Editorial

Preaching the gospel in contemporary Canadian society

We sometimes define preaching as what the pastor says to the congregation in the second half of the church worship service on Sunday morning. That may be preaching, but the biblical word kerusso is much broader than that. It literally means to proclaim publicly--as a herald for the government (a town crier) would proclaim new laws, for instance.

Paul then compares preaching to the Old Testament image of those who bring good news (Romans 10:15, quoting Isaiah 52:7). The word Paul uses here is euaggelizo (from which we get our word evangelize). It is composed of too parts: eveu (good) and aggelos (messenger, from which we get our English word angel).

Then Paul gives an example from Psalm 19 of how God communicates to humanity. That Psalm says that the heavens declare the glory of God. This message is poured forth day after day and night after night. It reaches from one end of the world to the other so that there is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.

From these verses, I note three characteristics of preaching.

These images call for a herald or a messenger, someone who speaks on behalf of a powerful ruler. This means that when we preach, we must be careful to preach God's words and not our own opinions. It also means that we can preach with authority. We are speaking on behalf of the all-powerful Ruler of the universe. What we are saying is therefore important and dependable, and people need to listen to it.

God wants to sends His message out publicly, so that everyone will hear. Preaching inside a church on Sunday morning or putting a small ad on the church page of the local newspaper, while good, fall far short of what God wants to do. Even some Christian use of the mass media--such as a radio or TV program aimed at Christians and aired on a "Christian network or station--falls short of the ideal.

On the other hand, I am impressed with some of our MB churches (many of them newer church plants) which send well-designed, contemporary brochures to thousands of their neighbours several times a year. I am impressed by churches which somehow grab the attention of their communities. I am impressed by Christian writers who get their books published and distributed by mainstream publishers and who can get their articles published in the Vancouver Sun and Winnipeg Free Press as well as the MB Herald.

God's preachers are to bring good news. However, sometimes what we Christians preach seems anything but good news. Disgraced televangelists may have preached very publicly, but what they ultimately communicated was bad news--that the gospel offers no hope because it doesn't have the power to change people.

Some years ago, I heard of a church that wanted to build a large building in a good location so that it could proclaim the good news. However, that desire got the church embroiled in a nasty rezoning fight with their prospective neighbours and the city council. When another church tried to distribute the Jesus video in that neighbourhood, contrary to Campus Crusade's experience in almost every other neighbourhood in the world, no one would accept the free video. Did that building proclaim God's good news?

Abbotsford, B.C. has one of the highest concentrations of Christian churches in Canada, so that it is virtually impossible for residents to be unaware of the Christian presence. The letters to the editor column in our local newspaper is often filled with acrimonious debates on issues such as abortion and homosexuality. While the Christian letter writers often loudly proclaim God's truth, I am embarrassed to say that too often they do not seem to do so with God's love. When a door-to-door evangelism campaign was undertaken here, an average number of people responded positively, but a higher than average number of times people angrily slammed doors in the canvassers' faces. Can we really be said to be proclaiming good news?

On the other hand, there have been a number of prominent stories in the local newspapers that definitely were good news--and some of them were at times when the church was not even trying to get into the paper. One involved a family whose child had died tragically; the family described how wonderfully supportive their church had been. Another article concerned Neighbourlink, a program by which churches band together to provide practical help to people in need. A third involved the new women's centre my own church has opened which particularly offers practical help to single mothers. These stories are good news, and they arise when the church lives out the gospel.

We need to reflect carefully on how and what we are preaching. Does the world around us respond with enthusiasm, How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!

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