Heart of Flesh had a great summary of a conference on Reformed theology. I especially liked the distinction one of the speakers made about motives in preaching:
He compared the Greek orator to the Roman herald. The Greek Orator was crafty in speech and was the celebrity in his time. His success was measured by how many crowds he drew and convinced. He often used manipulation and content was not the main priority. Sound familiar? Lawson masterfully connected this to much of modern preaching.
On the other hand, the herald was much different. His job was to take Caesar’s decree and faithfully proclaim it wherever he was sent. His success was not measured by how he “wooed” the crowd, but success depended on faithfulness to Caesar’s decree. This analogy really stuck in my brain. Its an excellent portrayal of how we should and shouldn’t preach.
If we speak (or write) we should be heralds, not orators – always thinking about whether the message is faithful to the Lord’s decrees.
I know that at least several regular readers are pastors who are in the herald category, and I praise and thank God for that! But all Christians are ambassadors for Christ, so we should strive to be heralds as well. The goal is obedience, not popularity.
2 Cor. 5:20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
N.T. Wright had a great quote that I’ll paraphrase here: “Wherever the Apostle Paul went there were riots. Wherever I go they serve tea.”
We don’t want to add to the offense of the Gospel, of course, but if the message never offends anyone then you can be sure it isn’t a balanced representation of the Bible.
Filed under: Bible, Christian worldview | Tagged: Bible, christianity, God, Jesus, religion
Here! Here!
I’m constantly getting on the band wagon about preaching. Far too much of it is just another form of Dr. Phil. Yes, it draws crowds because it’s not the least bit offensive. The gospel is the offense because it tells men and women that they CAN’T save themselves. They need another. That is highly offensive to the self serving community.
Preach the Word!
Heath has a great post on this with a video of Mark Driscoll at his blog.
http://threecrossesblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/mars-hill.html
Blessings
BTW, the video is about 5 minutes long and is and EXCELLENT presentation of the gospel.
Excellent point there Neil. May we all be heralds for Christ.
Amen!
These verse from Revelation speaks only to the Book of Revelation, but I think it’s fair to say that it can be applied in some fashion to the whole Bible:
And regarding the line about the goal being obedience and not popularity, this is in 2 Timothy Chapter 4:
May we always stand on His Word alone.
Good post. I don’t think much of the church in America today has any idea what proclamation or heralding means. It’s completely counter-cultural. But…I thought about a book I read when I saw this post and wanted to recommend it: Heralds of God by James S. Stewart.