarify something that was confusing.
3.) Consider the worship service as a whole instead of preaching as the main event, and the singing, confession, assurance of grace as the “opening bands.” When Barret and I sit down to evaluate the service each week, we consider the whole of it. In fact, we’ll often say, “That worship service went well.”
4.) Self-Evaluation. I’ve already blogged on this here, but this is huge. Consider how YOU are worshiping or wandering. Why are you bored? How is the Spirit leading you specifically to repent and more deeply believe the gospel. You move from spectator to participator.
5.) Spiritual element. No matter how good a preacher is at explaining, communicating, illustrating, and applying counter-cultural timeless truth in a culturally relevant way, it ultimately comes down to the Spirit speaking through the preached Word. If the Spirit isn’t speaking to those in the congregation, changing hearts, illuminating the mind, convicting of sin, pointing people to the gospel, the preacher is doing nothing but babbling.
If we keep all these in mind, then we will thank God for good and faithful preaching. We’ll avoid idolatry by praising and relying upon not the messenger, but the One who gave us the message. 
Unknown's avatar

The danger of good preaching

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People settle at different churches for different reasons. Sometimes, they like the people. Sometimes they like the worship and music. Sometimes they like the liturgy, and other times they go for the preaching. More often than not, churches will be strong in two of the following areas: fellowship, preaching/teaching, discipleship, mercy, worship. This is often due to the gifting and passion of the pastor, though it doesn’t necessarily have to be (a church could be strong in mercy, in spite of a non-mercy oriented pastor, provided he delegated well).
While preaching seems like the most “spiritual” reason to join a church, and it can be one of the two main strengths of the church, I think there can also be a danger to good preaching. Keep in mind, I’m a preacher-at least once a month-and already have a high view of the preached word. And I do what I can to improve as a preacher through reading, listening to myself/others, hearing lectures, etc…
Let me explain what I mean by “danger.” A good thing (preaching) can become the main thing (an idol) where all hope is placed and other responsibilities neglected. For instance, if I’m all “psyched” up to hear the gospel preached, I can easily “check out” for the entirety of worship. All of the music is supposed to get me ready for the preaching, right?
Wrong, singing is just as much worship. But when good preaching is my idol, I may not pay attention to the words sung, or the confession of sin, hearing the assurance of grace, or even to the sacrament of baptism or the Lord’s Supper. 
When the worship service is over, I may simply go on cruise control for a week till I hear the good preaching again. I may rely on the good preaching to simply bring people, and neglect the call to love my neighbor and invite him/her MYSELF. I could also neglect the pursuit of deep fellowship. If my idol is good preaching, then I may ignore discipleship throughout the week like a small group bible study or the need for counseling or mercy. Good preaching will take care of it…
I may even walk away saying, “That was a bad sermon,” without the thought of, “Did it point me to what Jesus has done/is doing/will do?”
In some cases where there is good preaching, the church can begin to mistake the preacher of the word for the Living Word Jesus. And so the pastor becomes like a 4th member of the Trinity.

So is the answer, to “throw a game” as a preacher so people don’t rely upon YOU? This post is already getting too long. I’ll deal with that tomorrow.

Unknown's avatar

Responsibility wasn’t enough for this poor lad

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A spiritually healthy Calvinist embraces the truth of God’s Sovereign control of all things and yet still upholds the need for human responsibility. Different people, usually related to personality more than personal theology, will land on one side of the equation. Since I’m uber-pragmatic, I will always err on the side of being too responsible, and am constantly needing reminders of the truth that God is indeed in control. 
Last night, via SportsCenter, I witnessed not only these truths, but the healthy application of these complementary (not opposing) truths.
Armando Gallaraga of the Detroit Tigers was pitching a perfect game (all outs and no base-runners) through 8 and 2/3 innings. He only one out to go. Then the batter hit it to the first baseman, and he tossed the ball to the pitcher who came over to cover the bag. The throw beat the runner, but the umpire called him safe. But the replays clearly showed him to be out and he was out by a good bit.
Armando was reminded that no matter how responsible he and the position players were, there was still another factor at play of which they had no control over: umpires. Until baseball gets instant replay, which will be never, players will always have to be aware that God’s Sovereignty (in the form of human umpire error) will still be part of the game.
Gallaraga was amazingly gracious to the umpire, capitulating to the element of human error in baseball. After the call, the distraught pitcher didn’t display defeat or disgust, but simply disbelief. He had come so far and was clearly frustrated. But unlike the 1st baseman or the manager, he didn’t get in the umpire’s face and yell. Disappointed, but also clearly pleased that he had simply been responsible in pitching to the best of his ability.
In the end, he may even have realized that his “responsible” pitching performance was itself a gift from a Sovereign God. Check this out from espn.com:
Galarraga struck out three and walked none, and was a most unlikely star. He was recalled from Triple-A Toledo on May 16 after pitching poorly during spring training, losing out in a competition for the final spot in the rotation to Dontrelle Willis, who was traded Tuesday, and Nate Robertson, who was dealt to Florida toward before the team broke camp.

He probably won’t get a shot for a perfect game again. But in the end, I think he gives us a good example of what it means to be responsible and yet rest in God’s Sovereignty. 

Unknown's avatar

I like nothing!

