If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did.
It is a helpful suggestion, but I think it's important to guard ourselves against trying to be people-pleasers at the same time. The fact that our preaching is not drawing the type of people Jesus drew to Himself may be used as an indicator that we may need to review what kind of message we are preaching. However, it mustn't drive us to plan out our outreach only to those particular type of people. It is also important to note that simply because we draw the same type of people that Jesus drew to Himself, does not necessarily authenticate our message to be consistent with Jesus's teaching. People gather and come for all sorts of reasons, so our measuring stick must be the bible itself, not the effect of our preaching or ministry that we can visibly see.
No comments:
Post a Comment