An Open Letter to Creative Technological Make-it-Happen Guru Guy or Gal

Dear Creative Technological Make-it Happen Guru Guy or Gal,

You know who you are.  If I emailed you my next sermon series you could put together a graphic, a video to promote it, and probably a couple of T-shirts.  You make things happen.  And you don’t just Google search a few images and put together a hodgepodge of images and say, “that’ll do”.  You create.  You know how to make websites.  You know what html code is.  Your laughing at me right now because html code isn’t even that big of a deal anymore.  You know what it is. 

Also, you could figure out all the ins and outs of creating a brand new television station. 

That last one is why I am writing to you.  You see there are many people in my life that are being fed a healthy dose of poison to go with their weekly dose of preaching.  These dear believers in Jesus are hungry for the word.  But as newer believers, they are susceptible to eating rat poison and thinking its a new brand of Fruit Loops. 

I know that the answer on my end is faithful, Spirit-led preaching, teaching, and plodding in gentleness and respect.  I know that discernment often is not something that happens over night.  I know that what will really protect them from the rat poison on television is to see, savor, and feast upon the Lord Jesus Christ and all that He has taught us. 

Yet, it is also really difficult on my end.  It is difficult because whereas we may get at most 4 hours of preaching during the week these false teachers promote their ridiculousness 24-7.  And they are crafty.  What they say often sounds so biblical, so faithful, so Christ-like.  And it’s killing our people.  And it’s making our job as pastors even more difficult because whenever we say things like, “God places value on you” they hear, “God wants to bless me with a houseboat”.  And so, everything we say in the local church is heard through muddied ears because of the shoddy preaching that these hungry souls go to for a meal on Tuesday, or Thursday, or Friday evenings. 

One thing that grieves me greatly is that there is no preaching on television that competes with this foolishness.  This is not for a lack of quality preaching.  One could go online and find hours upon hours of quality, Christ-honoring, biblically-faithful preaching.  That is well and good for those of us that spend more time in front of iPad’s and computer screens than televisions.  But for those that spend more time watching television they seldom take advantage of these healthy options.  (And this is a large number of those within our congregations). 

So, I’m pleading with you dearest creative technological make-it happen guru guy or gal, make it happen.  Create a new television station that will hit the airwaves and compete with the horrible preaching that is on television.  People are dying and we need your gifts.  Make it happen, please.

Love In-Christ,

Mike Leake

Michael Scott and the Reading of Scripture

This is one of my favorite quotes from The Office (sorry for the quality):

Do you ever feel this way after reading Scripture? 

Sometimes the word feels like somebody “took my heart, and dropped it into a bucket of boiling tears”.  Then I turn to another Scripture and it feels like it “is hitting my soul in the crotch with a frozen sledgehammer”.   Then my third reading in Scripture “starts punching me in the grief bone”. 

Conviction hurts.  And the Holy Spirit is fond of using the Word to bring conviction.  Indeed “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword…all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account”. 

Though that is on occasion my experience I am convinced that it may NOT be the right way for a believer to read the Scriptures.  Yes, Scripture brings conviction; but it is never meant to stop there.  If my reading of Scripture feels like a frozen sledgehammer to the crotch then chances are I am not applying Jesus. 

Consider what Paul says in Romans 15,

“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope”. 

God’s Word is not meant to merely punch us in the grief bone.  The Scriptures are meant to give us hope because they are meant to point us to Jesus—who is Himself our Hope. 

Does TV Harden Our Hearts?

Jeremiah Burroughs, in one of the sermons in Gospel Fear (which I will be reviewing today), says this: "Take heed of heart-hardening company, of slight company, of frothy company, of going into the company of those who have slight and vain spirits, and especially those who have been and are professors of religion, and yet have slight and vain spirits".

As I read this I could not help but wonder if, in our day, Burroughs would have at this point went on a tangent about the vices of excessive television watching. I seldom find myself in the company of "frothy" (that is empty) people. Most of my friends are passionate about Jesus. (I'll take my rebuke from my missional friends here). But I do often find myself in the company of frothy, slight, and vain television personalities. Granted, they are not professors of religion. Yet, there is very little serious thought. Does this harden my heart and keep it from being tender towards the gospel?

Secondly, I think Burroughs has a significant warning for those of us that are "professors of religion". "Professor" is another way of saying "Those that profess Christianity". It is not saying professors/teachers. These are ordinary believers. If we, as ordinary believers, are proclaiming to be Christ-followers, and yet live our lives in triviality what are we communicating about God and His gospel? Should we really be frothy? Burroughs is not against joy. Burroughs is against empty joy. May the Lord grant us a blood-earnestness for the sake of the gospel!