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The other day a conservative political analyst said something to the effect of, “You know what I like about Obama? Nothing.”
Now I didn’t vote for our current president, but he is still our president and should receive just as much prayer and respect as a president for whom I did vote. Some people love Obama and some people hate him, but regardless of feeling, is this extremism impractical and unbiblical? I think both are true. Here’s my take.
1.) Men are created in the image of God. All men. Yes all men and women are messed up and capable of so much evil, but are also the pinnacle of creation (Psalm 8). This is called the paradox of man, and Pascal really captured it well here. Can it be that there is nothing commendable about Obama? What about his drive, confidence, boldness? Can it be that there is nothing commendable about your neighbor or co-worker? If Acts 17 depicts Paul commending the Athenians for being religious (b/c they had many idols), we can certainly find commendable traits about presidents, neighbors, co-workers. Give it a shot.
2.) Extreme statements which overlook any hint of God’s image on men/women (sometimes called Common Grace) also negate any hope of dialog. Who will listen to this man except those who already listen to him? Will he ever endear himself to others who disagree with him? Will he ever have an opportunity to be heard by someone other than his present audience? I really think that in Acts 17, Paul endears himself to his hearers, who possess a radically different worldview, and so gains a platform upon which to stand.

I can sometimes be an extremist. Not politically, but certainly in other areas, and so this became a challenge to me in how I view those who hold radically differing theological positions.

Unknown's avatar

Self-evaluation on Sundays

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In worship on Sunday, our lead pastor Barret challenged us to evaluate our worship experience in a different manner than we would normally think. Instead of driving home and thinking, “Wow, that was good music or a good sermon…..,” we ought to ask the question: “how did I do in worship?” 
I’m not saying that it is not important to evaluate the sermon, music, flow of liturgy, etc…, for Barret and I do these types of things every Wednesday when we meet. However, because worship isn’t a “spectator sport,” and our true audience is the Tri-une God, it makes just as much sense, if not more, to really evaluate our own hearts. 
Questions like, “Was I engaged with the confession of sin, did my heart resonate with what I was singing, how much did I really cherish Christ when He was preached,” can make a huge difference, particularly when the pastor has an “off” day or the music didn’t sound good. 

With the power of the Holy Spirit, those types of things are much easier, and more necessary to change.

Unknown's avatar

Another reason I hate vampires

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My family is enjoying some much appreciated, if not much needed rest and relaxation on vacation down in sunny Florida. But just when we thought we could relax on baby names, a stupid vampire movie had to come out and ruin everything. Last night at the dinner table my brother broke the bad news to me that “Cullen” has now become one of the most popular boy names due to it being the Vampire surname of one of the toothy protagonists.

So with that name most likely gone (I just don’t want “Cullen” to be among a zillion other “Cullen’s”), it’s back to the drawing board. This is unfamiliar territory for Amy and I, since we had Connar picked out before we were even engaged. And let’s just say there’s not been quite the consensus on names this go around.

Well I guess the age old proverb is proved true, “Once you get a great boy name picked out, you always need to first check the box office to see if it will become too popular.” I wonder why “Frodo” never took off with the Lord of the Rings trilogy?

Unknown's avatar

Steve Jobs the Porn Nazi?

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“No porn for you….,” says Steve Jobs, well in so many words. He doesn’t want porn to be available on his mobile devices, and is willing to hold his ground against many critics. This might not be enough for you to shell out the money for an apple product, but it certainly makes you think about it. While pornography is an offense to a holy God, it is also a sin against men, women, and children. I don’t know if Jobs is a Christian or not, but if he isn’t, 3 out of 4 isn’t too bad, eh? Another example of how humanity might be Totally Depraved (inability to ultimately please God and choose Jesus), but not Utterly Depraved (as bad as we could possibly be), and so it is still able to do numerous socially “good” actions. And we should be thankful for this truth, especially for people in powerful positions.

Unknown's avatar

Boy

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There was a commercial-though I can’t remember who it was for-that featured a man with an opportunity to receive a “collect” call from Bob Gottababieetzaboi. The man promptly did not accept that call and passed the info on to his wife. He said, “It was Bob, he had a baby, and its a boy.” After the results of the ultra-sound yesterday, consider me Geoff Gottababieetzaboi.

Unknown's avatar

Finally a need-to-know basis where we need to know

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One of the great lines from any movie, especially from a movie that wasn’t THAT good, is The Rock‘s “You are on a need-to-know basis and you don’t need to know.” That’s been a theme for the last year of our lives when we didn’t know how long we would be at our last church, where we’d be going, if we’d be involved in church planting, how we could get Amy covered for insurance with her “pre-existing” pregnancy condition, etc….I kept asking God for answers but He would regularly, though inaudibly, reply with these words.

So we unwillingly learned to live with the uncertainty of not knowing things we didn’t “need-to-know” (though I of course differed with the Lord on this matter!). Today, we have a chance to be invited into a bit of knowledge: finding out whether that “baby in mama’s belly” (as we described him/her to Connar to get him used to someone else entering and re-arranging his universe as he knows it) is a boy or a girl.

We’ve just had so much uncertainty in the last year, and lived a life of complete surprises, that when God does offer a glimpse into what the future may hold, we’re going to jump on it like a 4th quarter fumble. Today we’re thankful God will be letting us in on this one, and tomorrow we’ll be back to uncertainty!