Hell's Disappearing Act

J. C. Ryle—The watchman who keeps silent when he sees a fire is guilty of gross neglect. The doctor who tells us we are getting well when we are dying is a false friend, and the minister who keeps back hell from his people in his sermons is neither a faithful nor a charitable man.

Hell has disappeared! Hell has been sanitized from the modern theological mind. Hell has become an off limits message for most pulpits. The sheep have either stated so publically to the other sheep or the sheep have privately inferred to the shepherd that this is not what they want to hear. The reasoning of the sheep goes in this manner, “We are so stressed out! We feel the pressure of moving from pasture to pasture. We are having babies and they are demanding our time. We are worried that the drought is going to wither and destroy all the grass. We have a shepherd who is always trying to lead us where we don’t want to go. The last things we want to hear about are ravenous wolves, bad waterholes, poisonous grass, and worrisome flies that will drive us mad. ”

Some shepherds have a tailor made view about this too. They say, “Keep it upbeat! Tell the sheep about the still waters, about the overrunning cups, and the mercy that chases the sheep. You will kill the flock with the negative message.” The shepherd conferences and confabs all promote greener pastures, fences that never need repairing, pure waterholes, and a place without wolves. However, this is a fantasy land for shepherds. A shepherd always will contend with sub-par grass, fences that get holes in them, watering spots that become contaminated, and predators that are always licking their chops.

The startling question that I have for you is this: When was the last time you heard a sermon on Hell that jolted you from your reverie of pursuing the American Dream? If it has been recently, you need to thank God that someone was willing to put this in front of you. If you cannot remember, you need to ask God to press it into the pastor’s mind with such force that he has to preach this troubling, terrifying message to the flock.

Despite the fact that hell has disappeared from the American pulpit does not make its existence any less true. In his book, No Place for Truth: Or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology?, author David Wells writes about the truth that used to work and “. . . once watered the evangelical soul is now dammed by a worldliness that many fail to recognize as worldliness because of the cultural innocence with which it presents itself. . . . We now have less biblical fidelity, less interest in truth, less seriousness, less depth, and less capacity to speak the Word of God to our own generation in a way that offers an alternative to what it already thinks.”

When Hell disappears, the Church loses her sense of direction. The presence of Hell out to motivate evangelism, it should encourage a devotion to God, it should heighten the desire for holiness, and it should keep us in a place of individual spiritual evaluation. The very existence of Hell places a sense of personal responsibility on every person who calls themselves a Christian. We are to give ourselves to actions, attitudes, and aptitudes that are distinctly Word-driven. Our directions come from the Bible not from the talking heads.

As Hell disappears from the landscape of the pulpit, worldliness gets a chokehold on the Church to such a degree that those who come go and go in houses of worship have very little difference in their actions, attitudes, and thinking patterns as the worldlings they view as lost. Perhaps it has to be considered that the greatest mission field in America is not outside the Church but inside the Church. But with the exit of Hell, shame and guilt are removed from the equation in the human heart although both of these emotions are distinctly God-given to us for a reason. When Hell is gone, sin is reduced to self-esteem issues that can be fixed by talking through them or better yet, dismissing it totally. I can only wonder how many people sit on pews that have never been converted but are really self-deceived and think that they are safe and saved.

It has become popular in our society to laugh at and mock those who do proclaim that there will be such a place as Hell. The mockers cast anyone who dares to venture into the subject matter as a “fire and brimstone” preacher. We are so beyond that they contend. We are so educated beyond that they intone. We are so advanced beyond that idea they stutter. But the fact remains that one’s opinion about what God has clearly stipulated in His Word is unchanging regardless of what a man thinks or does about it. This includes the matters of how educated, how financially secure, or how socially acceptable he may be, truth is unchanging.

A few weeks ago, I again found a compelling and pressing need to again preach about Hell. Personally for me it is always a challenge to preach about Hell. The reason is because I do know about the pressures and stresses that are facing people every single day of their lives and a message about Hell is always very heavy and ominous. But the fact remains that if I help people manage their stress, their finances, their marriages but they end up in Hell, of what use was the “spiritual” advice. While the message was loaded with Bible, I want to share with you a couple of the illustrations that I used.

A number of years ago, a pastor was summoned to the bedside of a dying man from his church. When he entered the room, the man extended his hand and with deep emotion said, “I am dying and you never warned me of the state I was in. You did not tell me about the danger that I was going to face. You never told me I was neglecting the salvation of my own soul!”

