Muddying the Message
Today's verse always pricks me. " …faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of God " —Romans 10:17. In our desperate attempt to reach people, to be "relevant," we oftentimes run the risk of wrapping the Word of God up in such brilliant and innovative packaging that the message gets missed. In our desire to not offend and chase people away from truth, we sometimes dilute that truth so much that even when people are attracted to it, they find it lacking in the essential ingredients that made it truth in the first place. I read a recent blog on a Christianity Today website that featured a video of Dr. John Piper talking about preaching. During his interview, Dr. Piper emphasized the importance of preaching as opposed to the more "entertainment" type methods used to present the Gospel. The comments posted were quite hard on Dr. Piper. Several accused him of being against drama, for example, even though he said during...