I recently picked up a book from a reformed company and read over the first couple of pages. On the second page I discovered a paragraph that I thought perfectly summed up America's 'churches'. In this book a woman was speaking to a preacher and she suggested something that the preacher didn't agree with. The lady quickly dismissed the preacher by suggesting he go eat and work on his sermon. The part that stuck with me though was how the woman told the preacher that they would need him to preach as good as he could to keep them from turning on one another. She told him that if he could preach well enough to keep them all on speaking terms than he would have more than earned his pay.
That is a fictional book written in 1917 and reprinted by a reformed company today. I know little else about that book, only the publishers description of what the book is about. But that single paragraph so accurately summed up today's 'church' buildings, at least I thought it did.
I was once told by someone raised in the Roman Catholic faith that the Catholic 'church' seemed to be the cover for sin. They went to the services than lived a life of sin all the rest of the time. I recently read something written by someone raised in the same faith that essentially said exactly what I had been told before, only this person said that Roman Catholicism is used as a license to sin. Only thing is, most denominations are that way, at least the one's I have experienced are.
I heard a preacher sum it up great one time. This preacher said that they put on their Sunday face to go to services then live their normal lives all the other time, lives that look just like the rest of the world. If even a preacher spoke on it, than what purpose does the preacher serve?
I had a relative tell me about a year ago that God wants more preachers to preach on hell. That spawned a short conversation that I won't go into here but the gist of it was that this person truly believed what she said. She honestly thought that God wanted those preachers to preach on hell and the preachers were not doing it. Since then I have seen several things online that say we need preachers that will preach on sin and hell. Only thing with that is if you share online sermons given by preachers that truly do preach on sin and hell, they don't want to watch or listen to them. It all sounds good in theory, even looks good shared on social media or their blog, but let them really come face to face with a sermon, with a preacher, with a person, that tells them that their lying, their covetousness, their selfishness, their lack of total devotion to the true Lord, are sin and they don't want to listen. Give them a sermon that tells them that the prayer they prayed at some point may have only deluded them into thinking that they won't spend eternity in hell and they will quickly turn it off. It sounds good to say they want to hear more about sin and hell but the truth is most of them don't want to hear anything of the like.
Week after week, 'Christians' fill the pews in their chosen 'church' and what do they hear? They are told of how they should help others, of how to better their marriage, of how to have better family relationships, of how to get along with coworkers, of how to...manage their lives. And really, if you think about the majority of those sermons, what they want, and what they get, are sermons that keep them corralled enough to keep them from turning on each other and those who they encounter every day. Oh, they may or may not literally turn on each other but that's the gist of what the sermons do, they rein them in for a time, keep them corralled, keep them contained within a certain area.
It is as if the sermon puts a gate around the person that lets them stray so far and only so far. They are restrained within the gate. When I was seven I was put into a 'Christian' school. I was signed up for it before the school year started. I remember sitting with friends, in my home, one day and one of the kids wanted me to say something, I can't remember what. The part I do recall very well was telling those friends that I couldn't say that because I was about to start going to a 'Christian' school.
On that day, the enrollment in a 'Christian' school restrained me. It kept me from doing something simply because I knew I would soon be going to that school. Somehow, in my childish mind, I believed that what school I went to determined, in some way, what I could and could not do.
Does 'church' work the same way for the people that fill the pews each Sunday?
I've heard my husband say many times that the Lord uses 'churches' to restrain people. How many people that go to those services are restrained in their sins because of what they are taught within the doors of the building? How many of those people are restrained week after week because of the sermon they hear every Sunday?
If a person goes to a 'church' every Sunday and sits through the weekly sermon, they will hear a different message every week. This week they might hear about restraining their speech. Next week they might hear about resolving marital conflict. Another week they may get a lesson on bill paying under the title of 'Christian' stewardship. On and on the list of sermons goes, and with it comes an endless selection of topics, much like walking into a library and picking a book off the shelf. This book is about cats, that one dogs. Another book on plumbing. Others on famous people, small pox, cholera, shoes, dolls... There is no end of topics to the books one can find within the walls of a library. And, it would seem, there is no end of topics that a preacher might pull from his hat to 'teach' to his congregation.
