Guest post by Clayton KingAre we sacrificing the
Gospel by removing the cross from our preaching for the sake of relevance?
I am a sermon addict. I listen to them all day most days. I have over 300 on my iPod and they are playing while I drive, in airports and airplanes, and during my time at the gym. I listen to a wide variety of preachers, from Matt Orth, Erwin McManus, Mark Driscoll, J.D. Greear, Rob Bell, Perry Noble, and some Steven Furtick and C.J. Mahaney. On top of that, my wife cringes every time I turn on the TV because I go straight to TBN to watch the preachers. And there is never any telling what might be on, but for me, it is always entertaining at least.
I am seeing a VERY DANGEROUS trend among preachers. I am not an alarmist and I am not chicken little saying that the sky is falling. But fewer and fewer preachers and pastors are talking about the cross of Jesus Christ these days.
At risk of sounding like the old man pining away for the glory days of his youth, may I suggest that this is not simply misplaced nostalgia. This is frightening on a deep and eternal level. Many, though certainly not all, preachers today are opting out of preaching the gospel of scripture, the one that Paul proclaimed and the early church suffered for, the one which contains a bloody Roman cross in its center. Instead they have been co-opted into a secular, user friendly worldview, one that has already taken over Christian radio (family friendly, encouraging, uplifting, etc.) and is in the process of taking over churches by the thousands.
While I am not throwing stones at radio (Christian radio is a different entity with a different purpose), I am screaming and shouting, most forcefully, that men of God need to not include the cross in their preaching, but they must make it
central to all instruction, encouragement, admonition, and correction. It seems that we find ourselves in a modern-day story of Jacob and Esau. Preachers are swapping their birthright blessing (the honor and command to preach Christ and Him crucified) for a shallow bowl of soup (the applause and approval of a selfish and sinful culture that must be confronted with the scandalous death of Jesus because of our sins).
Could it be that the trend of moving away from the cross in preaching (and thus the avoidance of topics like sin, repentance, brokenness and lostness) is simply a lack of courage? Is it cowardice and lack of conviction, since we know that preaching the crucifixion offends the listener particularly when we tell them that
we are to blame and that
we are guilty? Of course the cross does not leave us there, it offers us mercy and forgiveness and peace with God. But not everyone will accept those free offers of grace. Many walk away, huffing and puffing and blogging. And maybe some preachers today just can’t handle not being liked.
If there is no cross, there is no Christianity, no Jesus Christ the resurrected Lord, and no hope. By His grace, I intend to live by it’s power, preach it in it’s conviction and liberation, and to one day be united with Christ by it’s promise. I must preach the cross.
Do you think that the message of the crucifixion is being sacrificed to make Christianity more "appealing"?
Comments (44)
yesss it is.
no doubts there man...
I think it has more to do with the spiritual depression we are currently experiencing as a society due to our saturation with violence and death, starvation and poverty, abuse and sexual immorality. We see sin and the death of those things we hold dear more readily than ever because of our communications and media technology. The reality of the cross is so close to us that we can barely see it.
We're getting more cross than we can handle without ever going to church. As a result, we wish to have greater encouragement and inspiration from our religious leaders so that our spiritual lives have some balance, and those leaders often understand this need unknowingly.
Personally, the sacrifice on the cross is central to my spirituality and I can work for my own spiritual balance so the uplifting sermons aren't my bag, but most are not so self-sufficient.
this is exactly what the church fathers fought for. a gospel of the death and resurruction of Jesus Christ. If one just wanted words of wisdom or happy thoughts, then we might as well adopt the apocrypha.. the four canonical gospels proclaim exactly this-- Jesus Christ crucified. without it, we have no gospel.. and no salvation.
good post.
I agree. The cross is central to the message. There's a trend in the emergent church (Rob Bell?) away from preaching Jesus as being the substitute. It's not a central idea, anymore, replaced by our forgiveness of each other.
If there is no cross, there is no Christianity, no Jesus Christ the
resurrected Lord, and no hope. By His grace, I intend to live by it’s power, preach it in it’s conviction and liberation, and to one day be united with Christ by it’s promise. I must preach the cross.
Amen! If we are not preaching conviction of sin, the cross, substitutionary atonement, repentance, grace, and salvation we aren't really preaching. In fact, I would add, that if our preaching isn't offensive to many we aren't preaching the truth.
Rob Bell and the Dali Llama preached together at an event, and Bell doesn't understand why many Christians were offended when him and the Llama preached social justice together and ignored the cross, and Jesus' claims to be the only way to the Father.
