Thus says the Lord: "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.
But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'" --Jeremiah 6:16

 

7 August, 2007   comments: (0) Changed Message   Today's Practical Christianity versus Yesterday's A purpose-pastor recently blogged about his plan to assist the bible by packaging Romans 8 in a catchy sermon series called "iGod", which he says will make it "connect to life and create an opportunity to get someone's attention who we want to invite". He believes that he is just changing the wrapper that the age-old message comes in, but is NOT changing the message itself. Is that true? The pastor has given us a handy tool for examining that claim; it's a list of his sermons. Reflecting on his own sermons, he feels that he's done a good job providing a "balanced meal, hitting all the arenas of life as learned from the Bible: personal, family, small group, church, vocation, society, world". Let's compare his sermons to those of a time gone by, and see whether the same kind of food is still being served. I'm convinced that many of today's pastors who think they are preaching the same message that the Church has always preached, are actually unaware of what the content used to be. They are simply assuming that they are preaching the same age-old message, in a new cultural wrapper of their own design. The problem is, almost every pastor who talks that way ends up missing the balance entirely and lands firmly on the side of compromising the message and/or neglecting important biblical content that was present in the old message. To demonstrate one case of this, let's examine just the sermon titles from Pastor Henry Williams' blog. For a point of reference, and as I like to do at times, we will compare Pastor Williams' sermons (below on the left) to those of a past preacher (in the right column). We've compared other past-preachers before, but this time we'll use the 19th century sermons of Robert Murray M'Cheyne as a test-bed. This will not be a fully-conclusive test, since we are only comparing titles, but I think you will agree that the sermon titles often give you the gist of the sermon content in most cases: New Sermons Old Sermons + The Profile of Christ Follower - 7 Commitments + Contagious Church (1-2 Thes.) + Winning at Work without Losing at Love + Finding Financial Freedom + Becoming a Person of Influence (Nehemiah) + Dated Jekll, Married Hyde + Prayer That Moves God (Lord's Prayer) + Building Character Qualities that Endure + WWJD (Sermon on the Mount) + Parental Guidance Suggested + Encountering God (Worship) + Increasing Your Adversity Quotient (Joseph) + Exploring Real Christianity (Romans) + Making Relationships Work (Fruit of the Spirit) + Church Matters (Acts) + Right From Wrong - Moral Choices (10 Commandments) + Money Rules + The Bible Jesus Read + Building an Unshakable Love + Smart Living + Tough Questions + Mission Possible (James 1) + Esther + Transforming Marriage + Essential Skills for Spiritual Survivors + Knowing Jesus + My Heart...Christ's Home + Compassion Lessons + Growing through the Emotions + Daniel + Stress Factor + Life@Work.com + Experiencing God's Presence + Grounded for Life (Parenting) + Speaking of Jesus + 7 Things People Hate About Christians + Run the Race - Philippians + Making the Move + Beyond Morality + The Bible Challenge + Taking Care of Business + Unlocking the Bible Story 1,2,3 + Grounded for Life (Part 2) + The Six Loves of a Healthy Marriages + Unlocking the Bible Story 4,5,6 + Serving Lessons - Family Month + Christmas at the Movies + Unlocking the Bible Story 7 + Christmas at the Movies + Everyday...Forever + Jesus Wants to Know + What on earth am I here for + You Were Planned for God's Pleasure + You Were Formed for God's Family + You Were Created to Become Like Christ + Small Groups Vision Message + You Were Shaped for Serving God + You Were Made for Mission + Christmas in Narnia + 24 (Revelation) + The Naked Truth about Sex + Espresso Yourself + Lost (Post-resurrection Appearances) + DaVinci + Superheroes + Prayer - Can You Hear Me Now (Lord's Prayer) + Family Channel + Go + OT Rewind + No Perfect People Allowed + U 2 Can Rock the World + The Office + Epic + Theology for Dummies (Ephesians) + Parental Guidance Required + The Lord's Dealings With His People + Faith's View of Christ + Christ The Life + The Mental Agonies of Hell + The Spirit Committed To God + Apostasy + The Mighty Conqueror + The True Pleasantness of Being a Child + The Call of Abraham + A Gospel Ministry The Gift of Christ + Believers Not Ashamed of The Cross of Christ + The Heavenly Bridegroom And Bride + The Transfiguration of Christ + Adoption + The Salvation of God + Future Punishment Eternal + The Marks and Blessings of Christ's Sheep + The Free Obedience of Christ + The Hireling and the True Shepherd + Christ-The good Shepherd + The word Made Flesh + The Eternal Torment of The Wicked + Ministers ambassadors for Christ + Christ the way, the truth, and the life + What did the love of Christ cost him + I am the good Shepherd + Christ is the door + The true and false Shepherd + A Faithful Ministry + The Vessels of Wrath Fitted to Destruction + God's rectitude in future punishment + Grieve not the holy Spirit + Conversion + The Saviour's tears over the lost + High time to awake out of sleep + Electing Love + The improvement of affliction + Follow the Lord fully + Who shall separate us? + Conviction of sin + A cry for revival + Lot's wife + The second coming of Christ + Time is short + Christ love to the church + The heart deceitful + Family Government + A Time of Refreshing + The Love of Christ + The Ten Virgins + Christ's Compassion on the Multitudes + He Being Dead Yet Speaketh + How Much I Owe + Christ the Only Refuge + Are You One of the Elect? + Ambassadors For Christ + God In Christ Reconciling The World + New Creatures in Christ + Quickened Together With Christ + Chosen to Salvation + Called With An Holy Calling + The Faithfulness of God + Strengthened With Might By The Spirit + Help Thou Mine Unbelief + True Believers the Sons of God + Saving Faith, The Gift of God + Saved Through Mercy, Not Works + Gospel Not in Word But in Power + Three That Bear Record in Heaven + Spirit of Truth the Only Guide to Truth + Inability to Come to Christ + Christ Despised and Rejected + Bought With A Price + Plenteous Redemption + The Lord and His Rewards + Watching Unto Prayer + No Man Can Come + Will Ye Also Go Away + A Christian's Warfare The sermons in the red color seem to fall into the modern Therapuedic Gospel category which aims at helping people solve their temporal problems or helping them feel good about themselves. Others of these sermons (in green) appear to be the stock Purpose Driven Life "sermon in a box" messages that churches preach when they are participating in Rick Warren's 40 Days of Purpose program. Today's pastors would want you to believe that all of the important content in M'Cheyne's sermons is present in their's as well, but that simply isn't factual. The old sermons cover topics and bible passages that the new sermons don't, and even in cases where a topic is covered in a new sermon - the old sermons usually put much more doctrinal focus on that topic (things like the atonement for example). Modern sermons tend to give doctrine a back seat to practical "how to's". But the preface to AW Pink's book Practical Christianity explains how the old messages took an entirely different route to practicality: "It is the studied judgment of this writer, and he is by no means alone therein, that doctrinal preaching is the most pressing need of the churches today". "Doctrinal preaching is designed to enlighten the understanding, to instruct the mind, to inform the judgment. It is that which supplies motives to gratitude and furnishes incentives to good works". "Doctrinal Christianity is both the ground and the motive of practical Christianity, for it is principle and not emotion or impulse which is the dynamic of the spiritual life". But doctrine, unless reduced to practice, is of no avail. Pink wrote, "There is no doctrine revealed in Scripture for a merely speculative knowledge, but all is to exert a powerful influence upon conduct. God's design in all that He has revealed to us is to the purifying of our affections and the transforming of our characters". It is a matter of great concern that the trend-following pastors of today often feel that they are achieving some ideal balance, when in fact they are usually neglecting that which AW Pink mentions above. The old message was aimed at driving-home solid biblical doctrine, from which a practical Christianity would spring forth. It wasn't so concerned with sending you home with a microwavable list of 10 ways to help some (real or imagined) problem that you are having, but aimed instead at giving you a Christ-centered outlook, which has the power to transform your life from within, and give you a truly practical Christianity. Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.744   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  Videos   |  Calvinism