A Renewed Mind

In my previous entry, I noted how much of today’s journalism is not really journalism. “News stories” are often used by today’s writers and media outlets to advance their particular worldview, political candidate, or personal opinions. The facts of the stories themselves are often incidental while the comment on how the writer thinks things should be are the real focus. This is not always the case, of course, and there are some reliable news sources that are true to the aims and means of good journalism.

As I was writing, I could hear an obvious objection being raised by some skeptics: “Isn’t that what preachers do? Aren’t preachers simply trying to make people believe what the preachers want them to believe?” Sadly, this is true of some preachers—far too many preachers, I’m afraid. But this is not a true criticism of genuine biblical preaching. A brief look at some parallels between preaching and journalism can help us understand when preaching isn’t preaching.

One task. A good journalist has one task: to present historical facts to his or her readers so that they are able to better understand and relate to the world in which they live. In a news story, a writer seeks to tell the readers what is happening in the world and to identify the impact of that event. Their subject matter may be an event that happened yesterday, is happening at this very moment, or will happen tomorrow. They may be writing about the government or fashion or sports or zoology or any number of things. Nevertheless, the journalist’s task is to declare what is going on in the world. When reporters fail to do this, they fail to fulfill their responsibility.

A preacher’s task is to make God known. He, too, is primarily concerned with making known the facts of reality so that his hearers will know how to live in the world. God is the ultimate reality; all of reality flows out of the person of God. Therefore, we must all understand who this supreme Being is and how we are to relate to Him. God as revealed in the Scriptures through His Son must be the subject matter of every sermon. Like the journalist, the preacher may also deal with events from the past, present, or future. He will deal with a wide variety of subject—everything from education and vocation to marriage and sex. In all of these things, is task is to make God known. If a preacher simply gives guidelines for happy living or presents theological truths or shares what he thinks about something, he fails at his task. He’s simply commenting on reality. Say what he may, he isn’t preaching.

Just the facts, sir. A good journalist deals with facts. He or she makes a diligent search for facts from the first and best (primary) sources. Then he or she will examine them and carefully discern the meaning of the facts. Finally, the journalist will thoughtfully organize and present the facts in way that is clear and understandable for his or her readers. This process largely describes the work of a preacher.

Genuine biblical preaching deals with facts—objective, verifiable truth. These facts—this truth—is revealed in Scripture. God is ultimate truth and He has plainly revealed Himself in the Scriptures. The preacher’s task then is to make a diligent search of the Scriptures to see what God has revealed. He must carefully observe the words of Scripture until he knows clearly what God has said. Then the preacher will assiduously examine the meaning of the Scriptures, carefully comparing his text to other texts within the Bible until he is able to thoroughly understand its meaning. Finally, he will labor to organize his findings into a sermon that is correct and clear. In doing so, the preacher will help the congregation to see that the facts he presents come from the Scriptures before them so that they know the words they hear are true.

What about persuasion?  Here is where I would argue that good preaching parts from good journalism. While the journalist is primarily concerned with reporting the world, a preacher is concerned with people coming to the God we proclaim. I don’t have time to work this out, but I think this is largely because of our subject matter. Journalists deal with objective historical facts (even when those facts are biographical), whereas preachers speak of a living Person who may be personally known by the hearer as a result of listening to the preacher. (This is both mind-boggling and glorious to me.) Thus, the preacher is not primarily reporting about God; he seeks to make God known. He is primarily man to God. Therefore, he must be persuasive. Unlike, the however,

Genuine biblical preaching seeks to persuade men to return to God’s position, not the preacher’s. This is where he differs from the poor journalist, who seeks to persuade others to his or her own position. The preacher is not mainly concerned that others agree with him; he is concerned that his congregation agrees with God. This is why he must deal rightly and carefully with the Scriptures. Once the preacher knows what the Scriptures say, and once those Scriptures have brought the preacher to know God more deeply and personally and powerfully, he is compelled to persuade others to hear and believe God. This was the case for Paul. We catch Paul’s urgency to persuade men in his preaching when he writes to the Corinthian church

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:20)

Thus, unlike a reporter, a true preacher must be persuasive. The preacher wants the people to feel the weight of God’s truth and the certainty of eternity; he yearns for them to know the horrors of sin and the wonders of grace; he longs for them to behold the beauty of Christ and see the glory of God. And so, week after week, he seeks to make God know by searching the Scriptures and persuasively preaching the glories of Christ, so that as he lifts up Christ, Christ may draw all men to Himself. (See John 12:32.) 

