Whoops: Preaching to the Unchurched (3)

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.

And these Jews are at the synagogue, so these aren’t the people who claim to be religious but show up twice a year; these are the people who are there “every day” it says. Remember, the Jews have the Old Testament, so they’re trying to follow the god of the bible, but had not heard about Jesus yet.

So, what’s the problem? There’s only one word I have an issue with: “Remember.” Why? This wasn’t calling back to memory something mentioned earlier in the sermon; this was asking people to call back to memory something they were supposed to have learned earlier in life. But what if a person never learned that? Or what if they learned it but were confused, or forgot it? They’re now feeling like, “Wow, I guess I’m stupid. I don’t even know the basic stuff this guy acts like I should. I knew I didn’t belong here.”

So what’s the solution? Just omit the word “Remember.” It’s completely unnecessary.