Some of those preachers you mentioned, Rob Bell and most of TBN in particular, go completely away from the cross and instead preach social justice and salvation by recycling/feeding the poor/stopping global warming, or teach that one should come to Jesus for one's own health, wealth, and prosperity.
It's interesting that you listen to such a wide variety. Some good teachers, and some horrible ones.
Why not throw out the garbage?
It depends on the group to which you're preaching. New believers need to first understand that God loves them and wants them to be saved from their sins before they can fully understand the message of the cross. And mature believers can gain from focusing on other things, like how to live a Christian life every day. But everyone needs reminded of just why we can call ourselves saved.
Yes. For sure.
And it makes me really sad.
Jesus' Passion and death answer the conundrum of human suffering with a thunderclap. There's the mysterious theology of it all. But understanding the Cross is essential for practically understanding the meaning of human life as it is lived day in and day out.
Amen. Preach it! For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I Cor. 2:2.
Much of the church preaches Christ as a good, moral example, or Christ to solve all my problems, or Christ as a ticket to get out of hell (fire insurance). But they don't teach that Christ came to give us new life, to translate us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, not only by forgiving us our sin for Christ's sake (because He bore it in our place) but imparting His life to us.
Many churches are more about maintaining themselves and their budgets than about maintaining her message. Others are about becoming trendy and hip and popular. Yes, we are to become all things to all people, but not at the cost of compromising on the message of the cross. If you read Jesus' words about discipleship, it was almost like He tried to talk people out of becoming disciples: count the cost, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Me...Our job is not to make Christianity attractive or appealing but to proclaim the Gospel.
@Katja88@xanga - You have to let people know the bad news (that they are sinners in need of a savior) before they can really see the good news. (Why do I need "good news" when I don't see the bad news about myself?) God's kindness leads us to repentance. If we don't see our sin (the bad news), we don't really see ourselves hopeless and helpless and we don't see our need for the salvation only Christ can provide.
Christ spoke about preaching a gospel of repentance and forgiveness of sins.
The cross is central. If we didn't sin, there'd be no need for Christ to have come to die in our place. When you say we need to let people know of God's love for them, what better way to let them know about the cross because the cross IS the glorious manifestation of God's love for us. We don't see God's love for us until we see how undeserving and how unworthy we are of it.
God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. John 3:16-18.
Our sin separates from God but Jesus came to so we might be reconciled to God by believing on Him. The cross, the broken body and shed blood of Christ, reconciles us to God. But if we don't see ourselves as separated from God, we don't see any need for the cross.
We're to preach a gospel of repentance and forgiveness of sins. How can people truly understand their need to repent and the work of Christ on their behalf if they don't see their sin?
We can't start with grace, we have to start with law. But, of course, you don't remain with the law, for the law leads to grace. The problem is that many stick with law and so people don't see the love and grace of God. That's why a lot of preaching about sin gets a bad rap. Anytime you preach/teach about sin, you simply must preach the Good News of Christ, otherwise you leave your hearers hopeless. But as you preach that God saves sinners, that God has not come to save the righteous but sinners, then those in whom the Holy Spirit has been moving will run to embrace the cross and see the beauty there. "Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found....Amazing love! How can it be that Thou, my Go,d hast died for me?"
Not in our church.
I totally agree.
The "modern churches" are all preaching charity, good-will, accountability, even community service.
Instead, we miss the focal point of the true crux of Christianity. Hopefully, this will be revived, because Christianity is an individual faith, not a business which cares about appeal in numbers.
Good point.
@naphtali_deer@xanga - I conceed your point, but remember that you don't want to scare people away when you're ministering to them.
I haven't seen much of this problem, at least in my area. Granted, I'm sure it's there. Where it does exist, I think they've lost the center of Christianity. That's a shame. I'm a crucifix fan myself. There's something about Jesus with his arms stretched wide for us. It always makes me hear his voice saying "I love you this much".
:)
i think i just realized who clayton king is, i used to listen to him on the radio when i was a kid. weeeiiirrd..
I think that in many cases you're right on the money....maybe it is more prevalent on the radio and with TV preachers. The cross isn't popular. It offends people. (Even using the name of Jesus offends people; He's the stumbling block.) Sin, death, Hell, and judgment offends people.
In some places the Church has become a social club for the upper-middle-class. It's an "I'm okay- you're okay" mentality....some of these churches seem to preach the message that what you do morally (to a point) or what you believe about God doesn't really matter as long as you drive the right car, wear the right clothes, give your donation to the church and pretend everything is fine.
