Getting Soft in Our Old Age
Not long after I got saved I began to discover there were some earmarks found in the majority of Independent Baptist Churches. Although soul winning was an integral part of every Independent Baptist Church I ever attended, soul winning was also found in all sorts of other denominational churches and movements. This is not the type of earmark that stood out to me. What stood out to me was the hard, straightforward preaching. I'm talking about preaching with application. I'm talking about preaching that got to where you lived. Growing up in religion, I cannot remember a single sermon ever preached. I cannot remember anyone ever being mad about a position taken by the preacher. Why? Preaching was just part of the program. It was not THE PROGRAM.
I remember as a student in Bible College attending the Southwide Baptist Fellowship meetings. I remember the air of anticipation surrounding what certain preachers would preach on. I recall a chapel service a week before the Southwide Fellowship one year where the student body was warned to "keep their feet on the ground" when certain preachers got to preach. I for one looked forward to those preachers. But then something happened. In my second or third year of Bible College, they began choosing a theme for the meeting and giving the preachers their topic. I guess they thought the Holy Spirit wasn't up to this job anymore. I asked someone why this was being done and I was told they were doing this to control some of the preachers. I said to myself then, "Pretty soon this meeting will be just another bland meeting with a lot preaching about preaching but very little real preaching." I was right.
So what has happened to the great preaching that stood out as the defining earmark of the, Independent Baptist movement? From where I sit, it looks like we have got soft in our old age. We all know that preaching stirs up trouble. Most preachers today just don't want any trouble. We talk about preachers getting older and wiser. We call it being tempered and seasoned, but in many cases it's just getting soft and being afraid to deal with issues. I remember when most Independent Baptist preachers took a stand on young people not touching till they got married. Not courting alone. Sadly, our young people today are made fun of by old, soft compromising preachers for following these standards! There was a day when we were against woman wearing pants, now the preacher's wife wears them to her Church aerobics class! We are getting soft! Preachers without a backbone need to get out of the ministry.
Our pulpits have become Laodician and our church members have followed suit. Our churches' members are eaten up with carnality and worldliness, and yet we say, "....We are rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing". We talk about how many came to Sunday School, how much money is in the bank, or how big the latest building we just built is, while the church stinks with sin and cries out for preaching, but gets another theology lesson instead! God is saying to our church, "Thou knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. " Revelation 3:17. With a new year about to begin, we need to buckle down and start preaching. The church has enough politicians, it's time it got some preachers who will obey Is. 58: 1, and begin to cry loud about the people's sin.
Pastor Steven E. Mays - Trumpet Editor