But what purpose do those sermons serve?
Listening to a sermon on restraining one's speech might be beneficial, a reminder to watch the things we say, but in the end does it serve any purpose? Wouldn't a true Christian already be aware of the fact that their speech should be restrained? I'm a tell it like it is kind of person and I can attest to the fact that I am well aware of the Scripture verses on speech and how we should speak to others. I also have a tendency to encounter times when my mouth works almost before my brain. But even in that, I control my speech. There are certain things I do not say. Ever. Are there things I say that maybe I shouldn't? Probably. Do I sometimes say things I later wish I hadn't said. Yes. Do I try harder next time? Yes. Do I need a preacher to get up on stage before me, mentally hold my hand, and tell me how I should be careful of the things I say? No.
I already know to be careful of my speech because Scripture tells me to. I already have a restraint on me because my Lord, through His Word, says...
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. Ephesians 4:29 ESV
And that restraint lives within my heart and conscious. If I say something I shouldn't I know it and feel remorse for it. I know to watch my speech because Scripture tells me to, not because a preacher got up on stage, read a few verses, shared a few stories geared to tug at my human emotions, and said I should.
Likewise, I don't need a preacher to get up on a stage and tell me how to manage my money as a 'good 'christian' steward' because I already know, from Scripture, that nothing I own truly belongs to me. Everything I have is because the Lord allowed me to have it. I also know that all of the world belongs to the Lord and therefore all that is in the world belongs to Him. I don't need a preacher to give me a sermon on why I should manage my money well because doing so is good 'christian' stewardship.
I know what the Scriptures say. I know, from the Lords Word, what is expected of me. Do I always do what is expected of me? I'm human. I fail. Are there times when I should have given money to someone and didn't? Are there times when I should have spent less on things of this world and invested more into people? Sure. It happens. Are there times that I buy something without giving a second thought to how the money I just spent could have been used for someone in need? Often. Are there times that I buy something and then regret it? Yes. I'm human. But I don't lavishly spend money. I don't have fancy cars, houses, clothes or jewelry. Does that justify anything? Not a single thing.
My husband is fond of saying, 'we could live in a cardboard box under a bridge'. THAT is something I would not feel the least bit comfortable doing, for safety reasons, but I'm sure that if I did live in a cardboard box under a bridge I would still have too much of this world in that paper home.
There is a movement in America right now toward tiny homes. Supposedly some of those tiny houses are no bigger than a parking space. I have never actually seen a tiny home but the idea holds some sort of interest to me. My husband gets claustrophobic at the very thought of living in such a tiny home. I find the idea...intriguing. I highly doubt I would truly want to live in such a small space but there is some kind of appeal in the way the houses are made and in the imagining of how one might manage to live out their life in such a small space. I am sure, though, that that small space would get very old, very quick.
These tiny homes have become something of a trend. People claim that they save on utility bills and that living in a smaller space frees up money and time to focus on other things, things one wants to do. I'm sure they are right. Utility bills must go down when you live in a space the size of a parking space and how long can it take to clean such a small space. I can clean my living room in about twenty minutes, that sweeping, mopping, dusting, putting up anything that may have been left out, even washing walls and doors. My living room is bigger than many of these tiny homes. How long can cleaning one of them take? An hour?
So people move into these tiny homes to save money and time but the price of buying these parking lot sized homes is astronomical. One could live in such a tiny home and actually spend more money than if they simply lived in a normal house. Then, too, would come in the...pride...of owning such. Is there pride in living in a tiny home, in doing what many think they could not? Are they just as proud of their 100 square foot home as the person living in a 5000 square foot home is of theirs?
