Encounter and Encouraging

One of the words which shaped my preaching from the beginning is persuasive.  I was told that good preaching was persuasive.  Preaching was not simply a matter of sharing doctrine and making sure that people understood the beliefs of the church.  Preaching was not an opportunity to inform people what "I think," but what the Word of God says.  Over and over my preaching professor would say, "People do not come to hear what you think.  They want to hear the Word of God."  One other remembered word was that we should not strive to impress people with our sermons.   

After over forty years of preaching I still hold tightly to the belief that good preaching should be at its core, persuasive.  It should go after two things.  One, it should bring people to a moment of encountering Jesus, and secondly, it should encourage them to respond to Him.  Compared to the time when I started preaching, the church has become very timid about encouraging any kind of public response.  Too many times it seems that the assumption is that everyone inside its walls is rightly related to Jesus.  Too many times it seems that the church is afraid it might embarrass someone by putting them in a position where a public response is suggested.    

While it is true that someone within the hour of worship can quietly make a life changing decision for Christ, it is also true that making known what has happened in the heart is like applying cement to hold it together.  There was a time when I was a teenager that I thought I could walk as a Christian without anyone knowing about it, but we are not called to live in isolation, but in community.  We are not called to live holding the hand of Jesus, but to also hold the hands of the suffering ones around us.  When Jesus said, "Follow me," it meant a radical and visible break with the past and so must it be in our own day.