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It’s one of those catchy 90’s songs that just sticks in your head and you can’t get it out.  Written and performed by Alison Krauss the song is a love poem to her new man.   The central line of the song tells her love that “you say it best, when you say nothing at all.”  Alison Krauss’s song became a hit on the modern air waves and could equally become the theme song of many modern churches.

Rather than a sentimental lyric from a smitten lady, these lyrics reveal one of the primary causes of the poor knowledge of God evident in most churches.  In order to properly understand the causes we must begin by looking at the top – those that are leading and teaching in the church.  Having listened to thousands of sermons over the last ten years, I am often left humming Krauss’s song lyrics.

The modern pulpit is filled with trite spiritualism, redundant three point outlines, and emotional manipulation which amount to little more than really saying nothing at all.  Many pastors, while attempting to preach and lead their people, seem to have lost their minds in the process.  In so doing, style replaces substance and the truth of the gospel is hidden behind a veil of false pretense.  I am amazed by the amount of teaching in the church that amounts to saying nothing, really well.   As Shakespeare said in Macbeth, modern sermons are often “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

I see two primary poles on the pendulum of style replacing substance.   One faulty approach occurs when pastors trained in a certain style of preaching and teaching get so locked into their style that if it is not a three point alliterated outline, they cannot preach it.  Often found in traditional, orthodox churches the rote repetition and mind numbing redundancy of most teaching seriously cripples the mind of the average congregant.  In this approach, the constant amen from the choir and the deacon to your left does not make up for the obvious laziness that went into your preparations.

The other approach is more common in young, attractional church models containing “pastors” with an edgy, hip, relational delivery, with 40 minutes of clever monologue and two minutes of Bible.   For them, the Scripture of the day is a great way to launch into their own personal anecdotes and parade their charisma.  Sure, it is baptized behind a superficial use of the Scriptures, but in failing to prominently teach the Bible, people get much more of the preacher than they get of the Bible. 

Aristotle had a great way of helping us think through this dichotomy of style vs. substance in his teaching on the art of rhetoric.

In order for one to effectively communicate any message, Aristotle felt that he must have three characteristics.

1.      Ethos – By this Aristotle referred to the perceived credibility of the communicator.  The modern English word “ethics” is derived from ethos and refers to the authority of the one delivering the message.  Is the speaker an authority on the subject?  Is this person worth listening to?  Does this person actually live and believe what they are saying?  Is the speaker likeable and worthy of respect?

2.      Pathos – Here he refers to the passion and intensity with which one communicates the message.  Examples of pathos include emotional or motivational appeals, vivid language, and numerous sensory examples.  Here the critical question is: Does the speaker have passion for his subject?

3.      Logos – Finally, Augustine refers to the actual spoken word and the content of the communicated message.  Is the speaker saying something that is logically and factually accurate?  Does he/she have any substance behind the message?

According to Augustine, for a successful rhetorical claim to be made, it must contain each of these characteristics.  How prone we are to miss these vital elements. 

·         Guys with solid theology that are lifeless and dead as they teach. 

·         Guys with great passion and charisma that fail to live out the reality of their teaching. 

·         Or guys with great integrity and great passion that don’t teach the Bible but rather use the Bible as a springboard onto their own soapbox.

Often, when I hear my peers talk about selecting their church or their preferred style of preaching it seems that the checklist for a pastor in their eyes looks something like this:

ü  Flamboyant

ü  Funny

ü  Charismatic

ü  Good Story Teller

ü  Hip

ü  Edgy

ü  Creative

ü  Sharp

ü  Passionate

I am left to wonder how many of those things would have been on Paul’s radar as he placed guys as elders of his church plants.  It seems that these are not the characteristics that consumed him.  Instead, he writes,

“You will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following.” 1 Timothy 4:6

“Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching.” 1 Timothy 4:13

Growing up in an age of dead orthodoxy in many churches, many of my peers are deceived by the siren song of style and inadvertently miss the need for Truth to be prominent in the pulpit.   Most of us live life like a sponge, ready to suck up and absorb any and everything that enters our worldview with no method of determining what should remain.

