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Souls Are More Important Than Appearances
By Ken Horn | March 5, 2008
Assemblies of God Prayer Summit Report
Forgive me for diverting to an area that will be of most interest to preachers. Of course, those of you readers who are not preachers do listen to preaching, so you’ll be better off if the preachers you listen to take this advice from Jim Cymbala.
As a former pastor and current preacher, I was struck by some of the things Jim Cymbala said about preaching at the Prayer Summit that ended today in Springfield, Missouri.
“Let God make you a preacher,” Cymbala said. “Don’t try to be a preacher.” His point was that the preacher’s personality shouldn’t change in the pulpit. He should be the same person in the pulpit as he is elsewhere.
“Today, preaching has become an entertainment form,” he later said. “Playing to the crowd is the lowest thing [a preacher] can do.”
“That’s why I don’t watch much Christian TV,” he added.
Another caveat: “When you see people trying to manipulate the audience, that’s a sad thing.”
The thrust of his final message today was: “We need the Word of truth interacting with the Spirit. … Save us from professionalism and just caring about our sermon.”
His challenge to preachers was to care about souls more than appearances.
Amen.
Topics: prayer, preaching, Holy Spirit, entertainment, news |
