The Problem of Preaching to Felt Needs

This is my thought as well. This is the responsibility of the evangelist (missionary): Go out into the world, preach the gospel, then the people who are saved through the preaching come into the church (or start a new one, depending upon location), and grow.

 

I have no idea what you are trying to imply??? The Lamb was the symbol of the one who was crucified for the sins of the world. You do recall he came as the Lion from the tribe of Judah when he walked amung us but he was a Lamb when he stood before the father. A symbol of his obedience. Which room do you expect him to walk into? Besides, i don't believe I will have to say anything, my name is on the role and the father will recognize my righteousness. It belongs to his son.

That is what I call meat...

 

This is the quote that Mohler uses. Notice his strong endorcement at the end.

William H. Willimon, bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church, spoke to the futility of felt needs preaching in a recent interview in Leadership [interview not available online]. His words are worth notice:
Jesus doesn't meet our needs; he rearranges them. He cares very little about most things that I assume are my needs, and he gives me needs I would've never had if I hadn't met Jesus. He reorders them.

I used to ask seminarians, "Why are you in seminary?" They'd say, "I like meeting people's needs." And I'd say, "Whoa. Really? If you try that with the people I know, they'll eat you alive."

Now, if you're a pastor in Honduras, it might be okay to define your ministry as meeting needs, because more people in Honduras have interesting biblical needs – food, clothing, housing. But most people in the churches I know get those needs met without prayer. So they've moved on to "needs" like orgasm, a satisfying career, an enjoyable love life, a positive outlook on life, and stuff the Bible has absolutely no interest in.

Those are strong words -- and words we all need to hear.


People in Honduras have "real" needs but people in the west end of Louisville only care about "orgasm, a satisfying career, an enjoyable love life, a positive outlook on life, and stuff the Bible has absolutely no interest in."

I stand by my rejection of Mohler's turning his back on human needs in his own backyard. Is that so difficult to see from this article?

 

If the preacher never connects with the people he is preaching to, he will not reach them. When Jesus addressed people he knew what was in their heart and connected with them at a place where they could be reached initially. If one reads the sermons Jesus gave they are mostly quite simple and faithful for a lifetime of application.

Felt needs or real needs, who cares where you start. Just start at the right place and quit talking and do something. God will give wisdom on the way.

The real need of the church in America is to make disciples. Yet how many preachers preach week after week on something else?

 

AMEN!

Keep preaching to the choir! If they don't get it, the congregation surely won't.

And as for making disciples . . . once someone understands the reality of hellfire and damnation they realize that their real need is Jesus. . . and everyone that they know needs Jesus . . . the cleansing power of the Blood is the only need that we need to fulfill. It is when we do not fulfill that real need that we begin to meet 'felt' needs.

What did Peter say? "Wait! You cannot be baptized until after discipleship class?"

NO! God forbid . . . "Repent and be baptized!" I admit that many of them had better knowledge of the Scripture - but the real difference was that they GOT it.

Hellfire and damnation? Or eternity in Heaven by Faith in the Atoning Blood of Jesus Christ?

Preach the sin, preach our separation from God, preach the coming judgment, and then preach the solution.

IMHO.

PS now ya'll are gettin' me fired up . . . Peter began with felt needs . . . he looked at that 40 year old cripple . . . that 40 year old cripple just knew that Peter would solve his need for a little money for supper . . .

And Peter said, "I see your need here's a twenty. Now I feel good!!!"

No! God forbid! He said, "Silver and Gold have I none! In the name of Jesus, get up and walk." The only needs we as ministers should meet (regularly) are those miraculous needs of our people. The only miracle that I can particpate in regularly is SALVATION! Less than working miracles - the red cross can do. Snatching sinners from eternal damnation? Only God can work that miracle - and that is what we are here for. Shepperds that are to go up to the gates of hell itself and pull those sheep back from the very jaws of satan himself.

Do they stink? Yes.

Do they complain? Always.

Does it get old? Every day.

But, I can make real money meeting their needs . . . in any of a hundred careers.

But, God has called me to make a difference in the Kingdom.

[I feel the need to preach - sorry choir]

And that difference does not begin in felt needs. That difference does not begin in solving the problems of the church. That difference does not need a survey.

That difference is Jesus Christ - risen and Lord - in each heart of each person on those pews.

IMHO. And if you have a problem with Mohler doing his job training men to be those special troops of Almighty God Himself, trained to snatch the lost from the jaws of eternal death, then I have a problem with your Theology of your ministry. Mohler says many things that are difficult to handle. Somethings he says, may not worth the time of reading them. But, when he stands against the modern simplified 'gospel' that saves people from hunger and does not feed them spiritually, I stand with him each and every step of the way . . .

 

Ask about where your convention sends most of its money to plant churches in the US.

Ask them where they spend the last amount of money.

The ask yourself if they are really putting their money where their mouth is.

If something is of the highest priority to us we will spend most of your time and money doing it.

 

That's a great sermon for one Sunday, what will you preach next week or for tonights service? The same message everytime. There is more to discipleship than just salvation. The Bible is full of subjects and is a living book. We must preach all of it.

 

Peter didn't preach salvation, he healed him. The man left running, leaping and praising the Lord. Yes, the shepperd must go to hells gate to seek the lost, but once you get them back you must teach them how not to end back up at hells gate. You must teach them to turn the other cheek or how to love their fellowman.