The pastor, taken aback, said, “Oh no, my brother, I took every reasonable opportunity to talk to you about spiritual matters and the actions of the church and the importance of living for God.”

The man replied back, “Yes that is true. You did do those things. But that was not enough. You never came close to me and closed the door and took me by the collar of my coat and told me I was unconverted and that if I died in this state I would be lost. And now I am dying and I will be lost forever because you were too soft in your approach.”

It is told that this had such a huge effect on that pastor that from then on he went about his task with an urgency and fear for the souls of man.

I am aware that the majority of readers of this blog are ministers, so my question to you is this: When was the last time you preached a message on Hell? When was the last time that you preached a message on Hell and you were so moved by it that tears marked your words? Can you pay the price to become a man who preaches with conviction?

I concluded with a story told to me by one of the men who attends our church. Hoyd Sanders is a retired USAF fire chief who for forty years worked as a fire-fighter literally all over the world.

Several months ago, Brother Sanders started talking to me about some of his experiences with fires that he had been involved in putting out. He told me about a time in January, 1965 when he tried to help a lieutenant get out of a fire.

A fire broke out in a large building and the Air Force firemen showed up to put it out. When they got there, a portion of the building on one end was engulfed with fire. They soon discovered that there was a lieutenant in the building but his escape had been blocked by the fire. So he turned around and started running toward the end of the building where the fire had not progressed to find another exit. The bad part was that there weren’t any alternative exits. By the time the lieutenant discovered this, the fire had caught up with him. He ran to a window and about that time Brother Sanders saw him running toward the window and decided he would go and try to break it so the guy could escape. The only problem was that there bars covering the window and he could not rip them away from the window casing. Furthermore when he reached up to grab the bars on the window they were so hot he could not hold on to them.

This man was on the other side of the window and Brother Sanders said he could see the fire racing up behind the man but he could not escape nor could he be rescued. Brother Sanders told me that in just seconds he could see the man’s ears literally melting off the sides of his head. He could hear his screams pouring out of his mouth. But the part that still haunts him to this day and he told me that rarely does a week go by that he does not see that man’s eyes. . . . those horrible, terror, pain-filled eyes pleading with him to get him out of that fire. . . . .

Jude. . . said it like this. . . . others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire.

Pastor, preacher, evangelist. . . You have a job to do this weekend when you get into that pulpit! Are you going to manage the stress, massage the egos, or pull them out of the fire????

Moonshine Whiskey and the Holy Ghost

My mind and thoughts have been drawn back to old-time Pentecostal experiences in the last week. Last night (8/30/10) even provoked those thoughts even more. Being part of the Alabama District UPCI, I belong to Section 8. For the last couple of years the sectional ministers will meet in a central location at a restaurant and spend some time eating and fellowshipin’ as they say.

Last night, we had a group of about 20 or so and the conversation turned toward the dramatic conversions of some of the ministers. It is always amazing to listen to some of the stories of God’s dramatic grace pulling debauched sinners out of some of the most dreadful situations. One of the men, Jerome Owens, hails from the north Alabama, north Mississippi, and south Tennessee regions. As the stories continued, we continued to drift back in time to the 1940’s and 1950’s as the Pentecostal experience trekked its way across the south.

We have come a long, long way from our roots which is not all bad but it has definitely robbed us of some of the traditions and experiences that made the Pentecostal movement grow in the early days. In earlier times, Pentecostals were made up mostly of poor working folks who barely had enough resources to make it from week to week. They were common laborers, a lot of farmers, share-croppers, and various other low-end spectrum sorts of situations. But despite the hardships, their whole lives seem to revolve around God, His Word, and the church. The church was literally the connecting point both spiritually and socially for these people.

During those times, it seemed as if a perpetual campmeeting kind of atmosphere marked these churches. They would build what is commonly called brush arbors which were more of a pole barn kind of apparatus. On the corners and the sides of the brush arbor were posts that usually were constructed out of trees that had been cut down. Then a loose network of branches would be placed on top of the contraption and then added to the top of this would be brush, pine straw, and leaves to form a primitive roof. If there was a nearby sawmill, they would take sawdust and scatter it about the floor of the arbor. Then makeshift pews would be constructed with smaller blocks of wood and coarse wooden planks. More than one worshiper found out that those pews had to be carefully and gingerly navigated so as to save an important part of the anatomy and prevent it from being seriously pinched.

