Kyle Berg

The second part of the predicament we face is more acute within the Charismatic branch, but also exists within the Church as a whole. There is a severe lack of challenging and profound teaching in our churches. Most vexing of all is the absence of specificity in our preaching. We seem to be content going to the same church week after week and hearing a rotation of sermons that all say the same thing with different words and scriptures.

It is my contention that the over-sensationalizing of music combined with vague sermons is producing extremely feeble Christians. Ever notice that it’s often the same people feeling compelled to run to the front at every altar call? Where have the teachings about wisdom, peace, lust, envy, and malice gone? And I’m talking about whole sermons or series devoted to just one of these topics–really nailing the point home without jumping to other topics. We seem to talk about them quickly and run back to our favorite generalities–my personal favorites being how to get more passion or fire for God, walking the walk, and the grace of God. We appear obsessed with knowing God more but lack the maturity and discipline to make it happen.

Yesterday, in Spanish, I was discussing this theme with my teacher (great language practice by the way). She is one of the sweetest people I’ve met and comes from a Catholic family, but is not a Christian. Yet she was in complete agreement with me. Her theory is that we have an idealized vision of life. There is a perception that life ought to be easy and that when things go wrong or something is difficult, we have been cheated. This has spilled over into our churches and given us a distaste for confrontation. We would rather have services that appeal to the emotions and subtly call us to repentance from time to time. Neither is there much desire for straight talk in general. Christians with real emotional or spiritual problems go years and years without changing because others have told them it’s “a process.” There is a dearth of sermons that hit us between the eyes, make us say “Holy crap!” at the end of the service, and stick with us afterwards. Yet I have found these to be some the most life-changing and instructional times of my life.

I often wonder if John Wesley or Jonathan Edwards could draw an audience today. Part of me says, “No, they would be too extreme. People would be turned off by their straightforward manner.” But another part of me says, “Yes! People yearn for the truth and would drive hundreds of miles to hear them.” This one’s still up in the air for me.

I deeply care for the Charismatic branch of the Church. Here, I can find a balance of passion for God, reverence for the Holy Spirit, and people to whom I can relate. In its purest form, it most closely represents the Church of the book of Acts. I pray we (myself especially included) return to the reverence and outlook they had.