Sunday.....Christianity.....Why Johnny Can't Preach

If I only had the opportunity to write one entry on this blog, it would be an appeal to pastors to preach Christ and His cross. There are many things in which we deserve rebuke, but none more so than the clergy's failure to preach Christ consistently from the pulpit on the Lord's Day and our failure to require such from the men in the pulpits. I recently came across a small, newly published, paperback book called Why Johnny Can't Preach by Grove City College professor T. David Gordon. (isbn 9781596381162 P&R Publishing) This book was highly recommended by a ministry that I know to be very good and the book was everything and more than I even hoped, for it is concise, clear and powerful. One must expend every effort to reject Professor Gordon's argument. I don't have it in front of me for I have passed on a few copies and intend to purchase more for this reason. So many times, we agonize for some way that we can make a difference in our country. Distributing this book is one way and it strikes at the very heart of our problem, malnourishment from the lack of preaching Christ and Him crucified! We can experience movements of various kinds within this present evangelicalism. We can be instrumental in putting a political party into office that shores up the dikes for a while. We can have an evangelical president, legislate against egregious assaults on our foundations and see the battle go our way, for a time, but our presence will ultimately be resistible and ineffective without a genuine transformation in accordance with God's express will, through the power of His Spirit and with the proclamation of Jesus Christ, in all His majesty, power and glory, before us every time that we gather on His day. Most everyone believes that Christ is preached in their church. This because they have nothing to compare it to. They do not know what is lacking, therefore there is no urgency. Here is one litmus test you might consider; if when the service is over, the sermon has been preached, the benediction given, you do not need a few moments to gather yourself, to take a deep breath and consider what you have just heard, the momentousness of how it has effected your life and eternal soul, and the souls of all those whom you love who believe, then you have not heard Christ preached.