When visiting churches in the US I notice that lots of pastors and preachers have exchanged the eternal truth of the Gospel for mere psychology and sociology. Rather recently I visited a large protestant evangelical church of a denomination for which I have lots of respect and appreciation. Because of its size, I was expecting a white hot, Word of God message. The lead pastor preached on the importance of setting goals in life. I left disappointed.
I’m so glad that Jesus didn’t teach us how to set goals in life. My concern is that this is becoming a pattern in mainstream North American Christianity. When I ask friends and colleagues why they opt for messages like this, the answer is usually something along the lines of the congregation being unchurched so we have to bring a message that’s relevant for where they are in their faith. One pastor friend said that he uses a lot of psychology in his messages because the average lay person today doubts the authority of the Scriptures so we have to support its truth with extra-biblical sources. Really? Does the Bible need support?
This is disappointing. To teach secular psychology because someone doubts the Word of God is, in my opinion, a huge mistake. Such a method loses sight of the fact that it is the Holy Spirit who confirms in the hearts of believers the truth of the Word and the Gospel. We must remember Paul’s words: “And I, when I cam to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Cor 2:1–5, italics original). The Bible needs not human help to be convincing. The Bible doesn’t need human help to be relevant. We cannot lose sight of the fact that it is the Holy Spirit who does the teaching, the forming, the sharpening, not us.
Finally, my good friend (best friend, in fact) and I were talking about this just a few days ago. In true form, he offered up a tremendous metaphor that describes perfectly what’s happening when we offer psychology and sociology over the Word of Life. “It’s like we have the cure to the disease, and we offer treatment for the symptoms only.” “You nailed it!,” I said. “Not just that,” he said, “It’s like we lead thirsty people to a well. The well has water and a bucket to draw water out with. However, we refuse to give it.” The Word doesn’t need our help, we need His help.
