July 15, 2007

As we have for the past several years, the Danville church of Christ has rented space at the Hendricks County 4-H Fair. It is scheduled to start one week from today (July 22), with setup to take place Saturday, July 21.

The elders believe this is a good work for it allows us to meet and perhaps teach those in our community. It also provides us with an opportunity to work together in the cause of the Lord. In order for this to succeed it takes participation on the part of members. Not just a few but a large percent of the membership here. However, if you look at the signup sheet on the bulletin board in the foyer you immediately see that not many are willing to sacrifice time to work the fair booth.

Oh, as with each year, there are a certain few who are willing, but these are often overworked in order to take the place of those who will not. Those who do work are to be commended and I do so. Those willing to work are great sources of encouragement and without such people local churches would be impotent.

This lack of work is not something the elders wish to accept because it is not fair. It is wrong for some members to do all the work while others do little or none. Furthermore, a lack of participation testifies to the world that we are not serious about our efforts to reach our world.

The elders are considering the possibility of NOT setting up the fair booth this year. This would mean that the fee we paid for the booth would be lost. However, this seems to be a better alternative than having a booth with no workers.

A final decision will be made before next Saturday. That decision will be made based upon the willingness of this membership to sacrifice the time necessary to do this good work.

The Preaching We Ask For

Speaking about John the Baptist Jesus asked, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see?” (Matt 17:11). When people went out to see and hear John they were not left to wonder what he said or where he stood. For example, once he told a king that he was living in adultery (Matt 14:1-12). Also, he told others they were a “Brood of vipers” (Matt 3:7), and when people wanted to be baptized John told them they needed to repent and bear fruit which indicated they had repented (Lk 3:8).

John was like his Master, he spoke plainly. “Then Jesus said to them plainly, Lazarus is dead,” (Jn 11:14). Neither Jesus nor John left you asking: “What did he say?” Plainness of speech would aptly describe all the preaching done by faithful brethren in the first century. When Paul entered the city of Thessalonica “as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, this Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ,” (Acts 17:2-3).

Would you say this is the kind of preaching that is being heard today? Some who have been influenced by modern thought today contend that “gospel preaching” should “relate the ambiguities of the New Testament to the complexities of modern society.” This means don’t preach it plainly, just tell us stories.

Some sermons heard in some churches of Christ today are so unclear and ambiguous people are left scratching their heads and wondering what was said.

This was not the case fifty years ago. Read some sermons that were preached a half century ago (or for that matter when I obeyed the gospel in the early 1970's) and you will immediately recognize the distinctiveness of the message. Depending upon the subject, no one left the assembly confused about the church, the plan of salvation or godly living.

There is a reason for us not having this kind of preaching today. Paul warned, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables,” (2 Tim 4:3-4). Many people wish to have their ears scratched (tickled) and preachers are falling all over themselves to oblige. Recently someone asked me, “Brother, why don’t we hear sermons like we used to when I was a boy?” I told him, “Because you don’t want to hear sermons like you did then.”

“What did you go out . . . to see?” If that question were asked today after a gospel meeting how would it be answered? “Oh, we went to see the editor of the brotherhood’s journal.” Or, “We went to see a dude in an Armani Suit with matching shoes.” “We went to see a knee-slapper who gets it said in fifteen minutes” We went to see a man who kept us in stitches, we rolled in the floor he was so funny.”

Then we wonder why the church is in the condition it is in many places. Brethren are getting the preaching they want. And, preachers, without faith, conviction or Bible knowledge are giving what people demand.

Sermons today are designed to impress not offend; cheer not convict. Some preachers have even stopped offering the invitation and you might never hear about baptism during an entire sermon. I have actually sat through a “sermon” and heard more jokes than Bible verses. Then, when the “invitation” is offered it would be something like this. “Thank you for your kind attention. If you need to get right with God, why don’t you come forward while we sing the song?”

We need men who are plain speakers, but we also need men and women who love for it to be so. Those who claim to be Christians are not hungering and thirsting after the word of God. How can we expect for those in the world to desire the word when members show such distaste for it? They cry that preachers are not preaching like they used to preach. The truth of the matter is many churches are getting exactly what they want; their ears tickled.

But, then when a man comes along who is a plain speaker some become unsettled by his bluntness. We should be ashamed! May God grant us men willing to use “great plainness of speech” (2 Cor 3:12), and when such a man comes along, let’s not slay him. Instead let’s hold up his hands and support his work. Then, we just might begin to see things turn around.

-- jrb

No Fair Booth this Year?