Occasionally when an outburst came from those worshipers in these pews, it wasn’t the Spirit that motivated it but rather a painful injury caused by shifting boards and so forth. Besides the sawdust, the primitive meeting place, and the treacherous “pews” during the spring, summer, and fall of the year there was a constant battle with bugs. Skeeters and moths seemed to enjoy the revival meetings as much as the worshipers.

However, when the arbors would be set up, some of the unconverted heathens would show up to watch the show from the perimeters. More than one preacher had to contend with catcalls, rotten fruit and vegetables being thrown at them.

Occasionally a preacher would have to contend an angry husband whose wife had gotten in the church and the husband would accuse the preacher of “brainwashing” his wife because of the dramatic change that had taken place in her life. On even rarer occasions, some of the local rednecks would gather up a snake and toss it up on the pulpit while the preacher was preaching. But in the midst of all of the ridicule and scorn heaped on these poor people their faith in the Lord sustained them and the church grew!

Last night, my father-in-law started talking about some of the moonshiners and whiskey runners that came into the church during the ‘40’s and ‘50’s. In fact, if you have ever heard of Buford Pusser the sheriff who walked tall, this is where my father-in-law grew up. McNairy County with towns like Selmer and Adamsville, Tennessee were just spots in the road but the revival fires burned large in these little burgs. On a side note, Buford Pusser is buried in the same cemetery where my father-in-law’s parents were laid to rest.

He told us a story about a fellow who was running moonshine whiskey in a gas truck. He had three compartments in the storage tank. One was for high-grade gasoline, the other was for mid-grade gasoline, and the third compartment was for moonshine whiskey. He did well selling gas and whiskey. The folks knew when they saw him coming that if they had a container, could fill it up with moonshine. It was as clear as water but packed a 180 proof kick to it. Those fellows would get their jugs filled up and then they would drink it straight out of Mason jars and within just a short period of time would be rousing, singing, fussing, raging, funny, and fighting drunk.

The problem with this fellow was that some of his family got in the Pentecostal church and they started praying for him. The more they prayed the more under conviction he would get. The Lord would talk to him while he was driving his truck selling gas and making other special deliveries. One night he had as much as he could stand and went to church and ended up being filled with the Holy Ghost. He quit selling moonshine much to the chagrin of his regular customers and the next thing, God called him into the ministry. For years he pastored a church after the Lord delivered him. He passed away a number of years ago but his dramatic conversion had a huge impact on a little community in Tennessee.

He told us another story about a young man who grew up in the home of a moonshiner. This young man knew what it was like to run from the Revenuers as they called them back in the day and lived a young life very dangerously close to the edge. One night he went to a revival meeting, more out of curiosity and boredom than anything else. He had not reckoned on what would happen to him before he went. It wasn’t too long into the service that with the joyous singing, heart-felt praying, and vibrant worship that the Lord started pulling at him. The preacher preached a soul-stirring message and the young man found his way to the altar and ended up receiving the Holy Ghost and being baptized.

But to complicate matters, he had some buddies that weren’t real happy with the change they saw in this young man. So one afternoon they persuaded him to go with them with the promise that later on in the day they would take him to church. What the young man did not know was that in the trunk of the car they had some moonshine. After getting out on the road, they all started drinking and picking at this young man and ridiculing him. For a great while, he managed to resist them but after all of their wicked influence finally broke him down and he started drinking. He got uproariously drunk and the devils’ brood then decided they would take him to the brush arbor revival.

They made a big show when they pulled up with him, got him out of the car, and leaned him up against the car. All of the worshipers under the brush arbor looked out and saw him in that condition and their hearts were smitten with grief. Almost the whole congregation went to their knees and started praying for him. He drunkenly watched it all leaning up against the car. He would later tell that the Lord spoke directly to him and said, “Son, you have to make up your mind what you are going to do but you can’t take a step until you do.” The young man decided that he would push off from the car and walk away. However, when he shoved his hands off the car, his feet were locked to the ground and he fell straight forward into the dirt. He ended up with a mouthful of dirt and a bloody nose and abraded face but some of the good saints saw it all take place and walked out to where he was. When they rolled him over, he told the Lord that he would do everything He wanted him to do.

