Reason #13 - Professional Pastors' Long Sermon Prep Implies That The Bible Is Extremely Complicated

An odd competition of sorts exists among some pastors over who can spend the most time preparing sermons. Some of them literally spend over 20 (!) hours on each lecture. On the surface this might seem like a good thing; at least they will be prepared. However, is this truly good? Does it benefit the church body to realize that the pastor has spent hour upon hour getting ready to give his weekly monologue(s)?

I contend that it is not a good thing. The reason is that pastors are inadvertently giving the church the message that the bible is extremely complicated. This is why they have to spend hour after hour studying. This, in turn, sends the message to the folks in the pews that they will need to study for hours to comprehend scripture. The massive negative consequence in all this is that it actually discourages people from trying to understand the bible for themselves. They then just wait for the pastor to teach them on Sundays.

The real reason pastors spend hours preparing is that on Sundays what they are doing is giving a performance. They are expected to speak, uninterrupted, for an extended time. They are also expected to be engaging, interesting, and sometimes funny. This takes preparation.

If pastors were simply teaching an informal class they could spend far less time on it.

The irony of all this is that most pastors hope that their sermons will inspire the people to study scripture for themselves. However, their long sermon prep actually has the opposite effect.

Professional pastors: please resign right now. Your presence and actions are causing significant damage to the body of Christ every day. Quit, get a real job, and become a normal member of the flock. You will never regret your decision.


(This is post thirteen of 25 Reasons Professional Pastors Should Resign.)

Ready to Change at Any Time

This past weekend we had some friends over for dinner. It was a sweet time of fellowship around the table. At one point I was talking to my friend Jeff, who said something profound. As we discussed various things that we believed, he said, "We need to be ready to change what we believe at any time." That may be a bit of a paraphrase, but that is the gist of what he said.

Let me be clear: Jeff was not saying that we should ever stop believing the gospel. He was saying that as we read the bible, we should be willing to let the scriptures change any of our beliefs and practices. This is, after all, the obvious direct application of sola scriptura. We should be willing to change at any time.

I agree with Jeff. I just don't know if I put this into practice. It is somewhat scary and challenging to commit to changing what we believe any time the bible says to do so. This is challenging because the bible has a way of making frontal assaults on our comfortable traditions. Think for just a minute of a tradition you hold dear. Would you be willing to immediately jettison that tradition if you find that it conflicts with scripture?

Most of us fall into the trap of thinking that we have the Christian life all figured out. We can go on a sort of "Christian autopilot" for days if we are not careful. This can happen if we are not consistently reading scripture. However, if we read the bible regularly, it will have a way of knocking our traditions down to the ground.

On a related topic, we all need to be in church situations where we are encouraged to share our lives with one another. As we do this, we will (or at least should) have the opportunity to lovingly confront others and be confronted by others about areas of our lives that are simply unbiblical.

As for being changed by scripture, we must be willing to alter belief and practice. As evangelicals (especially those who have attended seminary), we tend to elevate belief over practice. We must be careful. The reality is that we actually believe what we practice. Additionally, I think God cares more about some practices than others. For example, God cares more about how I treat the poor than He does what I believe about baptism. They are both important, but I have no doubt that the one matters more than the other.

Will I let scripture change how I think about and treat the poor?

Will I let scripture challenge me at any time on any point?

If we believe the bible is the word of God, then we must do so.

Download the NET Bible for Free

I realize this is not news, but it's still worth mentioning.

I recently (and finally) took the time to investigate the NET Bible. It is a modern, excellent translation that was designed to be shared free of charge over the internet.

In my opinion, the best part about the NET Bible is the over 60,000 translation notes. Since the text is in electronic format, the notes are very easily accessible.

As an example, below is the NET Bible note on Acts 8:37:

A few later mss (E 36 323 453 945 1739 1891 pc) add, with minor variations, 8:37 "He said to him, ‘If you believe with your whole heart, you may.’ He replied, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’” Verse 37 is lacking in {Ì^45,74 א A B C 33 614 vg sy^p,h co}. It is clearly not a part of the original text of Acts. The variant is significant in showing how some in the early church viewed a confession of faith. The present translation follows NA²⁷ in omitting the verse number, a procedure also followed by a number of other modern translations."

I found this note very helpful because Acts 8:37 is a verse some translations have (KJV, NKJV), while others do not (ESV, NIV). Additionally, it is a verse that is doctrinally significant because of what is says about baptism.

To download the NET Bible, go here.