{"id":30546,"date":"2016-10-04T23:40:35","date_gmt":"2016-10-05T04:40:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/preaching-to-people-whose-theology-differs-from-mine\/"},"modified":"2016-10-04T23:40:35","modified_gmt":"2016-10-05T04:40:35","slug":"preaching-to-people-whose-theology-differs-from-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/preaching-to-people-whose-theology-differs-from-mine\/","title":{"rendered":"Preaching to People whose Theology Differs from Mine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Nathan Aaseng<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I don&rsquo;t know that I&rsquo;ve ever heard a pastor address this issue, but I&rsquo;m guessing I&rsquo;m not the only one who has experienced it, so let&rsquo;s just jump right in and say it:<\/p>\n<p><em>I preach to people who believe things that I don&rsquo;t believe.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I&rsquo;m not speaking politically, although I&rsquo;m sure there are those in my congregation with whom I agree on virtually nothing in that area. While sermons must at times bleed into the political, I am cognizant of the need to avoid partisanship.<\/p>\n<p>What I mean is that I preach to people who believe things about God that I don&rsquo;t believe.<\/p>\n<p>Again, I&rsquo;m not speaking about the occasional visitor who wanders into the worship space, nor the cantankerous, oppositional eccentric. I&rsquo;m speaking of faithful, active, generous Christians.<\/p>\n<p>Here are just a few examples of what I&rsquo;m referring to. There are a significant number of people to whom I preach who believe, for example, that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>All things happen for a reason<\/li>\n<li>God decides when our time on earth is up &#8212; that death is a result of God calling people home at a particular time<\/li>\n<li>God never gives us more suffering than we can handle<\/li>\n<li>Material good fortune in life is a result of God&rsquo;s blessing<\/li>\n<li>God condemns unfortunate people to eternal torture<\/li>\n<li>Loved ones are sitting up in the sky, in heaven, looking down on what is transpiring down here on earth<\/li>\n<li>Genesis&rsquo; creation story, Noah&rsquo;s flood, the tower of Babel, and so on, are literal accounts of actual historical events and that snakes and donkeys were once capable of speech<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I beg to differ on all these counts.<\/p>\n<p>I have been around long enough to know that they are not going to change their minds about such things regardless of what I say. Some will always be concerned or anxious, or even suspect a pastor of heresy who professes beliefs counter to theirs.<\/p>\n<p>What is a preacher supposed to do about this religious disconnect with the very assembly he or she is entrusted to instruct, enlighten, and inspire?<\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s a question that I have pondered often. In my wrestling with the situation, I have come up with two principles that seem to help:<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Love the congregation. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I have seen people who have a sense of urgency in destroying others&rsquo; beliefs. I have seen the damage that can be done to people when theology becomes a battleground, with winning as the objective.<\/p>\n<p>As a pastor, it is not my job to tear people down.<\/p>\n<p>I make no secret of my beliefs, even those that run counter to those of parishioners. I feel obligated to share the benefit of my education and experience with the congregation, for I have been call to that purpose. There are avenues that allow for me to do this in greater depth with those interested.<\/p>\n<p>Ideally, all Christians would be open to engaging in wide-ranging and challenging discussions about Christianity. I think it would result in stronger, deeper, and more authentic faith for everyone involved.<\/p>\n<p>But that is not the world in which we live.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, I have to recognize that those in the congregation whose theology is way different than mine are free to discount what I say in those matters, and indeed, avoid even thinking about them, as long as I:<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Preach the Gospel.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The message that we are commissioned to proclaim is the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ. My job in a sermon is to proclaim that message as clearly and as inspirationally as I can. While I can and do advocate for my views in a sermon, it can never be at the expense of that central message.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nathan Aaseng I don&rsquo;t know that I&rsquo;ve ever heard a pastor address this issue, but I&rsquo;m guessing I&rsquo;m not the only one who has experienced it, so let&rsquo;s just jump right in and say it: I preach to people who believe things that I don&rsquo;t believe. I&rsquo;m not speaking politically, although I&rsquo;m sure there are &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/preaching-to-people-whose-theology-differs-from-mine\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Preaching to People whose Theology Differs from Mine&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30546\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}