Downloading Sermons
March 24, 2008 Dr. Thomas Blackaby has an essay up at SermonCentral.com entitled, "Pastors: Be Shepherds, Not Sheep." In it, he takes pastors to task:
Instead of leading their people to find the heart and mind of God for their own congregations, some pastors seek to copy other “more successful” congregations that have blown past the norm, set new standards, and developed innovative approaches for reaching their communities. These churches have successfully marketed their strategies, and multiple thousands of other churches around the world have bought into their techniques and methodologies. We love to buy other people’s techniques because it means we don’t actually have to come up with our own. We don’t have to do the hard work of going before the Lord on bended knee or going without to fast and pray to seek the heart and mind of our Master. We can open a book or watch a DVD and, poof! There it is already prepared for us!
I've been trying to have this conversation with our church 'leadership' for over a year. Let's just say that hasn't gone so well for me. I'm still grieving. But this essay can't be so easily dismissed. This isn't some ticked-off anonymous cook at a homeless shelter who just doesn't get it. This is a serious piece of work from a serious writer who is part of a well known and influential ministry. The irony of it being posted on Sermon Central was, well - I started laughing as I was reading it. As I reflect on it, though, it just seems perfect - where else are you going to reach those pastors who are downloading their sermon each week? What Sermon Central's corporate masters think of it, though, one can only guess.
Dr. Blackaby's contention is that pastors have gone from being shepherds to being sheep - that is, they are following other churches, other pastors, other 'models' of church instead of doing the hard work of prayer and fasting to seek and find the will and presence and power of God. Mr. Blackaby goes on to say that there are four reasons why pastors have become sheep instead of shepherds:
1-) Many pastors have not seen a model of a God-seeking pastor in their formative years.
2-) Some pastors see their ministry as a job that they get paid for, rather than a calling from Christ.
3-) Some pastors have succumbed to the pressures of their congregation to look like all the other churches.
4-) Pastors simply do not have the time, nor do they particularly want to pay the price personally to seek the Lord.
There's a lot I could say about any one of these points but I doubt I could say it as well as Dr. Blackaby does. But did you get that first one? I mean - really - did you get that? I got my ears boxed for saying exactly what he did and it's just this: It's been so long since we've seen a real man of God that most of us don't know what it looks like anymore. I say most of us because those men are out there. There are those men out there pastoring churches, putting their hearts on the line week after week for their congregations, honestly trying to do the right thing. Yet they get so caught up in the politics and the power plays and the bullshit and the mundane insanity of running the business end of a church that God gets what's left over and that's the way it is, boys and girls. And I want to take Mr. Blackaby to task for not saying that we - those nameless, faceless 'sheep' - bear some responsibility for this sad state of affairs. But you sit in church on Sunday morning, and realize that it bears no relevance to your life on Monday morning, and what on earth are you going to do? How are you going to go against the power structures that are already in place? Do you really want to go down that road? Do you really want to fight a battle for control - the very thing that breaks your heart in the first place? Or would you rather just quietly leave and, if you do, what's the alternative? What is life like after church, besides a great, big, frightening unknown? I want to challenge Mr. Blackaby to address all of this but, as I think about what he's said, realize that he can't. No-one can walk that road for us. In the end, you live and work with what you have, and compromise what you know in your heart is the very heart of God, or you leave. No, the next church down the road isn't any better, but there's always a another way. The hard way. The narrow way.
But then, what do I know? After all, the problem is me.
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Reader Comments (13)
Easter Sunday morning. The most inspiring week of the year and they couldn't come up with a sermon of their own. I'm so glad I wasn't there. This is the same church where I spent several years being told by senior "leadership", "If I could have my way, you'd be allowed to..., but the church's policy is..."
I've held the view for some time now that a 'creative arts team' is only as creative as its most conservative member. And I've come to understand that that applies to most things in church. Mission, passion, integrity, everything.
I've repeatedly seen churches, in the interim period between senior pastor hires, go totally into hibernation because 'we want the new pastor to be able to implement his vision'. Which, when the time comes, doesn't exist. We just end up with one more product of the muppet factory telling us not to take any chances.
I finally came to the place where I stopped asking permission and just started doing what I knew was right. Got told off a bunch of times and then fired.
I am so freakin' glad I did.
Why does staying and working with what you have mean compromising the heart of God? If you keep living with them and patiently trying to model the heart of God for them, despite their stubbornness or resistance ... well, how is that a compromise?