The young man prayed through right there on the ground and the Lord dramatically refueled his soul. This young man would later acknowledge a call to the ministry and pastored a church the rest of his life also.

These dramatic conversions are what make the experience of Pentecost so powerful and compelling. The church I am serving also has its share of incredible stories of how people so lost and down and out were literally scooped up and delivered. We can’t afford to lose our message or forget our heritage. . .

Places Where Worlds Are Moved

Last week, I got a series of twitter messages that brought some inspiration for this post. They are as follow:

• The no heat/AC garage storage room where my dad birthed a 1,000 soul revival at 5AM daily 1:42 PM Aug 20th via Twitter for iPhone

• The financial cost? Zero! The killing the flesh cost? Staggering. Went on for 20 years. 1:45 PM Aug 20th via Twitter for iPhone

• I looked inside that tiny hot closet yesterday and it felt like I was standing in front of a burning bush. Take off your shoes 1:48 PM Aug 20th via Twitter for iPhone

• His altar was a knee high floor fan with a blanket on top and a quilt on the floor. When Zion travails. Let's have another planning session 1:50 PM Aug 20th via Twitter for iPhone

• God, where is Elijah? He put his head between his knees into the Oriental birthing position. The effectual fervent prayer ... availeth much Friday, August 20, 2010 1:55:31 PM via Twitter for iPhone

• Planning is essential and I need help in this area. However Paul said, first of all PRAYER Friday, August 20, 2010 2:20:11 PM via Twitter for iPhone

All of these came from Pastor Jerry Dean who pastors The Pentecostals of Bossier City in Louisiana. The pictures that accompanied the first tweet:





When I read those tweets, I felt immediately convicted. Here I am the same kind of pastor, preaching the same kind of doctrine, moving in the same avenues of men, attempting to move in same realms of the Spirit. . . . minus a 5 AM prayer meeting. . . or a 6 AM prayer meeting. . . or a 7 AM prayer meeting. “Oh, I pray,” I say to myself. But confronted by a garage closet that had no heat or AC, I realize that my little prayer is so disjointed and distracted that there is no wonder that active apostolic ministry only occasionally finds its way into my life.

Brother Dean’s father, Bill, also a WW II vet, found a place to move his world in a very humble place. Try to put the majority of modern day pastors and evangelists in a little hovel like that and tell them to pray and one would hear loud protests. No carpet? No wall murals? No music? No books? No cool office? When the real facts are that the modern day apostolic church is choking on carpet, wall murals, music, books, and fancy offices. Devoid of power but “wow!” don’t we have all the nifty gadgets and tricks and the stuff? All the planning sessions in the world will only fill our churches with crowds who never experience the life-changing power of the Holy Spirit. Could it be that we are so busy pursuing cool that we have become lukewarm?

I feel the overwhelming weight of ministry. I am consumed with the busy responsibilities of the problems of people’s lives. I feel the financial pressures of embarking on a building program while trying to juggle our responsibilities to our Foreign Missionaries and Home Missionaries who need our money too. I feel the grip of evil on the families in the church I pastor. I stay awake at night worrying and wrestling with their challenges. Sometimes I am awakened at night with the same burdens for the people. I wonder at the fits and starts of those who cannot make up their mind as to whether or not God is big enough to work out the tangled webs they weave. I feel the pressure of preaching holiness to a generation that does not want to hear my cry for separation from the world. I feel the pressure of feeling like I am too mean and too authoritative and too dictatorial while at the same time knowing the terror of the Lord and trying to persuade them as Paul did.

But I have to confess that I am also rigorously busy trying to get the best out of both worlds—my material world and God’s spiritual world. I want the big house in the gated community, the fancy car(s) in the garage, the big bank account, the nifty executive suite of an office, the honor and respect of the community AND a walloping apostolic church where people are delivered, the prophet’s mantle, a command of the Scriptures, and a powerful prayer life. See. . . the best of both worlds. . .

Then the jolt comes, I see Brother Dean’s father’s prayer closet in a garage via twitter. Another jolt comes as I look at a rock that Tim Kelley got for me from G. A. Mangun’s memorial service. Another shock comes when I read the scribbled words in J. T. Pugh’s book “The Wisdom and the Power of the Cross” that he personally addressed to me back in 1995. Still another jolt comes when I look at the mantle that I received in the Columbus, Ohio General Conference hanging on a towel rod in my study. It will never happen until I can find a closet of prayer.

