Pastors, Preach the Word (18/8)

I have one small word of advice for pastors & preachers: PREACH GOD's WORD (boldly)! (pun intended)

I don't know about you, but when I walk into a church service, I want to hear God's Word being preached, and I'm quite certain I'm not the only one. Sure, there are those who are there who would want their ears tickled by some entertaining stories or less preachy sermons. I'm sure out of your deep desire to want to reach out to them you might are almost certain to be less preachy, more entertaining, more jokes here and there, more stories here and there.

But guess what? For those faithful believers who are there, they are not fed by the Word. And these are those who will stick with the church through thick and thin.... As the saying goes, "when the going gets tough, the disinterested simply goes away...." Why would they stay? If they wanted to have  interesting stories, there are far better storytellers out there. So it looks like you most probably wouldn't keep them.

So why would you want to deprive those who wants to be faithful to God of His Living Word? Why would I want to stay unless the church takes God's Word seriously? And if I see it handled this way, would I want to continue to stay? Why as shepherd are you not taking care of the sheep? Remember what Paul commands Timothy his protegé:

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: ² preach the word; be ready in season and out of season;reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. ³ For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, ⁴ and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. ⁵ As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (2 Timothy 4:1-5)

So preachers & pastors, Preach God's Word boldly. It's the thing we need, and what the disinterested desperately need, nothing else is more important than that. Preach the word, not the world.