And guess what? There's a preacher out there somewhere that stands before his congregation on Sunday and preaches on the evils of pride. There is evil in pride but does the lesson he imparts on Sunday going to sink all the way into the hearts of the people sitting in his congregation? Or does it simply make them stop and think for a while?
Would a true Christian, a Christian that knows Scripture, need to sit in a 'church' and be told about the evils of pride so that they don't take pride in their home or their car or their...whatever? Or would they know not to be prideful because, 1) the Lord has changed their heart and removed most, if not all, of the pride they once felt, and 2) they know that pride is wrong, a sin, and they fight any hint of it in their life.
Pride could be a sin for a Christian. I'm sure some struggle with it. Being a Christian doesn't take away our humanness, it just changes it. We are still human. We still stumble. We fall. We do wrong. But we don't need a preacher holding our hand and telling us, oh, so gently, that we are doing wrong. The Lord will do that.
But week after week, sermon after sermon, that is exactly what preachers in 'churches' do. They get up on a stage, standing before their loyal subjects, and mentally hold their hands, guiding them through things that if they were the Christian they claim to be they should already have at least a passing understanding of. And if they somehow don't understand those things, their changed hearts should guide them.
Instead of seeing that in the Sunday 'Christians' though, we see people being led, gently, by their preachers. They learn to control their speech, if they learn at all, because their preacher tells them through a few verses and a lot of stories that they should control it. They learn to be good financial stewards because their preacher says they should. And the reality is that most of them don't really learn the lessons taught by their preachers. They are merely reined in until the lesson fades from their thoughts, replaced by the next feel good rule that gives them just enough of a challenge to motivate them to better behavior. That is, of course, unless the preacher should actually preach on something that they find too much of a challenge to give up.
But the preacher knows that. He knows that his congregation is mired in the ways of the world. He may say that they are different from the world but he knows that they live as the world, even if he doesn't voice it. He knows it because there is no way to get past it. All he has to do is walk the aisles and hallways of his 'church' before or after a service, mingle with those there, listen to, or join, their talks of baseball games, kids dance classes, television shows, books, and whatever else they may speak of.
The preacher knows they live like the world, although he may not understand that they truly are just like the world. He may honestly believe that because they said a prayer, or did some other right of passage, that they are different than the world and that the right of passage that gave them 'salvation' has made them different. He may truly not understand that they are no different than the world they just lay claim to a difference that really does not make them different. And why might he not understand that? Because he was led, possibly his whole life, by preachers that got up on a stage and fed him bite sized bits of Scripture, twisted and changed, to form a certain idea or belief or to support a certain way of believing. These preachers taught him to be another one of them. He has had his hand held and his emotions manipulated and his mind altered to believe what they want him to believe. He most likely went to a special school, called a Seminary, to learn just how to manipulate those that he finds himself in charge of. He was taught that there is an art to preaching, that he must give them what they want so that they will come into his 'church'.
When I was in junior high I took a choir class. In that class we often sang a song about little boxes. I can't remember the name of the song but I can well remember the point to it, can even remember a good amount of the words. This song was about neighborhoods that all the houses are the same although they may be different colors. And about people that are all the same. Some may be doctors, some lawyers, some business men but they are all the same.
Preachers, with few exceptions, are all the same. They are like carbon copies of one another. Oh, they have differences, they teach and preach different things. Some are married, some aren't. Some have kids, some don't. Some have hair, some don't. Some are old, some are young. They may have different allegiances. Some are Baptist. Some Pentecostal. Some Methodist. But...they all, generally, are the same. Their goal is to bring the crowds in and keep them coming in. They need to boost numbers. Those numbers show up in the form of how many souls they 'won' and how much money comes through the offering plate. They boost attendance. They boost vacation Bible school attendees. They boost their missions contributions, missions trips, and outreach programs. But...they are the same.
