Who should believe the Gospel

Seems, to me that the one who should believe the Gospel first, is the man behind the pulpit. He is not only to believe it personally but he is to believe it as the very means God uses to bring others to Himself. If that preacher is not convinced in the promise of Romans 1:16-17, that it is the Power of God to save, he will cook up weird strategies to prop his ministry.

Today, pastors are so much under pressure to play along with secular culture. When you have 40 people filled with folks who are about to make an exit from this world and you see besides you another church which is overflowing with young people, there is so much temptation to lose confidence in the Gospel and make a switch. There is every reason to justify the use of some marketing gimmick to compete. This is when the message starts getting skewed and the diet given to the pew becomes more and more messages for self help and tips for living.

So if I was a pastor should I not give a seminar on "controlling your finances", "relating to your teenager" or something like that? I will but, I will not be the one to give it, and neither will it be done on a Sunday. I would probably ask an expert to tell my people about this stuff on a mid-week seminar, but not me.

The thing is, if your church is growing and people are coming there for various reason, except the reason of the Gospel, then whatever got them there, you need to tap into and make it bigger and better. You will have to refine that thing that is getting people in. If it was excitement, then more excitement up ahead is needed. Do you think people will not get bored with it? That is the nature of sin. So , you need to adopt new techniques then when the time comes, right?

If people in church are excited but their excitement is not in the Gospel, well some serious things will be happening down the road and it is just a matter of time before disillusionment sets in.

What more could be better than being the person to tell people where to find peace with God and show them how their sins are forgiven? That is the pastor's sacred niche, he should not give it away nor sell it out to what felt needs people may have. Besides, people really do not know what they need anyway.

I think today, preachers are under the testing of God. He is testing them to see if they themselves are cleaving to the Gospel, testing to see if they will be faithful to the simplicity of the promise of salvation. If the Gospel is not the message that is preached in season and out of season, then whatever that message coming from the pulpit happens to be will not bring lasting substance. If the preacher himself is bored with it, then maybe he needs to hear Law and Gospel also preached to him. That is the common trick of the devil, to make us doubt the promises of God and one of them is to make us doubt in the power of the Gospel to change lives.


As St. Paul said (and I apply it to them) : Woe are they, if they do not preach the Gospel.