What Jesus Said About Himself
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Why Sunday Sermons are Inadequate

The institution, the tradition of the Sunday sermon is incapable of and is not qualified to communicate the gospel of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. I know that’s a strong statement and could be offensive to those who earn their livings by their sermons and actually I love sermons. But they just are not a tool that Jesus gave us to accomplish ministry, he gave us much more effective tools to do what he calls us to than the Sunday sermon.

The man or woman of God who feels called to serve Christ. Should not attempt to delegate the sharing of the gospel of the kingdom, to the Sunday sermon. And whosoever is called to preach the gospel of the kingdom, they discard their obligation to preach the gospel IF they try to fulfill that calling using the Sunday sermon or homily.

Neither Jesus Christ, nor John the Baptist, nor the apostles preached sermons. And when I say sermons I mean the sermon as defined by most seminaries and or public speaking courses. An intro, 3-5 main points, a conclusion, a funny story, a call to action and make it no longer than 30-45 minutes.

If we really feel pressured to preach sermons may they be for discipleship and when the time is up for the sermon, let them end and move on to something else. Don’t make it go on in perpetuity for every single meeting just because that is what is always done or that is what the people think they need.

The “sermon” on the mount was not a sermon

Even the “sermon on the mount” would not be considered to be a modern sermon. It was about 12 – 13 minutes of teaching. It did not have a intro, nor three points, nor conclusion and neither a call to action. Nor did it last 30 minutes to an hour. The sermon on the mount was not even called a sermon until the 1800s by bible translators who were categorizing the ministry of Jesus Christ. No doubt their intentions were good but the fact remains, the sermon on the mount is not what any seminary would define as a sermon nor how it would teach its students to prepare and preach a sermon. Therefore calling it a sermon is misleading, especially for people who base and center an entire church on the modern concept of a sermon.

I see pastors trying to make the sermon the centerpiece of their Sunday gathering, and therefore the centerpiece of their ministry and their church. But in so doing they disqualify that part of their ministry, from the very thing most want to be the purpose of their church…evangelism. The sermon forces the pastor to make the gospel the conclusion of every Sunday sermon. the only place it fits is at the weekly conclusion or call to action. And only a small portion of the gospel fits into that conclusion. The part about becoming a Christian, converting, getting into heaven. The real gospel of the kingdom and all its implications and the Christian communities that it establishes when fully preached takes at least 80 hours to communicate. Bare minimum, and ideally it should be taught in about 6 months of daily teaching meetings that establish a community of Christians who are left mesmerized and in intense pursuit of knowing Jesus Christ together and who are sharing his life in a face to face community. It is such a radical community of world changers they probably get persecuted or killed off in most societies, but they advanced into the kingdom of Christ anyhow, loving, healing and giving and defeating Satan at every step.

The gospel of the kingdom of Jesus Christ sets a community of Christians up to gather without a need for a king-like clergyman. To control their every move when they gather. It sets them up with the ability to be led by the Holy Spirit together in a loving community.

Only teams of men or women of God can adequately communicate the gospel of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Teams, not lone superstar clergymen. Please don’t get angry at me for writing that, I don’t say it out of a criticism of pastors, I love pastors, they are wonderful gifts to the body of Christ. But their job descriptions still need much reform back to what we see in scripture.

Paul seemed to be the most like an independent preacher, but if you read closely you can see he was approved by the apostles in Jerusalem. He was also sent out and chosen by other members of the body of Christ. Paul had companions and helpers and partners in his ministry. He was not a lone wolf, off alone preaching. He specifically and intentionally sought out the approval of his gospel by the Jerusalem church before he started preaching. He was able to submit and live with other men and women of God in community.

Don’t Bother With The Sermon

My point, if you are called to ministry don’t major on sermons, instead major on loving the other members of the body of Christ. Major on the ministry of Jesus Christ. Major on being led of the Holy Spirit and not ministry-logic taught in seminary (the supremacy of the sermon). There is a massive place for preaching and teaching in spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, but I don’t see how the modern sermon has much of any place in it.

It takes a good deal of leadership to lead a congregation away from the entrenched tradition of sermons. And toward the Holy Spirit, but someone, somewhere, at sometime will read this and know what the Lord is calling you to do.

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Means To An End …Becoming The End

In business when we hire new people the goal is to train them to do a job independently and not need continual training and reminding, reassurance, and driving them hard, to do a particular job. Some jobs this takes many months, other jobs it takes just a day or two.

In discipleship the goal is the same. The training (teaching) is a means to an end.

The end is spiritual maturity and a person who listens to, cooperates with and responds to the life of Jesus Christ within.

That is the most precise definition one can muster because this life of God in a cooperating and listening person looks different in everyone.

The act of training and discipleship is not THE end in itself.

If you’ve been trained in seminary or elsewhere that the training is the end itself, it’s time to retrain. All is not lost.

Not even evangelism is a legitimate end to justify the forever sermonizing a community. Sometimes Jesus is not evangelizing, there is no autopilot that if we do abc that is success. No hearing cooperating and serving the life of Jesus is the end for all ministry.

