A Voice in The Wilderness

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A sermon full of generalities hits no one in particular.
— Haddon Robinson

While Grace Chapel in Lexington, Massachusetts, was without a pastor for over a year, I preached there often. The church is remarkably diverse, having Harvard professors and high school dropouts, doctors and lawyers as well as house cleaners, political activists and those who don't even read the newspaper, people with multimillion dollar investment portfolios and minimum-wage workers. In addition, members are of many races and colors.

I stood before such diversity each week amazed at the responsibility I had to reach them all. As I prepared my sermons, I stewed over how my sermon could reach the entire cross section.

As preachers, our task can be expressed simply: to become all things to all people. To actually do it is a formidable task.

When we fail to speak to the entire cross section in our churches, it is often because we act like the doctor who has only two answers; as long as a patient asks the right two questions, the doctor can help. Or we resemble the doctor who only knows how to set a broken arm: if a patient complains of a bellyache, the doctor breaks her arm so he can set it.

Reaching broader audiences makes sobering demands on us.

• Sacrifice what comes natural. When Paul said, "I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some" (1 Cor. 9:22), he wasn't talking just about evangelism. He was also talking about helping converts grow. "To the weak," to believers who had weak consciences, he became weak; he restricted his freedom for their sakes.

Speaking to a broader audience requires a sacrifice from us. We give up our freedom to use certain kinds of humor, to call minority groups by names that make sense ...

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