Here We Are Now. Entertain Us.

BY PAUL DUNK

Do you remember way back in May 2007, Charlie and his brother Harry were sitting on a chair when Charlie bit Harry's finger? The little guys broke the internet.

Do you remember the double rainbow of 2010?

Here we are now - entertain us. ~ Kurt Cobain

Like myself, you probably laughed at Charlie, the double rainbow and the innumerable amount of funny videos that went viral since.

Needless to say, these two videos are old news and the next big thing is being uploaded as I type this.

We love the next big thing.
The next innovative thing.
The next money making thing.
The next fashionable thing.
The next technological thing.
The next entertaining thing.
The next fitness thing.
The next dietary thing.
The next funny thing.

Here we are now. entertain us.

As preachers, we have to deliver a message every seven days. As worshippers, you are on the receiving end those messages  - every seven days. We all come to worship - every seven days.

Now, according to Jesus and the New Testament, He's supposed to be smack dab in the centre of our worship - every seven days. Gathering around the same thing seems like a pretty tall order for people who are always in search of the next big thing.

Now, if us preachers present the gospel repeatedly in anticipated ways, with predictable phrases and pithy go-to sayings, we are inviting you to nod off.

Here's the challenge. If, for fear of your impending boredom, we don't preach about Jesus - every seven days, we've abandoned our call.

Preaching is, quite literally, proclaiming Christ and Him crucified. It's supposed to be our jam. So if we aren't speaking about Him, there's someone more qualified to speak to you about the topic we decided to speak to you about.

Full disclosure here: if us pastors get off the Christ Alone bus, we're of very little value to you. We're not as inspiring as Margaret Thatcher, we don't have the business acumen of Ken Blanchard and we're not nearly as entertaining as Jimmy Fallon.

As Jared Wilson states in his book Gospel Wakefulness, "We must routinely present the unchanging gospel in a way that does justice to its earthshaking announcement. This doesn’t mean we need to set it up with a power ballad or dress it up. It means we present it like life or death stuff."

If it's not important to us as worshippers that Christ is presented weekly from the scriptures, or that our children grow up learning God's law and God's gospel, we will come into our churches like viral video junkies, tired of yesterdays-news-Jesus, looking for the preacher to give us our next double rainbow.

If Christ doesn't need to be central, then any talk that inspires us to be better people is cool beans. Jesus got airtime in the last series, so this next series is about me? Perfect. Hearing about Jesus every seven days seems like overkill anyhow. Besides, I don't care if my kids are taught the actual bible, so long as the teaching helps them develop good morals and ethics. Plus they like the roller coaster in the world class children's program.

Here we are now. Entertain us.

Over in the other ditch, our ears can itch in a different way. In that ditch we're so bored with the Lord, we assume Christ, bypass His grace and go straight to intellectual stimulus via academic lectures that are so theologically nuanced, Christ ends up playing the background to the finer points of theology. While our airtight doctrine is presented with a level of accuracy that would rival the church fathers who crafted the Westminster Catechism, the power of Christ and His grace can still be conspicuously missing from those types of sermons.

We can puff our chests out because our children memorized the catechisms, but if Jesus isn't front and centre, they can grow up to be like mechanics who know where all the bolts go but have never experienced the joy of driving with the wind in their hair. They're bored with the Lord too.

Here we are now. Entertai... meh. Intellectually stimulate us............................

Don't Share the Gospel with Me: Luther, Forde and a Seminarian

BY RALEIGH SADLER

“Whatever you do, don’t share the Gospel with me?” Those were my exact words to my slightly mystified seminary professor. As he set his coffee down, I could tell that he was holding back in an effort to allow me to process what I was thinking. “To be honest,” I said, “I don’t think God loves me. I feel like He is angry at me. I feel like I have prayed the “prayer” over a thousand times and He won’t hear it.” As I continued to share, I figured that this couldn’t be the “norm” for incoming students, like myself. I mean, you don’t have to be perfect to be enrolled to be at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, but you should at least, at bare minimum, be a believer…right? Here I was baring my soul to my “Formations of Christian ministry” professor over dry bacon and watery eggs. In my head, I figured that the only recourse would be for the administration to send me home. This would make sense to me because ultimately I can’t tell people about the love of Christ if I am not sure that I have received it.

Surprisingly, my professor didn’t condemn me. As a matter of fact, he didn’t do much at all. He just sat there silently listening to me as I poured out my heart. He didn’t respond with Christian cliches or platitudes nor did he give me any advice to “fix” my problem. He just sat with me as I struggled to finish my breakfast. After waiting for me to gather myself, he calmly asked to pray for me. He encouraged me to stay the course and to seek him out as I processed my current crisis of faith. .........

Sin Spanx

Have you ever heard of Spanx? Although they’ve only been around since 2010, their predecessors have been around for centuries. Basically, Spanx are a 21st century girdle. Like other girdles, Spanx streamlines your love-handles and lumps making you appear much thinner and fitter than you really are.

In Luke chapter 18, Jesus tells a story of a spiritual girdle that we Christians wear far more often than we’d like to admit. This spiritual girdle, just like with Spanx, is one that we’d rather no one knew about.

Here’s Jesus’ story from Luke 18:9-14

"He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

The Wicked Way We Become More Like Jesus

I'm always surprised to hear people say, “If I could do it all again, I wouldn’t change a thing.” But we’re all sinners and we all sin every day. Some of us screwed up a lifetime ago and others fell short just last night. But everyone has THAT thing they would give anything to change. Pay any price to take back. And if you don’t have that… just wait. You may not have lived long enough yet.

I remember believing my own lies. Tell yourself a grenade is a flower enough times and you may just believe it enough to pull the pin. I have. And I blew myself to pieces.

But it’s never just about you. The shrapnel from your own explosion penetrates the souls of everyone around you. As hard reality starts to set in, you can’t bear it. You’re bleeding out as you spit venom, sin, and excuses. Even more shrapnel from your tongue lodges itself in those closest to you. Sin upon sin. It’s like struggling in quicksand. But sadly you didn’t just fall in. You dove in head first thinking it was a hot spring. You mistook the roaming lion of the Devil outside your door for a house cat. Then he ripped you wide open like a Christmas present.