THE CHURCH SHOULD KEEP IT SIMPLE

In a world enamored with worldly metrics of success—popularity, influence, acclaim, and charisma—it’s easy for Christians to be swept along with the conventional secular thinking of our day.

Church attendance and cultural acceptance have gradually but steadily replaced holiness and authentic worship as our primary goals. There is a perception that preaching the Word and confronting sin are archaic and ineffective ways to convert the world. After all, most people are put off by these things. To attract new members, why not offer what they want, create a welcoming atmosphere, and appeal to the precise desires that drive their strongest impulses? If we can somehow make Jesus more likeable or less objectionable to the unconverted worldlings, we might get them to accept him.

As a result, the church's mission is distorted. No, the Great Commission isn't a sales pitch for products or services. When it comes to evangelism, you don't need marketers but you do need prophets. God's Word is the seed for the new birth, not any earthly temptation (1 Pet. 1:23). Our efforts to erase the offence of the cross  will only earn us God's wrath.

 We must never lose sight of the qualities that God values in those individuals whom He has entrusted with the leadership of His church and always keep them in the forefront of our minds. According to the words of the apostle Paul, "it is needed of stewards that one be found trustworthy" (1 Corinthians 4:2).

Fearless preaching is all the more necessary in such dangerous times.  When people will not tolerate the truth, that’s when courageous, outspoken preachers are most desperately needed to speak it. Why are people unwilling to endure sound teaching? Their love of sin.  Sound preaching, as we have seen, confronts and rebukes sin, and people in love with sinful lifestyles will not tolerate such teaching. They want to have their ears tickled