Something doesn’t feel right this year.
I can’t even put my finger on it—not completely. Maybe because it’s something that looks perfectly fine on the outside—maybe even good.
Scratch that.
GREAT.
On the one hand churches are popping up all over the place claiming to make the Bible hip, happening and the latest craze since…well, whatever the latest craze is. It seems we want to be so far on the cutting edge we move before we even figured out what we were doing on the previous razor’s precipice. If the latest fad seems ahead of us, we’ll move just to stay in front—whether it’s godly or not.
I say, “we” because it’s so easy to get caught up in this junk and I’m sure I’m guilty of it too. But you know what I’ve been drawn to lately? And what the Lord is drawing out in me?
Just preach the Word.
Powerfully, unapologetically, straight-forward.
And very, very importantly—the way I alone am shaped to preach it. I don’t have to be Rick Warren or Billy Graham or anyone else—just me.
Now don’t get me wrong. Some of you who have been to Southbrook Church might be ready to judge me down to size because we use multimedia out the ying-yang (ß not sure exactly what that is but hopefully I didn’t just cuss for no reason) but you’d be ignoring one very important thing.
That is how I’m shaped. To present the word any other way would be a betrayal for me.
So this isn’t a call to put on a robe and start chanting Monte Python style.
Unless that’s you!
It’s just a sadness, I guess. Because I’m hearing more and more about the newest/latest, or so and so, the upcoming, Mac daddy preacher! and less and less about Jesus.
Maybe more of us need to heed the words of John the Baptist who was quite the rock star in his day—when he said of Jesus,
“He must increase, but I must decrease.”
I think the church and a lot of leaders could use a heavy dose of decreasing.
That might not be ‘religiously correct,’ but it sure feels right.