Preaching to the choir

"Preach to the choir"

to talk about something with a group of people who already agree with you; preach to the converted.

Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2003

Note: If you choose to read this please understand that this is not a rant against those who choose to practice an alternative lifestyle. This is definitely not intended to shame anyone into the arms of the Church. Rather, it's a personal observation that more and more the Church reflects the culture and not the wisdom of heaven.

As I understand it, there are two different ways to “do” church these days. There is what I would refer to as the traditional approach where your target audience is essentially the already-converted. And then there's the trendy “seeker-friendly” style that assumes that many of the folks out in the pews are still contemplating the claims of Christ. Both are valid. Both have merit. But as I heard Bill Hybels once say at a Willow Creek conference I attended, you cannot do discipleship and evangelism in the same setting. You will do one or the other but you can't do both. For our part, though we consider ourselves a non-denominational, contemporary Christian fellowship, in our weekly worship gatherings we most definitely opt for the more traditional approach. While our service is open to anyone and everyone, more likely than not the people who attend and frequent the gatherings are the already converted. In other words, I spend an inordinate time preaching to the choir.

This is as high tech as it gets at Refuge

I personally don't believe the Sunday service is a good way to throw out the big net and reel in a sinner or two that needs catching. It has happened now and again but if so it's definitely a God-thing. Our worship is low-key led by some of our members who delight to share their musical talents. We have no whistles, no bells, no klieg lights. We do project the words of the songs we sing onto the wall through the use of an LED projector and I have been known to use movie clips now and again in my preaching, but our audience is us – insiders through and through. Our gathering is a time to be refreshed, to be encouraged, to be renewed and experience love, acceptance and forgiveness before returning to wherever the rat race is for each of us in hopes we will be Christ's love and light in those places that we frequent.

I think that's pretty standard, especially for fellowships around here. I am not the only one in this community that spends an inordinate amount of time preaching to the choir. But increasingly I am troubled by what I see happening within the Christian community and it makes me wonder aloud if the choir remembers or even knows the score they are supposed to be singing. After all, a choir, by definition, is a group of people singing the same song together in a melodious manner. Some may be tenors, some altos, sopranos or basses but everyone combines their pitch into one harmonious sound thereby creating something pleasant to the ear. Our daughter, Emma, is a mezzo soprano in one of the choirs at the Christian college she attends and she assures me that if by chance she chose to sing the alto part the result would be a “death glare” from her director. Imagine what a choir made up of people singing whatever part they wanted to sing would sound like. Yeah, it wouldn't be good nor pleasant nor melodious by any standard whatsoever.

As time goes by, I am finding that so long as I reserve my preaching to matters of God's unconditional love as demonstrated in the sacrificial death of Jesus, of his continual presence with us regardless of our circumstances and things such as these the members of the choir nod their head and depending on the particular piece we may be singing tap their toes in beat with the music. I even get an “Amen!” now and again. These are the kinds of things that all Christian fellowships regardless of their denominational bent concur with. But if I choose to preach on individual behavior I find that before I start on the downbeat I have to set up my remarks with all kinds of caveats and clarifications ahead of time lest I offend someone unnecessarily.

Take sexual sin, for example. Recently Trey Pearson, lead singer of the Christian band Everyday Sunday, came out of the closet and tweeted that he is gay. In an interview that he gave on the daytime TV show The View (that was tagged to my wall by a Christian friend with remarks to the effect that this “was a beautiful story”) he shared poignantly that after years of trying to live with his attraction to men, he decided that the best thing – the thing God wanted him most to do – is be who he is, a gay man. According to him, his wife lovingly hugged him, they quietly divorced and now are co-parenting the children they share together as he seeks to live out his new found freedom in embracing what he believes is his God-given identity.