We are, indeed, called to be involved in the evaluation of the church so that we move closer to Jesus' call at the end of Matthew: 'teach them to obey everything I have commanded you.' If we believe we are doing this, then we are following the command.
in+
I spent the first half of my life in church and never understood, never experienced the simple joy of Christ's sacrifice, of loving and serving. I'm so grateful that I got a second chance. I'm grateful for my husband's addiction which brought us..finally...to this place of restoration and grace.
Joanee - I think it's easy for us to harp on the pastor and, frankly, pastors get enough of that without me carrying on. I just can't imagine what the excuse might be for downloading a sermon from the internet. There's just no way to justify that. And I think a lot of the really good pastors, as I said, just get bogged down in the business end of church. The expectation that a pastor must make the church grow is so unfair, also - and it takes quite a lot for them to stand against that mentality.
Anna - I do understand what you're saying - have thought a great deal about this. Every church has a few real men and women of God. They usually get asked to open the business meeting in prayer, and that's about it. If the powers that be don't see a model for servant leadership in the crucified Christ, they won't see it in you or I. They just won't see it. And when I look at the life of Christ it seems that we can't be Christ-like and not confront the Pharisees. (Does that answer your question?)
dsheff - Indeed.
johnnyc - A man after my own heart. At our church, though, questioning the whole concept of hillsong worship gets your head ripped off. I puzzled over this for some time until I realized that the emotional attachment people have to that music is, in fact, what they are worshipping. Unhealthy? Sinful? Oh yeah - but just try and say something and watch the fireworks.
Vikki - Sometimes it's so real it hurts. Thanks for this...
Many of these songs reinforce the healing power of God which I think we can agree is real...but it doesn't usually happen when I am staring up at the projection screen. It happens when we look to the left and right to take in and take on the burdens of the weary travelers worshiping with us. Together, this leads people to follow for, what I believe to be, selfish reasons. Heck, even living for my own salvation is a selfish reason.
There are songs, fortunately, that do emphasize the call for social justice and obedience! These are what you need as ammunition when you critique the Hillsongs, the Tomlins etc. One that I love is by Bob Stromberg "Where Justice Rolls Down." A version of Peder Eide is fairly popular (http://www.pedereide.com/index.asp?mailingID=&pageID=1).
It might be nice to hear other song suggestions from your readers.
I think that answers my question, yes. The comparison to how Jesus treated the Pharisees did occur to me after I had posted. And I am reminded of John 9:41, where Jesus points out that the difference between a simple broken person (like the people at your homeless shelter?) and a broken Pharisee is that the latter denies their blindness. So the "confront them until I get kicked out" approach makes sense to me, although I would still apply it cautiously.
When it comes to downloading sermons, "improving" music, etc. I think the problem isn't the imitation itself. The problem is when people don't recognize real spiritual growth, and so substitute some external standard of "success" to be sought after. (The other half of the problem is that you have to know people pretty well to know what they need; making assumptions about what they need for spiritual growth doesn't cut it.)
So, for example, if a pastor just really has a hard time with words, has no particular gift for preaching, then he can still be a good shepherd if he downloads sermons that say what he knows his flock needs to hear, and says it better than he can.
Anna - There's a lot of wisdom in what you just said. I'm going to be thinking about that for a few days. One question that comes to mind - why don't we recognize real spiritual growth? I agree with you - we don't - I'm just not sure why... except maybe we haven't experienced if for ourselves... hmmmmm.... thinking....
It could be that songwriters encounter such a 'thin place' when they create, but that environment may not resemble that of the congregation that sings the song on Sunday. In some ways it is too bad that music is so pervasive in worship because it can only be created by those with 'the gift.' That makes the follower church (isn't that what started this thread?) borrow from or imitate those with the gifts.
There, actually, is an artist that has become known for improvising beautiful music 'in the moment' of worship: Ken Medema. Ken is a remarkable man of God (http://www.kenmedema.com/index.asp). He would be a good study for worship leaders who are willing to learn how to use music to capture "who God is and what he's doing in our lives - and in the life of our church and our world".
in+
this helps me a lot in trying to understand the role of the pastor...
Spiritual growth is a subtle thing. While I think it usually involves some deep-down emotions, it's frankly really easy to confuse emotions in a spiritual setting with spiritual growth. And what causes spiritual growth in one person may or may not add to the spiritual growth of another. So yes, you probably need to experience spiritual growth before you will be able to recognize it. But even if you have experienced some genuine spiritual growth yourself, that doesn't guarantee that you will be able to recognize it correctly all the time. I think maybe it takes not just growth but actual spiritual maturity to be able to recognize it most of the time.