When Brother Dean’s twitter came across last week, for once in about a 1000 times, TECHNOLOGY was used by the Spirit and it smote my heart! I felt so humbled. . . I felt so convicted. . . I felt so average. . . I felt so lukewarm. . . To my crowd and under (I am 43) the old men are leaving us! Note it . . . in the last few years we have lost N. A. Urshan, E. L. and Nona Freeman, T. W. Barnes, J. T. Pugh, and most recently G. A. Mangun. . . Who will replace them? They were men who prayed earnestly and moved forward in the place of prayer. Prayer mattered to them. . . it doesn't matter as much to us because we fall for the snare of superficial substitutes.

So I prayed. . . and prayed. . . and prayed. . . maybe this is a new beginning. . .

Gracious God, forgive us of our backslidings from our closets. Forgive us of thinking that we can manage and manipulate true spiritual revival with weak, human, beggarly techniques. Forgive us for getting so exalted with our education, our gadgets, our stuff, our things, and our money. Please forgive us for not being able to get on our knees and cry out for You to invade our churches, one more time. Forgive us for loading our bookshelves with books so we look like we are in touch and are smart. Gracious God, forgive us of our backslidings from our closets.

Gracious God, please forgive us for making ministry a profession instead of calling. Forgive us for our petty competitions and ceaseless bickering that does nothing but put little scorecards in our spirits that keep getting longer and longer. Please, God, help us forget the offenses and the little slights for it is eating our passion and our dreams and our visions away. . .

Great God, please wash us from the dirtiness of our human ambition and elevate us to a place where we are willing to sweat as we tug our Crosses. Help us to quit glorying in how big our crowds are and how big the budget is and how good the sermons are. Pull that kind of glory out of us and put the glory of the Cross in us. Help us to find comfort in our crosses and let those crosses put us in closets, just like the one that Brother Dean has shared with us. Please pull all the hurt from our heart no matter where it came from whether it was from district boards, church boards, or just regular folks. It can even be the disappointments with where we are and what we have done, please pull all of that stuff out of us! We know that all of that stuff only makes us fresh targets for bitterness and revenge and it paralyzes Your Spirit in us. Gracious God, please, please forgive us of our backslidings from our closets.

Savior, Redeemer, Shepherd, when You are finished cleansing us all the filthiness of the flesh, would You please just show up one more time in our places of worship on Sunday? Can You please brush us one more time with the innocence of that first anointing that came to us in the early years? Just once more, Lord, move through your men in America. We are fragile, weak, and sometimes confused vessels but way down deep we still feel the remnants of that first calling, that first burst of strength that came from another world, and even though it has been so long ago, we remember. . . The glory may have departed but we well remember what it was like so long ago. Gracious God, forgive us of our backslidings from our closets.

Lord, it isn’t just for our sakes that we are pleading with You about this restoration of the closet. It is for the mostly good folks who come every week to a place of worship. They need You just as badly as I do. So as I stumble to my closet, I am sure that You will be there! Amen. . .

A Professor Named Perini

The attorney and author, Scott Turow, wrote a book about his free-fall drop into Harvard Law School and how he spent those challenging three years there. In that ordeal, there was a professor named Perini that all of the ‘one L’ (first year) students loved to hate. Perini was one quarter smart-aleck, one quarter whiner, one quarter bulldog, and one quarter warm human being. His classes were immersed in the so-called Socriatic method of teaching which basically can be summed up as the madness of the survival of the fittest in an academic setting. The student who had the great graces and academic prowess to answer correctly was exalted to the levels of Greek mythological figures. Those who were wrong were banished to the trash bins of hopeless failure and rarely were allowed to redeem themselves among their peers and professors because Perini made sure the news of their demise travelled to the four corners of HLS.

Perini, the half-man and half-beast, was intimidating, sarcastic, anger-inducing but also thought-provoking and character building. Turow was very clear that this radical figure shaped him in a great way and all of the abuse he hurled on his ‘one L’ class actually fostered some very valuable things in him.

Most of us, if we are willing to admit it, have had to entertain more than one Perini in our lives. They can be nasty and condescending and diluted with the short-man’s syndrome but in reality their passage in our lives is quite beneficial for us.

You will have to deal with difficult people until you pass on, so get used to it. No matter what geographical location you find yourself in, there is always a Perini nearby. I have discovered that there are rich and poor Perini’s, educated and uneducated Perini’s, professional and unprofessional Perini’s; in fact every cut of life has a Perini in the midst. So how do you deal with a Perini?

