Whoops: Preaching to the Unchurched (4)

The reason I started this blog was to try and help pastors who truly want to reach people who are far from God, but may need a little help with that. This is about the only thing I do well, so someone suggested I share ideas. — Anyway, I recently read a sermon by someone who is a great guy and great preacher and who wants to reach the lost. Yet in this sermon he made, in my opinion, some critical mistakes that would keep him from connecting with the unchurched, and may well keep them from coming back to his church. I received his permission to share some examples. — So here’s the deal…

Read the following excerpt from his sermon and see if you can spot the “mistake.” Then I’ll share with you what I saw, and how I would correct it.

The Modern equivalent of this is the person who’s religious, but doesn’t quite go all the way with it. He wants some god in his life but doesn’t want to go overboard with it. She goes to church twice a year. They give money to religious causes and definitely call themselves a Christian or someone who believes in God but they say things like: “Let’s not get fanatical with it. I don’t take all of this literally. That’s just a part of who I am; it doesn’t define me.” They say all the right things, but they only give a little money away; they won’t bring up God around certain people; it’s more of a religious ritual than a personal relationship to them …

So what’s the problem? Well, I’d assume that most of the people we want to reach would say this is the best attitude to have. The people we want to reach would say that, “Yeah, we should have God in our life, but let’s not go overboard with it. Being fanatical is not a good thing. It’s not all literal.” But this preacher is showing he assumes it’s the wrong attitude to have. It will probably surprise people that the preacher doesn’t think this is a good thing, and it may make them nervous. “Is he a religious fanatic? Has he gone overboard? I don’t want to become a religious fanatic. I don’t want to go overboard. So maybe I shouldn’t become a part of this.”

So what’s the solution? One possibility is to just way tone this down. Make it less extreme. The other option is to keep it as is, but also take a moment to relate to the unchurched in the audience, and add some explanation for them. After saying this he could have added something like, “Now, maybe some of you are thinking: ‘Wait, is that wrong? I mean, isn’t being fanatical a bad thing? Are you saying it’s good?!?’ And I understand why you think that. Because when we think of religious fanaticism we think of people bombing abortion clinics, or flying planes into skyscrapers. But that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m saying that God is not calling us to just believe in Him and go through some religious exercises. He’s calling us to full-hearted devotion. It’s kind of like marriage. No wife wants a husband who believes in the concept of marriage, but doesn’t go all the way with it. Right? A wife wants a husband who loves her with all his heart, who pours himself into their relationship. And that’s what God’s looking for as well…”