Pastors Taking Guidance from Sheep: The Anti-Sermon

In today's management environment spawned by behavioral adaptation theories and democratic ideologies, pastors don't stand a chance. They must take their cue from the bleating of the sheep (to the trained ear it  sounds like howling of wolves). If the pastors do well, they surround themselves with well-paying Sunday sermon listeners only too anxious to support God and his ministers. If the pastor does not pay heed to the way the wind is blowing, someone will show him the way (or the door out).

Today's pastors listen to the Holy Spirit via votes and Vogue. For instance, a few Sundays ago, when the regular pastor was on vacation, our youth pastor filled in for him by expounding on an article he found in a woman's magazine. The article had lots of statistics about  raising children and the lack of nurturing environments, mostly due to absentee fathers, overbearing fathers, or non-paying ex-husbands. The pastor attempted to draw a connection between the article and the gospel.  All he succeeded in doing was preaching a social gospel and might as well have been Susan B. Anthony in the flesh. I looked around to see if any of the men were buying into this. They were, staring straight ahead with no eye movement, while the women smiled knowingly and nodded appreciatively.

The pastor of this church has to continually hedge his bets by stating time and time again that he is not preaching against anyone or anything; he just loves us all. He must get a lot of mail from someone to keep him thus in line. If he has trouble preaching the message of the gospel to believers, what would happen if he were in a hostile crowd? He prefers, he says, the New American Standard Bible, but teaches from the NIV because that is the Bible most voted for (a show of hands on a Sunday morning). 

Anyway, these are just peripheral subjects. The main problem is that the pastor has to tailor his programs and his preaching to keep the crowd coming back. If he loses them, then he won't be able to have a large body count, or they will fall into the clutches of other, nicer churches. I am assured there are several other churches in the area that feel the same way and get a little nervous when the well-to-do choose another fold. Isn't that the real game? The only time when pastors are concerned about "church-hopping" is when the lambs hop out of their church. They don't mind it so much when the lamb chops drop their way.

Almost all of today's preaching is predicated on the principle of return on an investment. The sheep cannot be sheared unless they stick around, can they? The trick is to preach to them in such a way as to be convincingly scriptural, but assuring them that they have nothing to fear as long as they keep coming back. This is called "drawing men to Christ." Paradoxically, the pastor becomes the mouthpiece for the flock's opinion and tastes, instead of their leader. They cover this up by insisting over and over again that, they, too, are just sheep. But watch when the tithes don't come in: Their canines begin to show. 

We encourage you to email the author to prove or disprove, from the Scriptures, the intent, meaning, purpose or doctrine of this piece. email Chris