The Sunday sermon is engineered to be the end, it is either:

1) intellectual religious entertainment among the thoughtful Christians.
or
2) Repeated reassurance I am going to heaven among the evangelicals.
or
3) Repeated reassurance I am living a life pleasing to God (and myself) among the rich Christians.
4) Repeated reassurance I can try harder and be better and solve my problems, among the poor Christians.

Just to name a few.

If that is your ministry philosophy, forever teaching but never bringing followers to a place of self sufficiency your philosophy is deeply flawed.

Even Jesus did not do that. Jesus sent his disciples out after and during the training time, (within 3 years of beginning) then after only 3 years he left them alone to the Holy Spirit.

Paul would take just a few months to teach his disciples then leave them to the Holy Spirit. Him Leaving was critical to their growth and dependence on the Spirit as a group.

How long have you been hearing sermons you agree with? 5, 10, 25, 50 years?

The Sunday sermon (which I have loved for years) is more like a Greek pagan philosophizing tradition, adopted for Sunday mornings.

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Can Women Join The Clergy?

Recently two different Christians that I know well have asked me what I thought about woman’s in ministry,

“Can a woman be a pastor?, Can a woman run a church?”

My answer to that is quite simple, no, but its not a no for the reason you might think.

The modern definition of pastor, the job title as the guy at the top of a hierarchy. The person who orchestrates church meetings. The person who is “in charge” of the church.

I recently watched a male pastor cry before his congregation about his insecurities and struggles in following God. After 30 minutes of this he said crying “well… and I am your leader…” and continued in the struggles and confessions of confusion, difficulty and turmoil. It was refreshing honesty about his weakness and need for others and his need for help.

This man was not qualitied to be leading Christians around, but not becuase of anything to his fault. No Christian is. The best of the best is not qualified for that. Paul himself would plant churches, disciple the new believers and train them to be led of the Spirit then he would leave them alone to the leadership of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. He did not place himself or his loyal men over that body of Christians. He was sensitive and careful not to overstep his place and intrude on the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

The role of pastor that the vast majority of protestant Christianity (and the role of Priest in Catholacism) has embraced does exactly that. It intrudes on the Spirit of Christ over other Christians. It usurps itself over the Holy Spirit. Amazingly most the time these other Christians crave that intrusion because they don’t know how to be led of the Spirit. I craved exactly that for most of my time as a Christian.

I love and appreciate pastors but don’t look to them for much of anything. I don’t look to them for anything beyond what I look to any Christian for. Fellowship, friendship and if fortunate inspiration from the spirit of Jesus. But not leadership. If they say or teach something that I know is not of God I don’t get mad at them. Any more than any Christian. Most of them mean well, most of them are just meeting a demand in the body of Christ. But as they meet that demand it does not necessarily mean they are following the spirit of Christ. Nor that I should listen to them more than my teen who is seeking Jesus and has the Spirit of Christ within.

As leaders, we can fake it, we can feign confidence and train ourselves to preach with excellent words of eloquence. And we can even bring in business consultants and call it “building the kingdom” but… it’s just not.

Jesus exclusively does that… through whom he choses, and how he choses. Ministry then is what God gets out of our lives as we surrender and yield ourselves to Jesus Christ.

So then NO, women cannot be clergyman pastors, but then again, neither can men. Unless of course we take the role of pastor as the scripture defines it. An older mature elder in the Lord who is able to teach who leads a life of self control and who is able to disciple young Christians.

That role is all over in the New Testament filled by both men and women in different ways. It may not pay well, it may not have a salary attached to it. It’s not going to feed your ego, or the pride of our lives all that much. But it is there and it is world-changing and it is the most important job on planet earth.

The modern definition of pastor, the clergyman (or clergywoman) is not a thing of Jesus Christ. It is not a spiritually legitimate profession. It may fit well into Satan’s world system of religion. But I’m with Jesus exclusively and Jesus does not fill pastor-ships like that. We do, tradition does, we inherit and hand down the concept of clergy, a professional class of religious leaders. It never should have been adopted by Christian churches, but it was.

Clergymen attempt to orchestrate and control Christian gatherings and think it their responsibility to orchestrate what the Spirit of Jesus wants to orchestrate. Through all his followers together, one by one. They go in and out for us, telling us when to come in and sit down, when and what to “repeat after me”, when to stand up, sit down, and pay the tenth and stop the talking, they entertain us with song and eloquence of speech.

As they do this… as we demand they do this. I can’t help but believe that Jesus is watching shaking his head saying ‘no thanks, none of that.’ I can’t help but believe he’d prefer the little old lady in the back row with little to no money and who is not cool. And who has a gentle, meek demeanor, that she should take the microphone from the proud one on stage and teach and exhort the people.

Pastors are legitimate ministry gifts but our definition is not Jesus’ definition, nor Paul’s definition.

The truth is, God can, and does, and has used women to minister as much as men. Any person, male of female who is being led of the Spirit is a minister of Jesus Christ.

For more information about what real ministry is this teaching from T. Austin Sparks is second to none.

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