Cloud of Witnesses
July 1, 1996
In the past twenty years, the church has put its pastors in a double bind.
The church says it's committed to local, Spirit-empowered, context-sensitive
ministry—while becoming bedazzled by the great performances of Christian
stars. The problem is rural as much as urban. Anyone who can tune in to a
Christian radio station is now a homiletics professor.
I'm not all that bad a preacher, but I wonder sometimes why I shouldn't just
show videos of preaching geniuses on Sunday morning. People say they believe
in the local church and in the gifts of the Spirit, but sometimes I feel
that if my gifts are not prodigious, they can't be productive.
The fault is not with great preachers or Christian radio or television. We,
the church, are at fault.
In synch with our culture, we crave talent and genius, and disdain hard work
and character. We are fascinated by the nature of Christian genius
and are bored by the grace of the Christian gospel. Preaching conferences
on delivery are full; conferences on the message are empty.
To put it bluntly, the gospel is no longer enough. The message must be preached
brilliantly, or have a garage sale; it's time to move on. Whenever I feel snake-bitten by our Christian culture's obsession with genetics, the ten pages in Soren Kierkegaard's "Of the Difference between a Genius and an Apostle" (an essay appended to The Present Age) help me.
I purchased The Present Age in May 1979, the month I graduated from
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, for a buck at Barnes & Noble Basement
on my last trip to Boston. I read this one-dollar gold mine during my first
year in ministry and many times since. It makes me want to preach the gospel
with all my might. Butcher-knife intellect
Soren ...
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