Keep it Simple! In a world of growing technology and increases in everything scientific, it is often far too easy to overcomplicate our lives. Although there are certainly circumstances that require precise timing and unfailing accuracy, sometimes the best solution is to keep it simple. Neurosurgery is an example of a circumstance that requires a high regard for accuracy and precision. For those of you with limited knowledge of things scientific, neurosurgery is the medical specialty concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerves and extra-cranial cerebrovascular system. A miscalculation can be disastrous for such a scientist, but thankfully we don’t have to be neurosurgeons to share the Gospel of Christ. Devotional books and spiritual formation journals can be great tools for Christian living, but when it comes to ministry, the best and closest model for success is found in the life of Jesus, himself. Jesus is our greatest model for ministry, and therefore, it is important that we learn to walk and talk like He would. During long car rides, I often flip through the radio stations, searching for a good sermon to listen to. I find this to be something that can, one, keep me distracted from the headaches and frustrations of city traffic, and two, allows God to speak to me, even when my surroundings include honking cars and unsightly hand gestures. On one particular day, I was flipping through the stations, while stuck in a traffic jam, and came across a sermon that I wouldn’t soon forget. Not because it tugged on my heartstrings or made me feel like getting out of my car and falling to my knees, but because I didn’t understand a word of it! The language used was much like the following: “The accoutrements of our parsimonious society are superabundant, and the gasconading done by certain auspicious, ebullient individuals are the exact mirror of perfidiousness.” I’m not going to take the time to translate that statement, because it wasn’t actually part of the sermon, but rather my best attempt to demonstrate to you the type of language that this pastor was dishing out to his listeners. Is preaching a sermon using these fancy, flowery words wrong? Of course it’s not. Is it possible that many people were spiritually touched or moved by his sermon? Yes, indeed. But, is it an ideal way to communicate the gospel of Christ? I think an important truth to consider about the teachings of Jesus, is that it was not his goal to impress the crowds with the things He said. He spoke in simple language, and told stories that the people could relate to. The theological debates, denominational argumentation, and fancy vocabularies that we hear far too often today can easily get in the way of the simple truths of Christian life. The content of his messages weren’t often what would be considered “crowd pleasers.” An example of what I mean can be found in John 6:53, where Jesus says “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” I don’t know about you, but if I were living in the days of Jesus, and heard him say that I was supposed to eat someone’s flesh and drink someone’s blood, I may have a couple questions for Him after his sermon was done! So often today, we hear sermons that sound good to us; sermons that make us feel good. But when ministry is concerned, it is just as important to warn others of hell’s fire as it is to share the glory of Heaven’s gates. Jesus didn’t have a censor on His sermons, thinking “I better not preach on eternal damnation today. I’d hate to lose my followers.” No, Jesus wasn’t driven to impress others, but instead to teach them the truth and to show them the way of eternal life. So what have we learned so far? Jesus didn’t confuse his followers with big words and an “impressive” vocabulary. He kept things in simple terms, taught using stories, and spoke in a context that was easy for the crowds to understand. Jesus wasn’t a “crowd pleaser.” He didn’t say only the things that the crowd wanted to hear. He taught the scary aspects of Christianity as well as the favorable ones. Although we often find ourselves overcomplicating our religion, it is important to remember that ministry can be simple. Not to say that it will always be easy, but we certainly don’t have to be neurosurgeons to share message of Christ.
Posted on: Mon, 02 Dec 2013 17:33:10 +0000
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