I love to preach about the easy, resting yoke. The yoke, the symbol of work yet will give you rest. Yes, it's a feel good message dealing with how Jesus will bear your burdens. I would feel bad but it's true and it's in the book.

 

And if in preaching any of it, I should miss the Creator one each page, the Savior in every prophecy and its fulfillment, then I have missed what the book (as a whole) is about.

The Bible IMHO is about God coming in the flesh to save undeserving men (and I as chief among sinners - thank Him by fulfilling His command).

Everything else is Table of Contents, notes, indexes, and maps . . .

 

OUCH!!!

Ouch!

Ouch!

You didn't have to state the obvious . . . of course, inquiring minds want to know how you knew?

 

In some ways I agree and in other ways I do not. I do not see Jesus or Paul locked into just one way of reaching people. Jesus always started with the point of connection or commonality. He may have spoken from scripture and he may not have. I would challenge you as I was a few years ago to take a serious look at what Jesus preached and the words he spoke.

One time a man in the congregation whom I knew well and was friends with died. The need was not to just stand there and preach the Bible. We were shocked and his wife was in shock to see him die right there on the spot in front of all of us. The need was not to preach, but to care.

Another time a man had a heart attack and we called an ambulance. That was the need of the moment.

Both those times grabbed the attention of the people.

I am not saying don't preach from the Bible. By all means, but do not ignore God's voice and the clear moment of His presence. What I am saying is to pray and ask for God's guidance and when you do, your preaching will never be stale or dry. He will give you the direction you need. Do not let man destroy your living relationship with God. Too many think they are God's answer and act as a junior Holy Spirit.

Just when we think we have all the answers what does God do?

I am absolutely convinced that we must spend much time in the closet before we can even think about preaching what we should. When we have something worth giving people will listen. When we are on fire people will watch us burn brightly. When we pray and see how He answers we know then that His ways are not our ways and we can have no glory in that. He must get the glory and we know it.

 

Aren't we all like you described Mohler. There are times today when I do not agree with what I once believed. Isn't it amazing God uses us at all?

The gospel of Jesus Christ preached in James and the gospels I know saves people temporarily from hunger so that they will be receptive to the eternal food from God we give them. If a person comes into the assembly and is hungry will they listen if they are hungry and we ignore their need?

Let me illustrate a point; A few years ago I met a young man whose dad was a top lawyer in the city. The young man was attracted to me because he wanted to learn more about the work I was doing that he enjoyed seeing me do. I was working on a home doing the finish work for the man who is the president of a very well known TV production company. I gained credibility because of my work and expertise. I had studied under one of the best craftsman in the world to learn those things. As we talked I began to ask him questions about what he believed. During one of our conversations he told me how a number of students in the local high school he had gone to sat by themselves when they ate lunch and ignored the other students. Basically what he was saying is that he felt they treated the other students as though they were a bad influence and somehow bad. This young man was articulate and intelligent and quite a nice gentleman. I agreed and told him that was poor. Eventually he trusted me and we started talking a lot more about his spiritual relationship with God. He began to ask questions at lunch time in front of others who were not Christians. I had a listening audience. I was real with him. When the building was nearly done he invited me to his parent's home to be a part of a party they were having. I brought my entire family and a lot of people I knew were there as well. I had a chance to get to know his parents and his siblings.

The Christians he knew from high school had very little credibility in his eyes. He knew I cared and would listen and be real with him. He heard the gospel from me. I still pray for that young man and keep up with him.

So often the more I read men the less I read what God says and interpret scripture in light of what another says rather than studying as I should. Recently a lady who was from a rather poor country told me that she had noticed that in poor countries the people spend more time reading the Bible than other books, but in wealthier countries they spend more time reading about the Bible rather than reading the Bible itself.

Even the majority of people who go to church do not know who Paige Patterson or Albert Mohler is. What they believe is of no value compared to who they are and what they do. The church is so much more vast than the SBC. The SBC is like a speck compared to the church of Jesus Christ around the world.

The important thing is not what someone else believes but what the Christian believes and does on the street who goes to church on Sunday and rubs shoulders with others they know. That is where the local pastor and those in the congregation come in.

 

When I was a student in seminary I inquired about planting a church in the Pacific Northwest and was told then. I also asked a pastor who had planted a church and was told by him as well.

 

gb

I guess we agree . . . I just don't know what we agree on this time.

 

Ironic that we can pay about 70k per missionary overseas and in the 3rd largest mission field (USA) and one of the costliest countries, we are hard pressed to pay 30k each . . .

 

note . . . that is total cost per actual person in the field . . . not salary.

 

I met with many of the staff of a church about 20 years ago who did something about that. They sent a man to train locals and he left that area and moved onto another area until the locals were trained there. Some of them came here to go to theological school and learn more. The church here supported locals to get the job done.

A friend of mine who was a missionary in Ethiopia during communism and afterward for about 25 years and told me it would be amazing what he could do with 200 dollars there.

Lots of seminary students are from foreign countries and come here to study but the SBC will not support them in their own country. A friend of mine from another country came to the US to study at SWBTS and the SBC told him they would not support him in his home country but he could go to another country and they would. In his home country he already spoke the language and knew the customs, but they would not support him unless he went to another country where he had to learn the language, learn their customs and eat foreign food.

Make sense for the sake of the gospel?