Are today's Pulpits full of neutered Pastors?
Our Neutered Pulpits
'I don't preach my convictions, I just present Bible principles and let the Holy Spirit apply it to the specifics of their hearts.' 'I don't believe the preacher should jam his personal convictions down people's throats.' 'I have more of a teaching ministry.' (etc. ad nauseum.) And thus, our pulpits have been neutered. The preachers, (oops, perhaps I should say 'speakers' or 'pulpit teachers') still proudly proclaim that they are against sin, they just never want to define what it is, and bring it down to where people live. They take the sharp two-edged sword of the Word of God but cover the edges with velvet so that nobody gets cut.
What has become of most of our Independent Baptist preachers? Without rejoining the convention, they have adopted the convention's message of simply not offending the brethren with straight pointed preaching, while they soothe their consciences by majoring on winning the lost and preaching on family relationships and stewardship. They cover the cutting edge of the 'thou shalt not's' explaining away the Word's authority to reprove and correct our lives, because 'we are now under grace' and preaching right and wrong is 'legalism.'
These spiritual geldings have left their spiritual heritage and their Biblical responsibility. The Holy Spirit made it clear that all the Bible is profitable for 'doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness' (2 Tim. 3:16). Then He gave a charge that should cause every preacher to tremble when He proclaimed, 'I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom' (2 Tim. 4:1). Regardless of what follows this verse, every preacher should clearly understand that he will be judged before the holy God who called him for his obedience to the command that comes next. He did not just command us to 'preach the word' but even told us HOW to preach it, 'reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.'
We see many examples in the New Testament of the importance of being specific about right and wrong. It is in the New Testament where God gave us several lists of sins that many preachers should review today: Romans 1:18, 29-32; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Galatians 5:18-21; Ephesians 5:1-18. The Ephesians passage proclaims that these sins should not even be once named among the brethren, then warns that 'because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience,' and charges that believers are not to be partakers with them because we are children of light and not darkness. In verse 14, we are commanded to 'have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.' The Holy Ghost, the Jerusalem Church, and the apostles all felt it was good to command the gentiles not to commit fornication, and to abstain from meats offered to idols, from things strangled, and from blood. When Paul and Silas delivered 'the decrees for to keep' the churches were 'established in the faith, and increased in number daily.' Paul had no qualms about using Deuteronomy 22 when he commanded the Corinthians to not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. He saw no contradiction with grace when he used the law on a New Testament church commanding women to be silent in the churches. John defined sin for the New Testament church as the transgression of the law (I John 3:4). Peter used Leviticus as his authority for commanding Christians to be Holy in 'all manner of conversation' (I Peter 1:14-16).
The Old Testament prophets were direct and pointed in their condemnation of the sins of God's people. We find that same directness commanded of New Testament preachers. Unfortunately, most of our pulpits have been neutered, as too many of our pastors are more concerned with being a smooth, deep, Bible teacher instead of a direct, specific, Bible preacher. Our preachers need to become men again, and thunder out the Word of God. They need to read and obey God's clear command to preach the word, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. May God give us men again.
why would you ask someone to answer a question that is so judgemental?
No need to have only one kind.
Check out the book of revelation... the 7 cities as well present 7 types of churches...
The kind of church you would prefer is the one thats said to have no love...
Give milk to those who need it and let the others have their bread.
Excuse me....
but you are about as bad a person as those Pharisees that accused Jesus of eating with the Gentiles.....
Its guys like you that keep people from becoming christians
may God have mercy on your soul
Your question is more of a sermon but YES, today's Pastors are more 'market' oriented and do not want to alienate their clients er...faithful. The phenomenom is not new just more and more prevalant given our focus on form more than substance.
It's a sign of the times and churches are not immune. They also must make money or sink. Churches ARE businesses and the pastors must conform to their markets in order to survive. Only the truly exceptional can threaten their clients and get away with it. The same as in 'real life' businesses.
By the way...doing a search on churches in Bangor Maine from a number of directories, there is NO listing for the church that you claim to be a pastor of even looking exclusively at Baptist Churches in the entire state.
Answers:
Sorry I lost you. Can't be bothered with all that. Not a Baptist here certainly, not a Christian here absolutely. Blame it on Bush; everyone else does, so who the hell cares? I don't.
I think most preacher's balls are a little too big. My life wasn't changed by having something shoved down my throat. It was changed by quite the opposite.
The Church has been going to heck in a hand basket for 900 years.
While I'm certainly not going to read all of that, it's true that I've only ever met one preacher that I liked. I don't know if the other ones were neutered or not.
I don't know if I envy or pity your congregation.
By the way, how long did it take you to write out all these questions tonight?
My dad was a pastor and used to say that Christians are the worst for burying their wounded.
I think the problem with some pastors is they dont want to loose their job. Some wrote their 52 sermons and repeat them year after year. Some went to cemetary I mean seminary without being prepared spiritually and got shocked. The motivation left them to fall in the same mold.
I have had pastors tell me they did not believe the four gospels hardly at all as a correct history of Jesus, yet they preached from them every Sunday. Some felt that people were child like and could only be preached to in a vague manner.
There are some that would not recognize Christ if he died on the cross in front of them. These types find preaching on salvation an alien experience. Others only preach on salvation as if that is the only Christian experience out there.
However I have found a lot of good preachers too and enjoyed numerous conversations with them. Some of them are televised pastors now and moving up the digital religious chain I guess.
Dude, you're giving me a serious headache here! You're very interesting, but geez, how many calories a day are consumed from your brainpower alone? I'm just kidding.
If you're worried about Baptist preachers going soft go to the Faith Baptist Church in Nashua, NH. Geez-Louise! The preacher said, 'I wish I had a blow torch to fire up your toes. That way you'll know what hell feels like and you'll see the light!'
This preacher said that the only way you can go to heaven is if:
1. You are a saved Baptist.
2. You recruit others to be saved.
Seriously, I have some questions to ask about that.
If there are 1,000,000,000 (one billion) Chinese people...
and there are 1,000,000,000 (one billion ) Indian people...
and none of them are saved Baptists who recruit others...
then can I assume that all 2,000,000,000 (two billion) of them are going to bite the dust?
Also, if Christianity has been around for 2,000 years...
and the Chinese have been around for 5,000 years...
how were the original 3,000 Chinese people supposed to know about Jesus in the first place?
Why should they all have had to go to hell when they never even got the memo?
You're a powerful, logical man, so how does that work?
I've got to admit, your question sounds funny, but after reading all of the details, I can't argue. Gotta give you props for that.
While it is true that too many pastors are like that, not all are. There are still a few out there who still preach the whole truth. They are full of love but not afraid to say what needs to be said. Thank God for Pastors (and people)like that.
