Twice in recent
weeks I’ve wasted some free time watching Christian Satellite TV; on both
occasions someone speaking at well known evangelical Christian events in the UK. The first programme made my heart sink.
The speaker, who I hadn’t heard before, talked complete rubbish making comments
that are contrary to the Biblical text (how is this allowed to happen?). The
second was better but a misrepresentation of the description of God in the OT
in an attempt to make a valid point about God’s grace.
It seems to me the
problem is threefold.
– We
confuse clarity and simplicity. Clarity is desirable but you don’t need to over
simply things to achieve it.
– We value
entertainment more highly than transformation. It is good to be engaging but
the value of a message should not be measured by how amusing the anecdotes are.
– We
allow relevance to be an excuse for sloppiness. God speaks in conformity to God’s
character and prophetic speech will resonate with God’s.
Apart from reading Glen’s excellent article (here) I suggest every conference speaker
should:
1. Speak from a
single text not a string of Bible verses. What matters is the proclamation of
the word of God not your attempts at systematic theology.
2. Make sure you
understand what textual / theological issues arise from the text you use; if
you don’t know, and have no idea how the passage has shaped Christian thought,
read a couple of commentaries on the passage.
3. Take care how you
use argument, anecdotes, jokes and emotion: remember a holy God is listening. Ethos,
pathos, logos!
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