Imagine I had to suddenly leave my home for a foreign country without a chance to say good-bye to my family. But, before I left, I dictated a letter for my family to a friend and charged him with the task of delivering my message to my family. Suppose though, on the way to deliver this message to my family, my friend decided that what my family really needed to hear was a series of lectures on his opinions of the perfect family. He then delivered these lectures, using quotes from my letter, taken out of context, to back up his points. If I found out he had done this, I would be furious at my friend! I gave him a message for my family. His task was to deliver it to them with no embellishments or distractions. I would say, “Just deliver the message! Only ad what you need to say, to help them understand it because they weren’t there when I dictated it!” I believe God is furious over what passes for preaching in many churches. He has given a message to his family and has appointed teachers and preachers to “just deliver the message!” and to only ad what they need to ad to help God’s family understand it because they are in a new context. His message is his transformative Word. It is to be listened to, understood and obeyed. This is the fundamental task of Christian attention.
Just deliver the message!
The fundamental task of the Christian Spiritual leader has always and only been to listen to God’s Word, understand God’s meaning, and proclaim it to his contemporary community. The Christian leader is to lead his people to pay attention to God. In these last days, God is paid attention to through the text of his spoken Word, the Bible (Heb. 1:1-3). The primary call of the Christian leader, then, is to continue to exegete God’s Word and teach it to his community. John Stott points out that when the Church has neglected to execute its first duty to authentic, exegetically based, expository preaching, it has experienced its eras of decline and weakness in strength, numbers, and vitality.
Some may assert, “Of course the content of Christian proclamation is the Scriptures. That’s obvious.” If it is obvious, why is it so often not practiced? Why do we find, in so many gatherings of God’s people, that there is so much topical, human opinion being proclaimed, while God’s plain message to his family is ignored or changed? The fundamental task of making sure God’s Word is heard, is not just the responsibility of Christian leaders. The people of God must take responsibility for their own spiritual formation. They must demand that their leaders expose them to an authentic hearing of God’s authentic message.
