Preach a Biblical Sermon on a Relevant Cultural Issue
The current church growth mantra of our era is “relevancy”. The Church is being exhorted from every direction that it wants to remain viable it must become “relevant”. Of course, defining relevancy is an interesting pursuit as it can mean anything from upgrading your technology to rebranding your image to repackaging your messages to getting a fog machine. Some Pastors have even gone so far to change their doctrine to accommodate the need to be “relevant”.
Let me suggest that relevancy is entering the conversations the culture is currently discussing. To simply attract the masses through the packaging of the presentation is futile to real change unless the substance of what you are preaching is challenging the conversations they are having. So a Pastor needs to start stepping into those conversations and provide leadership and voice to the questions the culture is asking. In a day of massive moral ambiguity, a Pastor can actually bring Biblical clarity to the discussions.
Let me suggest a few topics of which the Bible speaks unambiguously…
Abortion.
The connection of modern day abortion to the “high places” of Israel is absolutely analogous. The reasons for the building of the altars of Moloch in Israel shave far too close to the reasons for abortion in America. This application is not even remotely a stretch. To challenge a congregation as to why we are a “throw away” society when it comes to children is an incredibly relevant word for this generation. It is also an easy step to apply it to our public policy which reflects these selfish values.
Same-Sex Attraction (Homosexuality)
When was the last time as a Pastor you ventured into the doctrine of carnality and the proclivities every human being has to rebel against the boundaries God has established for relationships? Yes, adultery is rebellion, as is fornication (sex outside of marriage). These expressions along with homosexuality are clear indicators of humanities brokenness when it comes to sexuality. The people of God need to be strengthened and reaffirmed that these aberrant expressions of sexuality are not God’s Will or plan and make for public policy when we codify them into legitimacy. The Pastor (and in turn the Church) should certainly be compassionate when working with human brokenness, but to hear the plan of God in these things helps strengthen the people’s resolve to believe the Lord for healing, forgiveness, and transformation. It is also front and center with where a generation is currently living.
Sexual Confusion
What did God say about gender and sexual identity? Believe it or not it is much clearer than most Pastors are preaching or intimating. Apply the power of the Cross to the discussion. Let your people know that God is able to do what looks to be impossible. Hope is not yielding to your feelings, but being lifted out of those feelings into a new and living way.
Those topics I just mentioned are the current “hot topics” of our era, but I can state clearly that the Bible speaks to immigration (God speaks about the foreigner and stranger in the nation.), taxes (God speaks to how much the government can rightly ask of its citizens) and even eminent domain challenges (Check out Ahab, Jezebel, and Naboth’s vineyard). There are great stories all through the Bible which directly speak to public policy issues. As a Pastor you are not being “political”, but simply exegeting the Word and applying it directly to its modern equivalency. You are not being “political”, but rather you are being “Biblical”.
The great thing is that its application will challenge every political perspective. There will be moments democratic parishioners may be uncomfortable and other moments republicans will be challenged. The Church is the conscience of the state and as Pastors we cannot be a part of the “searing” of our nation’s conscience. We must be the voice which awakens a people to what God would ask of them.
This should be an easy step as a Pastor. You have been trained to preach the “whole counsel of God”. This is your job description and mandate from the Lord. If you receive blowback from members, then at what point do you allow them to dictate what it is you will be preaching? Be encouraged! Take the step into true relevance!
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