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Style Sacrificing Substance?
Appended: 11/09/2004 (see bottom of article)

I’ve listened to many preachers, teachers, and musicians over the years and I’ve usually been able to glean some truth or insight from almost all of them. However, I frequently find myself having to wade through the “hype” in order to get to it. My first response when I realize that someone is using a technique on me is a sad sort of disgust. It seems so unnecessary and insults my intelligence since it implies that the one doing it thinks that I am just another mindless “sheep” and won’t be aware of the attempted manipulation. However, I always try to set that aside since the experience is so ubiquitous and try to find what God is trying to say to me despite the often heavy-handed effort.

Somehow, most of us have accepted the assumption (perhaps unwittingly) that if we don’t use the same tricks the world does to get people’s attention and to get a response from them then we will fail to achieve our goal.

Many preachers use the same speaking techniques employed by people doing “infomercials” and running motivational seminars for salesman. There’s the manner of speaking, the gesturing, having the audience repeat something you said, verbal tricks to maintain their attention, and striving to inject false emotion or enthusiasm into a story or speaking point.

As musicians, we often employ the same methods but we often take it a step further. You find the same sort of approach that we use to fire up an audience used by cheerleaders at “pep rallies” or by our secular counterparts. We ask the audience a question and then repeat it while encouraging them to shout louder or applaud more. We encourage them to get out of their seats, to clap, and to raise their hands. We try to exaggerate our body movement during solos and jump up and down to try to get the audience to “get into it.”

Many of us have become dependent on the force of our personality to persuade people and to get them to respond to what we’re doing. When that happens, it is no longer Christ who is being exalted but ourselves despite whatever words we may say to the contrary.

There is nothing wrong with genuine passion or sorrow or enthusiasm. But when we try to fake emotions and use the same techniques people use to sell products in an effort to get people to respond or make a decision for Christ we are sowing “flesh” and not “Spirit.”

Gal. 6:7,8 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Paul talked about this subject:

1 Corinthians 2:1-5 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

Doesn’t sound much like any preacher, teacher, or musicians you’ve heard lately, does it?

Paul didn’t use tricks or techniques or deep thoughts and philosophy to bring people to Christ…he just preached Christ and Him crucified. Instead of persuasive words of wisdom, he allowed the Holy Spirit to do the work.

Why don’t we see the power of the Holy Spirit at work like in the days of Paul? Maybe it’s because we haven’t put ourselves in the position to NEED the power of the Holy Spirit. We’re too busy substituting the same tricks used by salesmen to get you to buy a toaster instead of depending on the power of God. We’re too confident in our own strength to allow ourselves the vulnerability of having whether anyone responds be completely dependent on the working of the Holy Spirit. Like everything else in this society, we want a response and we want it now! And we’re going to stick with what works instead of what’s right. We’re too pragmatic and not as concerned with the quality and longevity of the response towards God as we are with just getting a response NOW.

In 2 Corinthians 12:9, Paul says that God told him that “power is perfected in weakness.”

Philippians 3:3 for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh

What would happen if we made a conscious effort NOT to use tricks designed to elicit a response from a crowd and just went out there and were the honest, vulnerable, weak people that we are? If we unashamedly presented the unadulterated gospel in our sermons, teachings, and concerts? If we chose to truly abide in the Spirit and depended on Him to make any response in the heart of the listeners? Maybe the quality of OUR relationship would become apparent. Maybe it would drive us to be more honest with God and ourselves. And, maybe, once we stopped trying to substitute the methods of the world for the power of God, we might begin to see the Holy Spirit move in truth and in power as in the first century church…

Addition:
About 3 days after I originally wrote this article, I saw a perfect example of what I’m talking about.

We were playing at a homeless benefit in Marietta and there were a large number of people there predominantly from the Hispanic community. A couple of other bands played and a couple of pastors from local churches preached. At one point a teenage boy who looked to be about 14 or so came up to speak. He was in a wheel chair and appeared to have some debilitating disease such as cerebral palsy. He was very pale and spoke quietly. They asked for all of the children to come up front and sit on the ground around him. Their parents sat behind them in chairs.

Since the audience was Hispanic, the young man would say a phrase and then wait for the translator to convert his words to Spanish. He spoke quietly for about 15 or 20 minutes. He didn’t use any fancy words and he wasn’t an exceptionally eloquent speaker. He didn’t shout and gesture and try to whip the group into an emotional frenzy. He just quietly sat there and spoke what God put on his heart one phrase at a time.

At the end he asked anyone who wanted to accept Christ as their Savior to come to the front. Immediately (not one or two at a time) most of the 30 or so kids sitting on the ground came up along with several adults. The young man began to weep. I was overjoyed to see such an obvious work of God and to know that each of these young lives now belonged to God.

No fancy footwork…no tricks…just God.