One of the most important things to remember is that somewhere in the past something has devastated their world. They have been so hurt by life that instead of the painful circumstance shaping them through the nobility of their calling (whatever it may be) it has hardened them through bitterness and a desire for revenge. Since they can’t get to the situation to fix it, you are in their path and so they will fix you. The painful circumstances can be poor financial decisions, marriages that have collapsed, family squabbles, or a life that has not turned out as they desired it to. These are the contributing factors as to why they may treat others as they do.

Another important thing to remember about Perini is not to take their ill-treatment of you personal. Consider some of the tormenting Perini’s you have had to deal with over the years and hopefully you have come to realize that they treat everyone with the same sense of aloof condescension that you have had to endure from them. As time passes, if you work at it, you will come to see Perini through eyes of compassion instead of disdain. This is where we benefit from Perini, he can pull a nobleness out of us that otherwise would be undiscovered. Furthermore, as time continues to march on, it very well could be that Perini will soon share with you the things in life that has put him behind the eight-ball and your enemy has been converted to a friend.

Perhaps another thing to note about Perini is that their position has placed them in a capacity beyond their pay-grade. This is especially true if Perini is in a place of authority. Authority becomes a tool of added destruction for them to use on others. Take a look at Moses and the incident at the burning bush when he was commanded by God to toss his staff on the ground. Suddenly it became a venomous beast of a serpent, the principle in this speaks well—every rod of authority has a snake in it. Those who hold the rods of authority must know how to use it because if they don’t, it can harm them and others.

Of crucial importance is that you do not let Perini turn you into Perini. Perini has a wicked wand in his hand and he will turn you into a withering critic also if you are not constantly on guard. Perini pecks on you and then you go peck on somebody else. Because Perini is so bent by his negative attitude, he can get you to believe everything he says and then you have to get your pound of flesh from someone else.

Don’t let Perini make you sarcastic and cynical. He will do his best to destroy you with worry and intimidation but don’t give in to him. He will try to stifle your dreams and your vision but don’t let him do that either. Keep your eye on your responsibilities and your obligations and you will either graduate from his clutches or outlive his criticism. . . you have to just keep on moving. Be on the watch for Perini, he will be found at every cross-walk of life.

Some Books on Preaching--Part 1

A couple of weeks ago, we visited the aspect of the responsibilities of those who are listening to preaching and how important it is to literally hear what is being preached. What is being preached is a back and forth between the pulpit and the congregation, it is to be a living moment of worship. However, I think it is absolutely of crucial importance that those who do preach constantly work toward improving both the mechanics of preaching—the wording, the presentation, and so forth—and the spiritual aspect of preaching—private prayer, personal holiness, and inner hunger for God and the Word.

I have a responsibility to do everything in my power to make preaching/teaching effective. Sometimes the content of the message can be very heavy and convicting. It is imperative that the heart of the preacher be clear and free of the prejudices, offenses of life, and pressure of the times so he does not soil what God is intending to get across to the church. This huge burden of personal holiness, prayer, and purity can be weighty but embracing these qualities only makes the message that much more powerful and provoking.

As far as the mechanics of preaching, as technology has advanced, there are massive resources that are available to the man who is diligent in looking for them. MP3 sermons, homiletic seminars, and a host of academic resources are available to us. Despite the newer inventions of the Nook, the Kindle, and now the IPad, it is still very hard to beat a book! Preachers should read much because doing so increases our range to draw from in messages that will help. However, for those who are readers, one category that often slips under the radar and is sorely neglected as those writings that are literally on preaching.

I recommend to you a book written by Jim Shaddix entitled The Passion Driven Sermon—Changing the Way Pastors Preach and Congregations Listen. There is an urge for men not to be pulpiteers but rather to take the Word and use it in a very powerful way that causes a confidence to rise in the Word of God and not the man who is preaching. We all have our heroes but when their personality overshadows the power of the Word—biblical preaching suffers. In fact, I am no longer sure it falls in the category of true biblical preaching when the overriding personality of the preacher supersedes what is being preached.

