What was what?
Holly and I were fresh transplants to the sweltering city of Jackson, Mississippi when a friend and fellow seminary student invited us to dinner. He and his wife were living in the affordable townhouses inhabited by many students not a half mile from the campus. Burgers on the grill, we were enjoying an evening of conversation and laughs after our intensive summer Greek course. Above the cacophony of cicadas and sizzling beef fat, a distant rumble began to harmonize with our ambiance. Soon, the distant rumble became the deafening roar and rattle of a freight train that cut all other sounds from existence. We could feel the train. Our conversation had to pause until the iron horse passed.
My question, of course, was how in the world could you live with that as a constant life interruption? Our friends shrugged and nonchalantly said that they really just didn’t hear it anymore. It had become a mere background nuisance that, if asked, “What was that?” they might respond with, “What was what?”.
I’m afraid that the awe-inspiring, life-or-death message of the gospel has become a “What was what?” . . . in many of our rural areas and small towns.
Many of the churches host pastors who have very little prep time for their sermons and even less instruction on how to prepare a sermon that honors the whole story of God’s heart of rescue. So they resort to what they know, which is typically a “You need Jesus now” message, amped up with zeal and fervor and decibels, with little regard for how a relationship with Christ impacts all of life. The “gospel” gets preached much like a freight train; loud, long, consistent, and on a track to deliver goods but not to me or anyone in the vicinity. Their people become inoculated to the noise of an ineffective and abbreviated story. They nod, say “amen,” and feel good that at least they went to church. But then they go about life as is. There is very little transformative engagement with Jesus.
A small town pastor friend of mine told the story of a salesman with whom he worked. This colleague had been married six times and was currently dating a woman. His summer weekends were spent partying on the lake, but his weekends were cut short as he needed to be back to serve his church Sunday morning. He is a faithful churchgoer. Not only that, he is an elder (leader) in his church. Where is the disconnect between his professed relationship with Jesus and his seemingly unchallenged lifestyle that so obviously transgresses the Bible, contradicts God’s character, objectifies women, and dismisses the gospel he says he believes and seeks to serve? Where is the challenge from his pastor and fellow leaders to exemplify the qualifications and character of a biblical leader?
Rural Church Development seeks to enter in and come alongside, where the Lord is already at work, to assist in equipping people with a tangible Jesus who really does transform lives in real and remarkable ways. How? Through the gracious generosity of our donors and Tennessee Valley Presbytery, we are offering online seminary for young men desiring to become pastors . . . or better pastors. We hope to develop preachers who not only become better communicators of the good news of Jesus, but better pastors who can enter in to people’s lives and see that good news at work in the heart of people with transformed lives. We are seeking to create a gospel culture where people are gathered to worship to know the love of Christ and be so enthralled with His love for them that they can’t help but live out His transformative power in them. We want people to hear God’s Word in such a way that they walk our of a Bible study or service of worship not asking, “What was what?” but proclaiming, “That was none other than God Himself speaking to my heart.”