Much is at stake, but great things are in store if a church stops playing games and bolts the Bible to the pulpit and the pulpit to the floor boards. Sure, some people may not like it, but God’s word promises that the blessings will outweigh the backlash. Let’s look at five reasons that preaching sound doctrine matters…
(Costi Hinn – Servants of Grace) Some years ago we did things a little differently at our church than we do now. We had a band that was filled with hired guns and we paid them to play the lights out every Sunday. To illustrate: our guitarist would tour the world with a famous boy-band, then roll in on Sundays to put on a show for our church—true story.
As far as the sermons would go, they were a mixture of some Bible, exciting and emotionally driven stories, and an ending that was designed to move everyone into an emotional response to the message. We were the typically modern, attractional, evangelical church. And make no mistake about it, lots of people were drawing to our doors. But they were not coming for doctrine—they came for the personalities, the music, and the emotion. It was working!
This is why it seemed like our teaching-pastor had lost his mind when he suddenly got up one Sunday having “fired” all the hired musicians and telling the congregation, “If someone is musically gifted and won’t play for free, this church will no longer be a good fit.” Going even further he started preaching verse-by-verse to grow our church in doctrine, and songs changed from the latest Jesus Culture hit to songs rich in theological truths. Emotionally driven services became clear calls for biblical action and obedience to Christ!
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