Shaddix tells a story in the opening chapter about a little country church that he served in as an assistant. He remembered a brewing bitterness in the soul of the pastor who felt like that this church was far beneath his abilities. One Sunday, he allowed the bitterness to overtake him and the frustrations and aggravations of congregational life had so sapped him that he got up in the pulpit on that Sunday and said, “I don’t have a Word from the Lord this week so we shall dismiss and go home.” Shaddix admits his own youthful immaturity but he writes that he was appalled at this man’s admission. Shaddix thought to himself that here in his hands was a Bible that was loaded with passages and that somewhere in that vast storehouse, there was something to render effectively to this group of worshipers. He said that on that day he made a commitment to always have a familiarity with Scripture so that he would have something to preach.

While this may seem far-fetched, I am certain that most preachers at some point will have the same feelings concerning preaching to a bickering, unwieldy, and discouraged flock. You would really rather choose to send the folks home instead of wading through the dilemma of preaching. However, you will soon learn that more often than not, the longer you are in the ministry, the more you work out of the responsibility of your calling than the inspiration of your calling.

Shaddix comes from three angles with his encouragement to preach. Passion-Driven Scripturology which is a passionate hunger for the study of the Word. Passion-Driven Shepherdology which is ministry that works toward the church and not toward entertainment and man-centered worship. A lot of preaching in our generation at large is good stuff. The greater question: Is it God-stuff??? There is a big difference between good stuff and God stuff! Passion-Driven Sermonology focuses in on the delivery of the message that one is to preach. How serious a man is about Scripture and how serious he is about the church makes the delivery of the message!

This book is a strong encouragement to get away from so much “life-application” sermons that give ten steps to a better marriage or fifty-five ways to improve your self-esteem. All of these kinds of messages have a bent toward humanistic pragmatism that leaves the glory of God in the proverbial dust. Life application messages may be relevant but there are a lot of motivational speakers who are relevant too. Why lower the Word into the mud of human effort when we can exalt God with Word-driven preaching?

The Bible is filled with incredible things to preach to churches we just have to make a concentrated effort to mine those treasures out. This book will be a motivational tool that you might need to jump-start your inspiration for preaching. Let me remind you of Thomas Manton who preached 65 sermons from Hebrews 11 and from Psalm 119 pulled one-hundred and ninety-one sermons from that acre of diamonds!

God Bless,
PH

When Church Leaders Fall--Part 4--Final Thoughts

John Owen—If a man teach uprightly and walk crookedly more, will fall down in the night of his life than he built in the day of his doctrine.

Several years ago, I found a book in another Barnes and Noble in Tallahassee, Florida while Teresa and I were on a spring break trip with our kids. Few books have troubled me more, in fact I cannot think of one that ranks as its equal, it was entitled Our Fathers by David France. It chronicled the abuses by the Roman Catholic Church priests who were involved in pedophilia and the cover-ups that took place in the diocese in Boston and Los Angeles and various other places. What makes the book so troubling was the fallout that was forever created in the lives of those who had been abused. When those who are in a position of spiritual authority—no matter what church affiliation it may be—the fallout continues for generations.

While these posts have been primarily about the lessons learned when church leaders fall, the most important aspect to understand is that we do things that keeps us from being in that category. It takes place when we take care of our soul. This is where it all starts, in the dark recesses of the soul. We are either a man of honor in the heart or we are not. For those who are darkly involved, it is only a matter of time before exposure will take place.

Richard Baxter—If it be not your daily business to study your own hearts and to subdue corrupt ion and to walk with God, if you make not this a work to which you constantly tend, all will go wrong in your ministry and you will starve your hearers. We must study as hard how to live well as to how to preach well.

Make it your daily business to study your heart and then be demanding of your soul. I leave you with some ways to do this. These are ways to cultivate the growth of personal holiness in your life.

1. Know and love the Scriptures. To know the Scriptures means that you will have to read them but more than just reading them, you will need to learn how to apply them in avenues of daily living. It will not take place with a hit and miss approach, nor will it take place with small blocks of time.

2. Pray! If your prayers are lacking a punch then find some helps along the way. Praying the offensive Psalms, those which are pleading with God to take care of the enemies of the soul are useful (Ps. 54, 55, 61, etc.). Old hymn books are rich sources to motivate your praying.

3. Flee worldliness! We have to actively strike against any avenue that willingly attempts to cater to appetites that are not motivated by godliness and righteousness. The challenge of our culture is ever with us because there are a thousand and one avenues that the devil will use to introduce darkness into our spirit. Materials we read, recreation we participate in, and entertainment that consumes us are all ways the heart becomes hardened with darkness.

