By Brett W. Avants
Go into any 21st century American church, regardless of the denomination, and you will most likely hear a sermon, whoops, I am sorry – a message or a talk, on how to have a better marriage, how to heal broken relationships, how to have a successful life, or something like that. Every “message” in today’s church focuses on how the Bible or how Jesus can satisfy or fulfill your felt needs. I have heard many of these messages, and very early in my ministry career, I downloaded a bunch from Rick Warren and others. I read many articles and contemporary books about preaching for people’s felt needs, because that will get people in the door and keep them there until you can present the gospel in such a way that the hearers will respond. Or perhaps one of the hearers who has come into the church because of a timely and appealing series title will make friends with someone who can then give them the gospel message in their small group or over coffee at Starbucks. The problem with all of that is the gospel message is rarely if ever presented in its entirety because there is no room. Most people probably do not know the gospel message, anyway. The next series on Building a Better Life Now is coming up, and how do you fit sin, the atonement, and the cross in that? And why preach to convict someone of their sins? People leave the church over that stuff, you know. Read the rest of this entry »
