Talking head preaching

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I love that title! No, it’s not mine, although I wish it were. It actually comes from House Church Blog. He starts with a wonderful quote from A.W. Tozer and then proceeds to say:

There are no shortcuts to actually grasping hold of the things of God. We can hear the messages, and even be emotionally charged and thrilled by them, but transformation that leads to more deeply knowing God comes only by our own time spent in pursuit of him.

The problem with the talking-head preaching/teaching, even the really good stuff, is that we highlight it so much that we perpetuate the concept that hearing these messages are at the core of transformation. This is simply not true. Simply hearing others share their deep insights into God does not bring us to deeper places.

He goes on to argue that the place where actual transformation can happen is in small participatory church gatherings. He’s right, as far as he goes. But, there is more to it than that; we have to be willing to die to self.

I know I am starting to sound like a broken record, but this seems to be the single most neglected command in scripture. We don’t want to face the fact that Jesus called us to come and die. We want a comfortable Jesus who pampers us and says, “There, there, everything will be alright. I died so you don’t have to. I took care of sin so you can live in it.”

What a blasphemous attitude! Yet, if you scratch below the surface of much that passes for theology today, that is just exactly what you will find. Whether it is the “name it, claim it, stomp on it and frame it” gospel, or the “seeker-friendly” gospel, or the mega-church-build-a-mega-buck-building for mega-buck suburbanites gospel, they all boil down to a self-serving christianity which makes God a Santa Claus god.

As long as we wallow in sin and self, there is no hope for a transformation in our lives, let alone our culture. It is only as we take Jesus seriously and allow Him to transform us, believing, in faith, what scripture says we already are—saints—that we will begin to see the faint glimmering of awakening in our churches, be they house churches or mega-churches.

I love where Brueggemann in Theology of the Old Testament highlights the choice Israel had in the exile. They could look at the circumstances: captives in Babylon, temple in ruins, kingship destroyed, no hope for restoration. Pretty grim, don’t you agree? Or, they could believe the promises of restoration found in the prophets. Rationally, that is insane!

Not a whole lot has changed in 2500 years, has it? God still calls us to believe the unbelievable: that we are “seated in the heavenlies with Christ,” that we “are more than conquerors,” that “Christ is our life.” I could go on and on, but none of them make sense outside of a faith perspective. God calls us today, just as he did the Israelites. Whom are we going to listen to? Culture or God? Self or God?
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