My assumption is that I will be asked to preach on topics I
have not touched on yet. I am also thinking I will be asked to preach on topics
that don’t interest me personally. It is not that these are bad topics, or
meaningless topics, or even second rate topics. They are just topics that don’t
interest me. Most of the requests I will probably receive will be about
concepts, theories and difficult spiritual questions. These will be good topics
that should be thought about and explored and preached on. They just don’t
interest me.
An obvious observation would be that if they did interest
me, I would have already preached on them. If you spend much time listening to
me preach (or just talk) you quickly realize that I love the church but that I
am profoundly disappointed with the church. I am a lover of the church and, at
the same time, a severe critic of the church. Just the fact that, under the watch
of my generation of leadership, the church has declined dramatically in size, impact,
and ministry in the North American culture, tells me we have not done an even adequate
job of reaching out to those who do not yet know God. We have an amazing
message of hope, forgiveness, healing and love to share with others and we are
failing miserably to do so.
It is not like our culture doesn’t need to hear the good
news that God made real and understandable through Jesus. And it is not like
people are not aware of their need for forgiveness, hope and healing and are
not open to hear this remarkable message. It is that we have failed to deliver.
We have become so distracted in maintaining what we consider important in our
local churches (buildings, structures, perceived personal power, favored
programs, etc.); pushing political agendas; dulling down the powerful truths of
Christianity to make them more politically correct; judging those who don’t
believe as we do; hunkering down in a bunker mentality of “us against them”;
trying to look and be like unbelievers so they will like us; designing a
religion that we can be comfortable believing (Instead of clinging to a faith
that challenges us in every aspect of our beings.); making our faith a club
membership that is just a tiny part of our lives instead of the central issue
that drives our lives, that we have become uninteresting to those around us who
don’t have a personal, vital relationship with God.
Seeing and dealing with the declining church causes me to
preach sermons on, what I consider to be, pragmatic and challenging topics.
Though I once was, I am no longer interested in knowing more about what
Revelation has to say about the end times or what the Bible has to say about
heaven and hell. I am not interested in debating creationism verses evolution. These
are not unimportant topics. It is just that I am more interested in exploring what
we have to say about what God is challenging us to do in the here and now.
So, send me those topics. I would love to attempt to preach
on what you are interested in hearing. Because, in my opinion, if it is an important
topic to you, it is an important topic.
I
look forwarding to seeing you in worship this Sunday. You won’t believe what
someone has requested I preach on.
Copyright
© 2012, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved
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