Letter To Preachers

Several years ago, I heard a pastor, (not my pastor) from another part of my state, preach a lifeless, passionless, pointless sermon with no power and no fire. (I am not referring to animated “aerobic exercise class” preaching. Vance Havner, a great man of God, preached with power and passion and fire yet he was not animated but monotone and motionless in his preaching style). The message I heard was a waste of my time and discouraged me.

That message provoked me to write the following to our preachers (and also to myself):

To: Preachers Everywhere
From: Your Congregations

We, the people, are thirsty and we are hungry. We are hurting and we need help. We need the fire of God and the power of God in our lives. And preacher, we need you.

You have a special calling upon your life and God has chosen you to be His voice. But what we don’t need are more cute alliterated sermons, as helpful as alliteration can be in communicating a message.

What we don’t need are more sermons that have three points, six sub-points, and a cute, closing story or poem, as helpful as that may be in communicating a message.

And what we don’t need are more funny, silly jokes in sermons. We are tired of all of that.

What we don’t need is for you to keep referring to yourself when you preach. And what we don’t need is to hear more sermons from the internet or from some book that was purchased at the latest Christian book store or catalogue sale.

What we need is for our preachers to have the fire of God. What we need is for our preachers to have the power of God. What we need is for our preachers to have a passion for the messages that are proclaimed.

What we need is for our preachers to feed us from the written Word of God and then point us to the Living Word of God. What we need is for our preachers to be consumed by fire from heaven so that we, ourselves, may join you in being consumed by God. And what we need is for our preachers to be consumed by their passion for the Word of God.

Please help us, preachers. We know that we have a personal responsibility for our own walk with God. But we need help. We are weak, we are frail, and we are forgetful. We need to hear from heaven.

We don’t need to hear about your fishing trips or your cruises in your sermons. We don’t even need more covered dish suppers at the church.

We don’t need to hear about the local football team or your favorite college team in messages that you preach. And we certainly don’t need to hear of your accomplishments and awards and degrees when you stand before us.

What we want to know, and hear, is that you have been approved by God to proclaim His Word to us.

We are perishing in the pews and we perish because there is little or no vision of God in some of our pulpits. We are tired of hearing Proverbs 29:18 misinterpreted and applied to long-range planning. We are sick of hearing that verse used that way.

We, the people, are perishing because there is no vision of God, not because of a lack of planning for the future!

Rise up! Stand up! And don’t settle for mediocrity! Don’t settle for less than your very best!

Get alone with God, get all that you can get from Him, dish it out it to us, and then go back and get some more.

Pursue God with passion.

Don’t go into the pulpit until you have a message from Him to proclaim to us.

Don’t preach until you know that you are right with God.

And don’t go into the pulpit until you know you are anointed by God and have the fire of God.

It has been said that where there is smoke there is fire. But sadly, though, smoke can also be an indication that the fire has gone out.

Preachers: help us!

(The original post was published in "Heartcry! Journal", Fall 2005, and can be viewed at:
http://www.lifeaction.org/lam/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=873&I...