Got your attention?

A youth pastor told me this about his senior pastor one time, and it makes for a nice continuation of yesterday’s sarcastic post. As you know, here at stevenfurtick.com, sarcasm usually comes in a series.
If you start me up I’ll never stop.
When it rains it pours.
Give me an inch…
You get the point.

Anyway, this youth pastor was talking about how their church isn’t “one of those seeker sensitive churches” and explaining to me how his pastor never waters down the Gospel.

“Like last Sunday night, he preached on hell. And he told it like it was, brother. He scared the hell out of ‘em, heh heh heh… “

Wait a minute…

He preached on hell on a Sunday night? The last time I checked, the Sunday night crowd at most rural churches didn’t contain the highest concentration of hellbound sinners. Hello?

So you’re telling me that preaching about hell to a bunch of people who are going to heaven makes him bold?

Is it a really a bold move? Or just an opportunity to hear the 40% of your congregation who already agrees with you tell you amen about all the people “out there” who are going to burn in hell, partly because you’d rather talk to each other about hell on a Sunday night than do something creative-and God forbid seeker sensitive-on a Sunday morning to reach them for Jesus?

Maybe “telling it like it is” is really about carefully preparing a passionate, Biblical, Christ centered, grace oriented worship service to address the real issues lost people face, and sacrificing to make your church a place they would actually think about attending in the first place.

Maybe it’s not about scaring the hell out of people who are already going to heaven.

That kind of thinking scares the hell out of me.