For now a few examples will suffice.

1.      The past month as seen numerous writings on the Lakeland Pentecostal Revival and its developing controversy.  Early in April a Canadian evangelist, Todd Bentley, spoke at the Ignited Church of Lakeland, FL.  Instead of staying for the week, Bentley stayed for three months, in what has been dubbed the largest revival of its time since the Azusa Street revivals. 

However, the reports from the revival of mass healing, people being raised from the dead, and other miraculous work have been roundly criticized.  While people have been drawn to Bentley’s sharp charisma and rebellious style, it seems that this simply disguised some clear evidence of disqualification from being an elder.  Particularly in light of Bentley’s recent separation from his wife  and confession of an inappropriate relationship with another woman.

Ed Stetzer’s insightful blog comments of the “Evangelical Gullibility” are represented in this supposed revival.   It seems that many within the church are drawn to men with attractive personalities and lack the discernment to test everything by the validity of the Word of God.  Gathering a crowd is not hard.  Put a sharp personality, with the right resources, in the right place, at the right time and a horde of people are bound to follow.  What seems to be more difficult is training people in the Word of God such that they have the discernment to respond wisely to those teaching them. 

2.      For those of you with a more musical bent, I have one for you.  Music is the language of our culture and is often a medium by which the truths of the Scripture are communicated.  The current worship craze has placed God-exalting songs in the hands of millions of people.  It seemed that the latest Hillsong CD, “There is Our God” would be another in a long line of such music.  Particularly, in light of the emotionally charged hit, “Healer” in which Michael Guglielmucci sings about the healing power of our great God.  The song debuted at No. 2 on the ARIA charts.  What makes this song particularly powerful is that Guglielmucci was struggling with his own battle with cancer at the time of writing and signing the song. 

      Or so we thought.  300,000 YouTube hits later, it seems that the reality is that while Guglielmucci sang this song with oxygen tank in hand, he was all the while lying about his battle with terminal cancer.  In an effort to drum up support for his song, he created a lie about his own cancer and propagated that lie to all who would listen.   While the song became a source of inspiration for millions battling cancer worldwide, it seems that the author was all style and no substance. 

3.      A final classic example was found on a CBS interview with Joel Osteen, megachurch pastor and millionaire author in Texas, who was asked about the theology and doctrine he teaches people through his sermons and books. 

      In this interview, Osteen states that is goal is to bring people up…to make them better husbands, fathers, etc.  In the process, Osteen is confronted by the lack of mention of God or of Jesus Christ in many of his principles and teaching.  Osteen responds that he sees it as his job to inspire and motivate, and not to teach the Scriptures.  He says, “there are a lot better people to explain the Scriptures to you.  I don’t think that is my gifting.” 

What? Not your gifting.  Can you imagine a New Testament pastor saying it was not his gifting to teach the word of God?  Then what do you do?  The answer is simple.  You replace substance with style and convince people to follow.  Now you would think that people would catch on to this principle, but all you have to do is read the responses to the interview on YouTube and you will see just what I am talking about.  But, Osteen helps me.  But, Osteen is good at what he does.  But…

Why do many people within the church fail to know God and love him with their minds?  I think it is because many pastors fail to teach about God and train people to love him with their minds.  How I long for the day when pulpits are filled with the Word of God rather than clever personalities.  How I long for the day when blogs are filled with discussion about the Word of God and not about how to attract more people to your church.  How I long for the day when people choose churches to attend based on accurate theology and doctrinal fidelity rather than based on personality and ascetics. How I long for the day when quality exposition of the Scriptures replaces sound bites in the pulpit.  How I long for the day when the content of the message is judged based on its adherence to the scriptures and not on its effect on the hearer.

May we remember that the Spirit of God was not sent to make up for our laziness and sloppiness.  As pastors, we must analyze whether we can say that “we are not like many, peddling the Word of God, but as from sincerity, as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.” 2 Corinthians 2:17