An early post this evening. In fact here in the Valley of the Sun it's just late afternoon. But I have to leave here a little before 6:00 to go to our Pathway men's event. We're meeting for pizza and poker.
OK, some of you need to take a deep breath at this point. It's going to be OK. Really, it is.
Poker is a game, just like Monopoly or Dominoes or Old Maid. I am convinced that gambling is an inappropriate behavior for believers and that Scripture is clear on the point. (I also accept that others see it differently. And I'm OK with them being wrong.) But no money will be involved tonight except for the $3 we're kicking in to pay for the pizza. Poker as a game is no more tainted by the abuse it receives through gambling than dominoes is when players place large bets on that game - as is common in some cultures. Using the word church and poker in the same sentence will not bring the Apocalypse.
Somewhere tonight a group of Sun City widows has gathered to bet next week's grocery money on a game of "Button, Button, Who Has the Button."
Know what I really like about tonight's poker gathering? A year ago we could have had a Pathway Men's Golf Tournament and included everyone by reserving just one tee time. Tonight we'll have a dozen guys and they'll range from late the 20's to something around 70.
I'm going to drive Gerta in to the Kinney's house. This will be her public debut, her grand entrance. But I know what will happen. The guys will shake their heads and wonder what's wrong with my thinking, why a car with 40 hp and wind wings catches my fancy.
I read a book review today of "The Shaping of Things to Come" by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. The review quoted from the book:
"Now a preacher has to do amazing things to even catch folks' attention, let alone really communicate. The film-addicted generation thrives on hyper-reality, in post-modern cultural language.... As a result of this appetite for hyper-reality, the era of the monologue sermon that can have an impact is comting to an abrupt and sad end."
I wanted to scream. And I wanted to invite Mr. Frost and Hirsch to Pathway Bible Church. Yes, the Word of God needs to be presented in culturally relevant terms, but the message is non-negotiable. Scripture is determinative. And if the Bible says (as it does in 1 Timothy) that the servant of God is to PREACH the word then he'd better be about the business of preaching the Word!
Losing ourselves in buzz words like "hyper-reality" that have no objective meaning (what in the world does the prefix hyper mean in this term?) will divert us from the reality that God has called us to encounter - the reality of our creation in God's image, the reality of our fall through sin and the reality of redemption through the substitutionary death of Christ.
Marshall McCluhan taught us that there comes a point when the medium IS the message. The contemporary church seems comitted to making McCluhan's point. There is a line beyond which the dignity of the gospel is more than compromised, it is lost through eye-catching methodologies and media. It is this thinking that gave us Bibles for every demographic group imaginable and convinces preachers that without a video segment for every sermon people will walk out the door and never come back.
And THAT is what's really wrong with Frost & Hirsch's viewpoint. They seem to give no place to the work of the Holy Spirit. It is not the preacher's job to grab hearts and souls; that is exclusively God's work, one which only he can do. Preach the Word and let God's Spirit get ahold of the hearers, as he has done since the days of the Apostles.
Yes, this same argument was used by those who opposed any departure from the formality that characterized the church as recently as the 70's. First the lack of proper vestments, then the absence of a dark suit and finally the tie disappeared. For many preachers (this one occasionally) a dress shirt gets replaced by a golf shirt. But I think it's not splitting hairs to draw a key distinction between the preacher's attire and a departure from a "monologue sermon." The latter is the biblical pattern and mandate.
AND, it works! Which is why I want them to come to Pathway. This preacher misses the mark too often but the Holy Spirit (!) works through the preaching of the Word, even when it's done weakly, to change lives.
Going back a post or two...the West Valley of the Phoenix Metro area is awash with churches of the sort Frost and Hirsch describe. And the result is believers whose itching ears are tickled (1 Timothy) and whose spiritual lives are wilting even as they watch this Sunday's trick video and encounter the preacher's clever visual aid.
By God's grace I will preach the WORD this Sunday.
Hey, could you tell that I'm a bit exercised about this one?
Whew!
OK, I typed this right after coming back from my run. I gotta go shower and head into town. But one more thing.
This book review was favorable to the perspectives of Mr. Frost and Mr. Hirsch. I read it in the publication of a denomination that has historically been solidly evangelical and comitted to the preaching of God's Word. This particular denomination finds itself, like many denominations, wrestling with declining membership and struggling churches. I hope this book review doesn't indicate the direction they'll be headed to address their problems!
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