While our brothers and sisters abroad are still paying with their lives for the Faith....we're over here compromising the gospel and dishonoring our Savior. I admit that it's hard to find a balance between expressing love and concern for non-believers while still maintaining our doctrinal integrity....but some churches do seem to have thrown in the towel.
I really worry about some of the teenage Christians here in the U.S.; some of them are not even being taught the most basic theology or apologetics because it's "too hard for them" (while people their age are being persecuted or dying for the faith in other countries), or simply because it's "boring" and they'd rather play basketball or video games at youth group.
Some of these kids (and adults, too) don't know what they believe or why they believe it, and so they're vulnerable to every passing secular fad or crazy cult. These young peoples' very souls are in danger; we're really doing them a disservice to withold Truth because it's hard or difficult to understand.
without the Cross... there is no Christianity....
without the death of Jesus... we have no faith period...
without the Crucifixion... there is no forgiveness or salvation...
you basically saw off the branch we're all standing on....
i've never really viewed it that way. for me, the central message of Christianity is God's love. the cross might be the perfect symbol for it... but if you can't show someone how much God loves them, without waving a dead guy on a stick in someone's face and trying to convince them that they are a horrible person.... you missed the message a long time ago.
in terms of symbolism, i prefer the fish.
Sure the crucifixion of Christ is integral to the gospel, but it's not important to dwell on it. Yes, he died for our sins and redeemed us with his blood, but that's not the most important part. More importantly, he was resurrected and ascended to heaven to become the life-giving Spirit. That's the most important part.
What is talk about the cross replaced with? There is a lot of good stories in the Old Testament that need to be told as well; are you just listening to those currently?
I'm just having a hard time imagining Christian sermons without mention of Jesus and the crucifixion. What else do they have to talk about?
I definitely agree with you. Too often all I hear is the shallow watered down stuff (when I visit other churches), and not the real Gospel message. I thank God that I have a great church that does teach this, but it is scary to think about how so many preachers are shying away from it.
As James says, are we to be pleasers of Men or pleasers of God?
What a timely post! The sermons I heard today were totally centered on Christ's sacrifice for us. There are too many american christian "theologians" who are indeed trading the gospel of Christ's substitutionary work with the health, wealthand prosperity message .......indeed the "love all, tolerate all, don't condemn etc". The message of SIN and God's wrath - yes, God's WRATH is missing for so many people! What is God's love and forgiveness all about if we miss the understanding of how terrible our sin is in the face of the infinite majestic God??? May God bring about a Reformation back to the TRUTH in our nations!
oh - and I just did a blog posting about this issue on my own xanga site. I was inspired by a couple sermons I heard today in church. Feel free to stop by and comment!
@Tom - "Some of those preachers you mentioned, Rob
Bell and most of TBN in particular, go completely away from the cross
and instead preach social justice and salvation by recycling/feeding
the poor/stopping global warming, or teach that one should come to
Jesus for one's own health, wealth, and prosperity."
The pastors at my church often preach about social justice. Not in a "this is how you get to heaven" way, but a "this is what we're supposed to do" way. I love it. Give me that over preachers who rant on about how we're right and the Muslims/gays/feminists/Demon-crats/environmentalists/everyone else are wrong, or who fight over long, dry, drawn out doctrinal arguments any day of the week.
I like that there are preachers out there encouraging people to live out their faith. If done in moderation, and balanced with any other number of topics (not, "welcome to church, today in part #395 on our series of social justice...") I think it's riveting. And frankly, it does seem that quite often the church prefers to take a back seat to that, burying themselves in doctrinal bickerings or focusing on making a nice family-friendly, seeker-friendly, cozy atmosphere.
Now those who teach Jesus as a personal ATM, I think, should be flogged, but that's just me. I despise the fact that they "know" I have so little faith because I won't send them $150 and instead use it toward rent money. I don't particularly care for "the blasphemy network" at all.
I don't think that they should omit crucifixion. For me, that's one of the many things that make Christianity the wonderful religion that it is.
Christianity is not nice. There was death, horrible bloody murder if you will. If you take out the pain and suffering that Christ took for us, then there is no New Testament, aka the new covenant/promise/deal. The teachings of the Bible should be centered squarely on Christ and his death; you can talk about other stuff, but in the end, it must always tie back to the central purpose of Christianity.
@Cheyenne17124@xanga - Environmentalists aren't exactly bad; they have the right view on taking care of the world (as we were called to do as Adam's descendants), but some of their takes on how to get their points across isn't very good...