Earlier this week I attended a Christmas performance at a local school, and the school had invited a local pastor to deliver a message. The pastor began, as is pretty standard when speaking to an unfamiliar gathering, with an introduction in which he said, "Since I am a handsome man, I am already married."
In the moment I didn't think too much of it, other than it being a really poor effort at humor. Some people are funny, some are not, and when the not funny people try to be funny it usually doesn't end well. It became funny to me though, when a few seconds later he showed a picture of Narcissus staring at his reflection and began to describe narcissism. Then it became even funnier when he transitioned from narcissism to talking about how he had been invited to preach in the United Arab Emirates all expenses paid, had visited the world's only seven star hotel, and had seen the world's tallest building. The point of telling about the trip to UAE was that when he was at the tallest building in the world he saw lots of people taking selfies.
Now, I don't know this man's heart, but it really seemed to me like he was silently screaming, "Look at me! I get invited to preach in exotic places! I've seen expensive hotels! I'm somebody important! Look at me, look at me, look at me!" I can't go to Starbucks without seeing a girl or group of girls taking selfies (full disclosure: I go to Starbucks often and regularly post pictures of the ways my name is misspelled on my Starbucks cup). The story about traveling to UAE seemed completely unnecessary, particularly after introducing the concept of narcissism, if his objective was talking about people taking selfies.
In that moment it struck me that a lot of the sermons I've listened to recently are essentially verbal selfies, or what I'm going to start calling selfie sermons.
I listen to probably ten or more whole or partial sermons every week. The one positive of living in a city where it takes one or two hours to travel anywhere is that I have lots of time to listen to sermons and podcasts while I'm going around town. I intentionally listen to both good and bad sermons, for there is much to learn from both. One of the chief characteristics of the bad sermons is that the preacher preaches himself rather than Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected for the forgiveness of sins.
The standard practice in the typical American evangelical church today seems to be for the pastor to begin with a story about himself, maybe read a few verses of Scripture, then give a list of principles that the listeners need to follow, using stories about himself to illustrate every point.
Like people usually take selfies when they look their best or when they're doing something they want to boast about, the stories the preacher shares are carefully crafted to make himself the hero and the example to be followed. Of course the preachers will occasionally throw in a story about a time they failed or did something stupid to show how human they are, but even then the attention is on the preacher, and he's still only sharing what he chooses to share. He's still presenting the image of himself that he wants people to see.
Last month I attended a meeting where a different preacher began by saying that all three of his children prayed to receive Christ at a young age because he prayed for them and didn't allow them to take communion until they professed faith. He explicitly said they came to faith because he did those things. Then he proceeded to tell his family's story. His son later turned from the faith and lived in open rebellion against God. The same son was then diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. He and his wife clung to an out-of-context Bible verse believing that he would live. The son was miraculously cured through an experimental treatment and later came back to the faith. His closing message was that the women in the audience who have wayward or sick children should keep praying for their children because God keeps his promises.
The entire message was about himself. He made himself the hero. He made himself the example. He even attempted to make his experiences normative for all believers, as in, "Do what I did and you'll get the same results."
It would have been a dereliction of duty for a pastor to deliver that message to an audience of all Christians. The great tragedy of this particular meeting was that there was a Hindu woman in attendance who openly stated before the meeting that she wasn't a Christian. And in what could have been the only time in her life that she'll sit and listen to a Christian preacher speak, she heard not about Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected for sins, that forgiveness of sins and eternal life are available if she would only repent and believe. No, she heard about the life of the preacher.
The instruction for pastors in Scripture is clear - we are to preach Christ. We do not preach ourselves, we preach Christ and him crucified. We are to deliver of first importance, as Paul did in Corinth, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. We preach Christ from all the Scriptures. The namesake of this blog is Luke 24 where Jesus himself said that the Scriptures are about him.
Can I challenge you, dear readers, to do something? Listen to your pastor's sermons over the next few weeks and ask yourself this question: Is he preaching Christ crucified and resurrected for the forgiveness of sins or preaching himself? Am I learning more about Jesus or more about the pastor?
Here's the thing - your pastor is a sinner. Just like you he's a great sinner in need of a great Savior, and Jesus is that Savior. There's a time and a place for you to learn about your pastor's life (and hopefully you're in a church where you can actually spend time with your pastor). The sermon time is not that time. The sermon is the time for him to proclaim Christ. If your pastor is preaching himself, please leave and find a church where the pastor will be faithful to his role as an under-shepherd of Christ.
We ought not give narcissists an opportunity to promote themselves with selfie sermons. Nothing less than your soul and the souls of those around is at stake.
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