They stand before people week after week, giving watered down sermons that tug at the emotions, hit just enough nerves to make people feel pushed to step a tiny bit outside their comfort zones, but really asks nothing of them and does not tell them that they are perishing in their lives that look just like the rest of the world. These preachers have done their jobs and earned their pay if they keep their congregations from turning on one another, figuratively anyway.
I read a news article a week or so ago about a preacher that preached against a certain sin. As he preached his congregation was so offended that he later said 50-75% of the congregation walked out of the service. Someone commented on that, saying that the preacher had weeded out the bad and now had the good in the audience. He could now proceed to preach to those that were the ones that should have been there in the first place.
I wonder though, if that preacher had changed topics, taught on say why those that watch certain television shows are enjoying and promoting what the Lord hates...how many more would have walked out? If he had then gone on to tell them that the prayer they thought 'saved' them was nothing more than a delusion that will lead them straight to hell...how many more would walk out? If he had told them that their fancy house, their pretty clothes, their hobbies, their...earthly joys that they spend so much on...was covetousness and a sin...how many more would have walked out? How many 'weeds' could he have removed from his congregation?
50-75% of his congregation walked out that day because he preached against something they supported. But he preached on one topic. He weeded out the 'bad' with a single sermon, on a single topic. What if he had gone through a whole list of sins? Would he have had anyone left in his congregation when he finished?
I once heard a reformed preacher say that he went somewhere to preach once. He was supposed to give a series of sermons. After the first sermon he was approached by the leaders of wherever he was and told that he would not be allowed to preach again. He had delivered a message that they did not agree with, a message that told them things they didn't want to hear most likely, and was told he had to leave.
People don't want preachers that tell them the truth. They don't want preachers that preach on hell and sin, although they might claim they do. They want preachers that stand before them week after week and gently guide them just enough to keep them from 'turning on one another'. They want preachers that give them a goal to work toward, a goal that makes them feel better about themselves and makes them feel that they are different because they do these 'christian' things.
They can be proud of themselves because they are 'christians' and they sacrifice certain things for their faith. They give their money, their time, may even learn to be more cautious in their choice of clothing, words, or entertainment. But it is a gentle reining in with a wide fence that keeps them corralled while still giving them plenty of room to enjoy the world. The forbidden things are out there but they are the things they generally don't want anyway.
Preachers are taught in Seminary how to learn the likes and demographics of their congregation and to preach to those things. Rich congregations require different preaching, different sermons, than poor ones. Inner city congregations require different sermons than country congregations. Mountain congregations require different sermons than ocean congregations. The people have different perspectives on life, different beliefs, different morals, and those things, preachers are taught, must be taken into consideration and preached to.
Congregations are coddled where they are in their lives. If you have a 'church' that supports rescuing animals a preacher would never think of going into that 'church' and preaching about how animals have become huge idols for people. Likewise, a preacher would never walk into a 'church' that takes great pride in holding a 'fall festival' and preach on the evils of anything having any connection to Halloween.
Preachers in most 'churches' are simply giving a well thought out, even researched, sermon, designed to pander to his audience, sure as a plumber would not walk into a building and work on the computer system. A plumber knows his business and he sticks to plumbing. It keeps his clients happy and it keeps the building working properly. It would do him no good to connect kitchen sink plumbing up to a computer cord. It would create nothing but trouble for the computer and the kitchen plumbing and it would result in him losing his job. A preacher cannot walk into a 'church' where the congregation wants their hands held and their emotions touched and give them the gospel straight from the pages of Scripture. He would create confusion, upset, and would, most likely, eventually lose his 'job'.
So instead, they walk in, week after week, and give a gentle sermon that reins in his congregation for the next week. It keeps them in their 'christian' persona just enough to ensure they don't turn on each other. It restrains them from living in complete sin. It slows them down, settles them a bit, and lets them believe that they have been stretched as 'christians'.
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