Minor Thoughts from me to you

I've thought about Scott's comments all week long. He presented a contrast between preaching (reaching out to the unsaved) and teaching (reaching out to the saved).

As I thought about the discussion this week, I noticed something ironic: Blackhawk is Blackhawk Evangelical Free Church. The "E-Free" denomination is supposed to be about the good news of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, we can go many weeks without hearing the name of Jesus mentioned during a sermon. (For instance, Jesus wasn't mentioned in tonight's sermon and he wasn't mentioned in last week's sermon. Will he be mentioned in next week's sermon?)

Because of this, I agree with Scott. I think Blackhawk tends to reach out only to those who already know Jesus. It's right there in our mission statement: "Building a community...". The ultimate goal is for the Blackhawk community to reach out to the broader community (Madison) and present Jesus to Madison. The church community does present Jesus through our actions: the church is involved in multiple charities and service organizations around the city. But the teaching team does not often present Jesus from the pulpit. I think this is a problem.

I think it's a problem for two reasons: the teaching doesn't inform seekers who come in from the community about Jesus, and I think it misses the main thrust of the Bible. I won't spend much time talking about the first point -- it was the main focus of last week's discussion. But I do want to reiterate it: a non-Christian visiting Blackhawk would leave most Sundays without a clear idea of the gospel. As Tim Mackie discussed in the Jephthah sermon, "God" is a word with many different definitions. Ask a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, and a Wiccan who God is, and you'll probably get six different answers. The true, distinctive mark of the Christian faith is Jesus. As I said last week, we are what we are because of Jesus and only because of Jesus. That is the single biggest idea that differentiates Christianity from every other religion on earth. I believe that it must be preached on a regular basis.

I believe that Jesus must be taught on a regular basis. I believe it for three reasons:, it's important, we're forgetful and we need a model. It's important because Scripture says it's important:

[esvbible reference="1 Corinthians 2:1-5" header="on" format="block"]1 Corinthians 2:1-5[/esvbible]

I've always noticed that Paul said the gospel is of first importance. It's not the only important thing in the Bible. But he does think it's the most important thing in the Bible. Instead of telling someone the gospel right before they commit to Jesus, I think we should tell them the gospel on a regular basis, as the foundation of Christianity.

[esvbible reference="1 Corinthians 15:1-3" header="on" format="block"]1 Corinthians 15:1-3[/esvbible]

Notice that Paul says he is reminding the Corinthians about Jesus. We Christians are forgetful people. It's easy to forget how desperately wicked and evil we are apart from Jesus. It's easy to forget that Jesus is the only hope we have for ever seeing heaven. It's easy to forget that we can do nothing good apart from Jesus. I think the old hymn had a lot of wisdom:

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it

Prone to leave the God I love

I think any good teaching has to lead us back to Jesus on a regular basis. We have to be (or I have to be, at least) regularly reminded of who we love, why we love him, and what he's done for us. Only then can we live the life of good works that he's called us to live.

We also need a model. It's easy to say that we (the Blackhawk community) should be the primary people to communicate Jesus to our friends and neighbors. It's even true: my friends, neighbors, and co-workers are going to trust me a lot more than they're going to trust a pastor from a random church. But how do I share Jesus? How do I relate him to the modern, secular world I live in? How do I tie Jesus to the moral principles that the world loves and yet still talk about the sin that Jesus hated? How do I tie Jesus to every page of Scripture? Pastors can model these discussions through their sermons. If Jesus is relevant to modern life, it should be possible to both effectively teach the Scripture and effectively present Jesus. Through a constant diet of Jesus-filled sermons, I can see how to present Jesus to people I interact with.

I want to see this happen at Blackhawk. I admit to being spoiled. For the past year, I've been listening to the sermons of Pastor Mark Driscoll at Mars Hill Church, Seattle. In every sermon -- every single one -- that he preaches, Pastor Mark presents Jesus as the sole solution to the problems we face. Every week, he presents sin as the root problem and Jesus as the only solution. He preaches practically, but grounds every message in the story of Jesus. It's powerful stuff. And, as I've listened, I've gained more of an understanding of both how to live and how to share Jesus.

Mark Driscoll does have one advantage over the Blackhawk teaching team: the average Mars Hill sermon is 65 minutes long. It's a lot easier to cover ground when you have that much time. I'm not arguing that Blackhawk should look and act exactly like Mars Hill. We live in a different community and in a different culture. But maybe we could learn something about how to present Jesus, even if it is every other sermon instead of every sermon.

Thoughts?