|
There was a third requirement for effective ministry today unearthed in Darius Salter's survey that disturbed me deeply. Today's successful church leaders, apparently, are dedicated to helping people enjoy the here and now rather than preparing them for the future. Or, to put it another way, what really matters in ministry today is that you focus on the temporal rather than the eternal.
This showed itself particularly in the preaching of the "successful" pastors Salter surveyed. Modern preaching, he observed, is pragmatic, need-orientated, positive, upbeat, brief, non-controversial and non-doctrinal (pp. 46, 47, 50, 51). Its general bent is illustrated in sermon titles like the following - "'The Winning Spirit,' 'How to Experience Spiritual Renewal,' 'Building the Walls of Your Life,' 'What to Do With Your Sins,' 'Authority of the Believer,' 'Back to Basics,' Making Christ at Home'" (p. 48). Successful preachers are more concerned with practical issues of the "here and now rather than the eschatological issues of forever and ever" (p. 49).
"The growing congregation," he continues, "assumes that appealing to the here-and-now needs of persons will be more effective in producing spiritual maturity than focusing on the rewards of heaven or the fears of hell ... preachers are preaching to middle-class listeners who are very comfortable on this planet and not likely to sing 'This World is Not My Home'" (p. 53).
Once more, "Pastors do not sense a need to motivate their people by the allurements of heaven. Because of luxurious materialism, most of us are already enjoying 'heaven on earth,' and no one has recently challenged us with the mysteries of eternity to an extent that would enable middle-class Americans to recognize the paltriness of their existence and limitations of their finiteness. To speak of hell from the pulpit is almost beyond imagination. Psychology has persuaded the church that such negative suggestions will only further depress parishioners who have to wrestle with the hellishness of a frantic, scurrying society" (p. 123).
So, there is apparently little place for doctrine, for confrontation, or for eternal realities in modern day ministry! What are we to make of this?
There can be no doubt that we are to be alert to the times in which we live and to the needs of people we reach and serve. There is a proper theology of "audience adaptation" (Calvin used to call it "accommodation"). Christian preachers, teachers, disciplers, Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders need to understand where people are at and minister to them at their point of true need.
But that is exactly the issue. They must minister to them at the point of their true need - and not pander to their culturally induced and sin-affected desires. People need to learn doctrine, be confronted with sin, and prepare for eternity, whether they want to hear about these things or not. Preoccupation with the present is perilous (Lk. 12:13-21). There is a vast difference between sensitive adaptation to the circumstances of people and sinful accommodation to their desires. The one is ministry skill while the other is culpable compromise.