|
Frank Viola and George Barna teamed up several years ago to publish a book entitled Pagan Christianity. It contends that most of the forms, structures, and practices of modern Christianity are not intrinsic to Christianity, are not rooted in Scripture but in some element of pagan culture, and in fact, are detrimental to authentic discipleship.
The list of inauthenic elements of modern Christianity is long: buildings, liturgies, sermons, pastors, tithes, baptism, communion, clerical salaries and robes, and organized Christian education. Frankly, I am trying to figure out what is left!
The idea that something is worthless if its origin can be traced to a non-christian source is a silly and insubstantial idea; it can be easily dismissed. After all, the true test of a ritual or idea is found, not in its point of origin, but in whether it reveals or conceal the true and living God, whether it promotes or prevents personal holiness and social justice, and whether it cultivates or subverts the likeness of Christ in individuals and communities.
But in the chapter on the pagan roots of preaching they assert five things that all young preachers need to consider carefully. It comes under the rubric, "How Sermonizing Harms the Church."
1. The sermon makes the preacher the virtuoso performer of the regular church gathering. Congregational participation is hampered at best and precluded at worst.
2. The sermon often stalemates spiritual growth. Because it is a one-way affair, it encourages passivity.
3. The sermon preserves the unbiblical clergy mentality. It creates an excessive pathological dependence upon the clergy.
4. Rather than equipping the saints, the sermon de-skills them. The contemporary sermon preached every week has little power to equip God people for spiritual service and functioning.
5. The sermon is often impractical. Preachers speak as experts on that which they have never experienced.
These are serious charges arising from extensive personal experience. All have significant merit and all young preachers will be wise to meditate long and deep upon these matters. |