Do I sound like a hater yet? Or a homophobe? Let me try and clarify. I don't know this man's story. In fact, up until a week ago I had never heard of him nor the band he is the lead singer for. I certainly am not calling for anyone to pick up stones today to cast in his general direction. But what bothers me about this moment is the fact that lots of people (presumably Christian people among them) seem to be “cool” with his confession, and are heartily “liking” the video of his emotional interview. God loves all people, after all, and his sin is no different than the sin heterosexuals commit. I couldn't agree more. But there is a huge difference between falling into sin and then repenting of it and embracing a lifestyle that the Scripture labels immoral. A person can be forgiven for shoplifting in a moment of covetousness but if he persists in that habit he will go to jail for it because that behavior is illegal. It's not a perfect analogy but you get the drift.

I'm not a biblical scholar. I have no letters after my name that make me an expert in any field of interpretation. But as someone who has read and preached the Bible for over thirty years I think I can say on good authority that there is absolutely no text in Scripture that recognizes same-sex unions as normative and something to be celebrated. Whether it be Moses (Genesis 2) or Jesus (Matthew 19) or Paul (Romans 1) or John (Revelation 22), all of them concur that homosexual behavior – check that, any sexual behavior outside the marriage covenant between a man and a woman – is out of bounds, immoral and an act that earns the disapproval of heaven. That is the score. That our society and – it seems to me increasingly – more and more branches of the Church – are singing a different tune says more about us than the veracity of the Word. And what about the fact that cohabitation is the norm of the land now? People professing Christian faith and devotion to the teachings of the Bible now live together with no sense of embarrassment despite never sharing public vows. They come to our fellowships, they raise their hands in worship, they speak in tongues, they testify of God's goodness in their lives and yet live in a relationship that the same guys I quoted above call by a different term: “fornication.”

Mind you, this is not a rant against those who are outside the Christian faith. The law of the land says you are free to cohabit and shack up with anyone who is willing to do so with you. I fully agree that yelling at someone who has embraced a lifestyle contrary to what Scripture calls “normal” serves no purpose whatsoever. But my concern is the kids growing up in our fellowships who attend public school and are subtly trained to accept that all sexual choices – straight, gay, trans – are morally neutral: people are who they are and they can't help feeling the way they are. I applaud the school for reminding our kids that everyone deserves respect and consideration. Be that as it may that kind of thinking does not jive with Holy Writ regardless if the home office of a certain denomination says it does. 

“God showed me this vision: My Master was standing beside a wall. In his hand he held a plumb line.

God said to me, “What do you see, Amos?”

I said, “A plumb line.”

Then my Master said, “Look what I’ve done. I’ve hung a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel. I’ve spared them for the last time. This is it!

“Isaac’s sex-and-religion shrines will be smashed,
Israel’s unholy shrines will be knocked to pieces.
I’m raising my sword against the royal family of Jeroboam.” (Amos 7:7-9, Msg)

As my wife can testify, I'm not a man with skills but with a little help from Bob Vila I've learned that a plumb line is a simple tool used time out of mind to gauge whether a wall is plumb or not. If a wall is not plumb, doors don't work right and if a foundation is not plumb the structural integrity of the building is threatened. So, it's a big deal. Amos, a rustic from the southern Kingdom of Judah shows up in Samaria in the northern kingdom around 930 B.C.E. to announce that Yahweh has dropped his plumb line among them and found that they are not “true”. Hence, judgment is imminent. They, like their southern neighbors, are the people of God and therefore considered “holy”, set apart to represent Yahweh upon the earth. But by persisting in disobedience they are risking the structural integrity of their society. Just as we are within the Church today.

In a town near us there is a Mennonite community that is death on musical instruments. They make music and worship the Lord but they do so all a Capella. I've not heard them but I'm assured on good authority that they do so beautifully. We who worship with the aid of all kinds of electronic instruments and amplification think those folk a bit odd, a bit behind the times. But more and more I'm pretty sure that's exactly how others are going to view people like me who hold to an “old school” view of things, who hold to the “original score”, singing the song as God intended it to be sung.