In the
church-buildings we still find today with lesser attendants than some years ago the pulpit was and is still reserved for the pastor.
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| The Christian Flag displayed next to the pulpit on the chancel of a church sanctuary. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Many Christians consider the pulpit a sacred space for someone who
recognized the sacred duty. This place
on a raised platform, usually surrounded by a barrier, set up in churches as the appointed
place for preaching, leading in prayer, etc., is looke on by many as a holy sanctuary where nothing but the truth is been told. The church members would not dare to question those things which were said there.
Men of the cloth can find their honoured place where everybody looks at them as their teacher and guide in this world full of difficulties.
Those men of faith have now found their own soap on television in
the United states of America.
"The Preachers of L.A." represents the distilled toxicity of
Christianity combined with a money-obsessed generation of American
preachers. Even to sympathizers, the show seems to reaffirm all the negative
stereotypes about greedy prosperity preachers more interested in bling
than the Bible.
Since large church pastors are on television and prominently featured in
media, many think that’s what the church experience should reflect. In
their eyes, Jesus would have failed miserably as a pastor (He had only
12—or 11 if you exclude Judas—faithful “members” of His ragtag band).
People expect to hear from the pulpit how they can have a better life. By the teaching of those standing on that holy platform and their example, they showed a generation of
believers how they could use their faith to change their circumstances.They wanted to have their flock to believe that faith could heal bodies, multiply finances, restore families and bring a
taste of heaven down to Earth.
In the previous years the examples of many 'men of
God' (mainly Catholic priests and bishops) did give the world a totally different picture than the Master Teacher Jesus would have loved to see, and presented them with something they would not like to happen to their children.
Though the pastor or priest was and is still seen by many Christians as God's
mouthpiece. Many also expect from him that he will bring a message that is to deliver the
people of God from bondage and sin. Recognizing this, the preacher's
accompanying humility-laden approach to sermonizing would cause others
to grow deeper in their faith. As
John Wesley puts it, the preacher's
duty was to "catch on fire" so "others will love to come and watch you
burn."
John C. Richards Jr. asks
Have we doused the fire in the Black church? Have we grabbed our
extinguishers labeled "prosperity," "tradition," and "justice," and
forgotten about the Gospel? Do we just run across the pulpit as a
shortcut to our next destination? Have preachers forgotten about that
sacred space?
Let us be honest and recognise that today there are so many faithful men and women of God who are faithful
to god His Word. For them it is not the word of a human being that should be the most important word. That pulpit where many look at should not be that sacred space.
The television may make a caricature of ministry in the American
church, but without the history of tradition and the equivocating vague and
duplicitous religious language the holy books would not have reached so many. In time many modern believers have had to change the way
they think about their holy books. Today all interested in religion can find many websites discussing all sorts of beliefs. The language used over there by some is not always nice but should give a good idea where the better people could be or where it is wrong to spend time and to follow the insulting words of those calling themselves preacher, pastor, prophet or man of god.
In the world of Christendom there are even persons who say:
Unless you’re a Young Earth Creationist Christian you
have to accept these days that the Bible is not the inerrant word of
God. At best it’s a human interpretation of the revelations it is
supposed to contain.
Those interpretations made that many thoughts crossed each other. We can not ignore that some modern theists have almost squirrelled God
away out of critical reach, making their Christianity virtually
atheistic Humanism – which then raises the question of what they
actually have faith in, and why they continue to put such store in a
book like the Bible.
For a long time the Christian church world has gone far away from the Word of God. They seemed to have lost the way that recaptures the heart of the Gospel and can help fan the flame
some have tried to extinguish by making other stuff the main thing.
We should get back to the basics and remember that Jesus was not standing in front of a mega church, standing on a pulpit presenting his own ideas. As a real man of God he enjoyed being with ordinary folks, talking with them as a friend, not as a higher being. for Jesus it was not his Word nor his will that was important. Ha wanted the will of his Father to be done. He also wanted that as many people as possible could find the way to his Father, the Only One God. to get them there, Jesus used the
Holy Scriptures, the Torah, which was the Law for the people to follow.
By Jesus and his apostles the Word of God and the Good News or the Gospel was always
center.
John C. Richards Jr writes:
Today also all other church-related matters should be submitted to the supremacy of
the Gospel. This removes the man-glory of the prosperity gospel and
replaces it with God-centered preaching that says we were created for
His glory. This removes the racist-worn stains of bitterness and hatred
and moves us toward reconciliation. The Gospel bridges the generational
gap and finds us all at the foot of the Cross. That’s the third way. Not
every pastor wants to be famous. There are those who want to make
Jesus’ name famous. Not every pastor waters down the Gospel for the sake
of political affiliation. There are those who care more deeply about
people’s souls than what they check on a ballot. And this third way,
this Gospel way, has burned incessantly for centuries. And although I
lament, I’m encouraged by the grace-fueled flame flickering in the
darkness. And I echo John’s words in Revelation: Come, Lord Jesus.
Today, we have so many people that believe differently and preach
different things behind pulpits.We should look carefully at them and see how they behave and if they live according to their preaching. We also should check what is first on their lips and where their own heart lies. That pulpit in the church like many know it is not thé place where we should hear the Word resounding. From everywhere around us we should hear the call to come to know Jesus and to come to know his Father, the Divine Creator.
Every person who believes in the offer Christ took on himself for the sins of so many, should follow his teachings and should go out in the world, making every possible place a 'pulpit' a 'platform' for the spreading of the Gospel. And that person presenting the Word of God should do it with love for everybody around him, believer, non-believer and other-believer.
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