4. Have godly friends. Who we hang out with has a great impact on our spiritual lives also. It basically sets the tone for the direction of spiritual life. There are some who are toxic to our faith and there are others who are incredibly strengthening to us in our walk.

Until next time. . .

Thanks for reading. . .

PH

When Church Leaders Fall--Part 3

To clarify a point on this particular series of posts concerning when church leaders fall—it is not limited to immoral relationships—it can also be related to misuse of money, poorly exercised authority (either too little or not enough), doctrinal compromise, laziness, and a host of other issues. Church leaders fall when they are not actively carrying out their responsibilities and work of ministry. Generally speaking when the man is initially confronted by the maligning behavior, he will initially deny it.

Denial is a deadly form of self-slaughter. Henry Ford made that mistake after his company had been viable for a little over a decade. The things that made it great in the past were the things that drug it down in the present. Compound that with the fact that Ford began to believe his and be overcome with his own press releases. Don’t ever, ever believe what people are telling you about yourself! If you can deflect the criticism that comes to all ministers then you will have to deflect the praise that comes also. We can get caught up in great deception when we believe all of the compliments we receive and all the criticism we receive. Get a balance on that or it will ruin you. You are never as good as people think you are and you are never as bad as they think you are either.

When flattery is no longer fiction, you will be put on spiritual life-support and it won’t be long until a stumble takes you down. If our motivations are not principled, any form of success will cause a man to be corrupted in the long haul. Success does funny things to us. It makes us unbending, unyielding, and prone to mistakes. You will be overcome with the mentality of ‘just go out and do it!’ or ‘you’ve done this a thousand times, no need to continue the spiritual disciplines of prayer and so on’ and you are about half-way in the trap when you buy into that. I am glad that there are times that I am still nervous before I preach, before I am involved in the work of the church, and as I muddle through counseling sessions. Invincibility is an illusion that we all can buy into no matter if the church has 25 or 2500. You can’t do this by yourself!!!

I come to the last couple of points concerning what happened to me when one of my spiritual heroes fell. (Part 1 and Part 2.)

8. It will not be the first time that someone fell nor will it be the last time I will witness a failure. Be prepared for it!

In fact as time has passed, I have witnessed multiple failures of men who were church leaders. It is not nearly as ground-shaking as it was for me twenty years ago or so. As time has passed and the numbers have increased somewhat, it appears that the thing that contributed most to all of the failures was a prevailing sense of pride. That pride manifested itself in many different forms but two of them appeared to be prevalent. Those who thought they could control their motives and desires without the active work of the Spirit or they were increasingly absent from their home and their own church where they were called to work. Being absent from their home was not necessarily that they were taking cross-country trips but just away for various reasons.

Get used to the fact that failure is going to occur. It does not mean the Church is any less powerful, it just means that God uses the winds of the trials to expose the charlatans. We are often somewhat skewed in our thinking to believe the idea that our days are different from that of Paul. He routinely warned the Church that there were wolves among the flock, false brethren populating positions of authority, and weeds in the wheat. Why should we expect our days to be any different?

9. It made me appreciate the wall-flowers of the ministry world.

I mean by this that I quit looking for the organ grinders who had hopping monkeys. I started looking for men whose lives reflected a quiet godliness and a calm spiritual authority, men whose names never graced the marquees or the organizational flyers. I found a lot of heroes riding Shetland ponies. More than once I had to repent for my former attitude about the regular “Joe’s” of life and came to understand that they could contribute so much to my life that would be important in the years to come.

10. Every man must have a personal devotion to God.

You will find this particular thought woven through much of these blog posts. You will have to fight with your life for this time to get alone. We are by nature given to busyness and the doing part of the ministry. We can preach canned sermons, pray canned prayers, and lead canned programs and starve our souls to death.

Family problems, church problems, financial problems, and fill-in-the-blank problems will deplete your spiritual life. One man said that the bucket will leak even if nothing is being poured out of it. Maybe this series of blogs has scared you—it has me! I don’t want to fall because there is a lot of influence that God has granted to me but I am not alone in that. God has granted you an incredible amount of influence in the circle of the world where you are too! If I am not constantly dependent on the grace of God to sustain me, my life will run low.

I will have some concluding thoughts tomorrow. . . .

Thanks for reading. . .

God Bless,
PH