Cloud of Witnesses
April 1, 1996
Bill had stopped coming to church. He came to my office one day to defend his absence and teach me a thing or two. He was a Christian, a garden-variety sinner, who was in a lot of pain. He complained that my sermons were boring.
"Your sermons suck," is what he actually said.
I admitted to Bill that my preaching has peaks and valleys and that lately I'd been working at about sea level. I proceeded to suggest that my sermons were not the problem.
Once I'd absorbed his initial blast of anger and started taking his heartache seriously, we made some headway. We talked about the importance of the means of grace in his life. It wasn't a sin to dislike my preaching, I said, but it might be deadly for him to cut himself off from the gospel, the sacraments, worship, and the fellowship of believers. It wasn't long before Bill was in church again, taking notes, on the good—and boring—sermons.
Lou also thinks my sermons are boring.
He expresses his feelings less colorfully, however. He falls asleep, looks away, misses worship frequently, and in general doesn't have the slightest idea what I'm saying. He's a nice guy, but something is missing. The fact that he doesn't care about my preaching isn't the sign. Lou's problem is that he doesn't care for the Word of God. He needs to be conquered by the grace of the gospel; he is not a Christian.
Many consider it highly presumptuous for anyone, including a pastor, to assume that he or she knows who are Christians and who are not.
Wouldn't it be nice not to have to make that kind of assessment? (So often people think we like making these evaluations.)
As a pastor I have no choice but to develop working hypotheses about my parishioners' spiritual situations. It would have been a serious pastoral ...
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