Shepherd the Flock

I am convinced that the methods of communicating the gospel are as chosen and explicit as the content of presenting the gospel. That is, the Bible not only spells out *what* we are to teach/preach to call men to Christ, but *how* we are to call men to Christ as well.

Being faithful to the Word of God and to Christ’s church not only entails a sound doctrinal statement, but it also necessitates a manner, attitude, and method of how that doctrinal statement is proclaimed (and ultimately practiced).

John MacArthur says it very succinctly below:

“The contemporary user-friendly movement…rather than arousing fear of God, attempts to portray Him as fun, jovial, easygoing, lenient, and even permissive. Haughty sinners who ought to approach God in terror are emboldened to presumed upon His grace. Sinners hear nothing of divine wrath. This is as wrong as preaching a rank heresy.” – Ashamed of the Gospel, P63

I ask a few relevant questions here: will our teens take the gospel seriously when their isolated from the rest of the body or taken to the beach on a ‘gospel retreat’? Will our kids take the gospel seriously when it’s chiefly communicated to them through Veggie Tales and coloring books?

Will our adults take the gospel seriously when our leaders live just as materialistically as other successful businessmen? Or when the music and means of the ‘worship’ service are geared specifically to meet their felt needs? What about when our leaders stand up and tell jokes and give practical tips for living? When the church is setup like the stage of the theater rather than a place avoiding anything to take the mind of the worshiper from doing just that, worshiping?

How are men going to lay their life on the line for the gospel when the message is communicated to them in such casual, culturally-saturated methods?

Oh how I agree with Arnold Dallimore, in that we need:

“Men mighty in the scriptures, their lives dominated by a sense of the greatness, the majesty and holiness of God, and their minds and hearts aglow with the great truths of the doctrines of grace…Men who have learned what it is to die to self, to human aims and personal ambitions; men who are willing to be ‘fools for Christ’s sake’, who will bear reproach and falsehood, who will labour and suffer, and whose supreme desire will be, not to gain earth’s accolades, but to win the Master’s approbation when they appear before His awesome judgment seat. They will be men who will preach with broken hearts and tear-filled eyes, and upon whose ministries God will grant an extraordinary effusion of the Holy Spirit, and who will witness ’signs and wonders following’ in the transformation of multitudes of human lives.” – Arnold Dallimore, Whitfield, V1, P16