And if the preacher aims at anything less, if he simply seeks to persuade the people to be a certain kind of person or live a certain way or imitate a certain kind of behavior or have a particular theological position, then he isn’t preaching.

I’m humbled to think that this is my calling. Please pray for me that I will be a faithful preacher who cares little about drawing a crowd or advancing my own agenda, and who, by the grace and power of God, makes God known.

Keeping up with the world is a necessity for anyone who wants to make the glories of Christ known. Of course, there are different ways to do that. I have found it helpful to read carefully read through a couple of news magazines each week. Quite some time ago, I chose two magazines that approach the world and its events from very different perspectives and with very different values–World and U.S.News & World Report.

For the last twelve years or so, I subscribed to U.S.News. Each week I would digest the issue trying to glean news from “articles” interspersed with commentary aimed at advancing an evolutionary secular humanism, a revisionist view of history, and a liberal, socialistic political agenda. Last year, the magazine cut back from a weekly to a bi-weekly format largely because of a changing cost structure. Due to declining subscriptions, this year they evolved into a monthly magazine aimed at lifestyle rather than detailed news. To explain the decline, the publishers blamed the changes on the readers and their changing habits rather than making a critical examination of their magazine’s editorial approach to “journalism”.

Without much product loyalty, I quickly switched to another news weekly which is really not another. In late March, my first issue of Time arrived and much to my lack of surprise, its cover story was an opinion piece. Sigh. What has happened to the news? What happens when people read without discernment and are unaware that the “news” they are reading is really the writer’s opinions? What happens when the “news” is really spun and manufactured in order to advance a worldview or agenda?

Two recent stories from two different “news” magazines illustrate my concern. In both columns the writers celebrate the demise of institutions far too soon, before the ‘facts’ can substantiate their joyous claims. Last week’s cover of Time gleefully concluded that the Republican party is now an endangered species. The accompanying article is filled with derogatory commentary to support the magazine’s hopeful prediction of the death of the GOP, but contains very little objective content. In this case, even a most undiscerning reader can probably tell that the writer really, really wants the Republican Party to go away. To be fair, I am sure that some columnists said essentially the same thing about the Democrats after November, 2004, which only further illustrates the folly of letting opinion guide the reporting of facts. Though I have nothing invested in the Republican Party, I take issue with “journalism” that seeks to manipulate public opinion by stating their opinions and desires as if they are historical and factual.

On an opposite front, the April 13 issue of Newsweek triumphantly reported that we have come to “The End of Christian America“. In the story, Jon Meachem gives his analysis of the data in the 2009 American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) and data from a Newsweek poll conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. Here again, the writer’s elation is thinly veiled as he pronounces the end of evangelical Christianity’s influence on America. In making his case, he takes data from the ARIS which show a decline in the number of “self-identified Christians” and a rise in the number of “religiously unidentified” and places them alongside the political poll conducted by Newsweek to argue that the decline in evangelical Christianity means that they are no longer an influence on the American political system. Meachem implies that America has now been liberated from a evangelical influence and presents a belittling caricature of evangelical Christians in the process. Shortly after publication, Meachem later wrote a shorter online column stating that he was not attacking Christianity, but simply rejoicing that Christianity was finding its rightful place in the closet–my paraphrase, of course.

Evangelicals can’t be too sensitive to the liberal media’s disparaging attitudes and actions; we should expect them. In fact, we should rejoice in them (Matthew 5:11-12). Indeed, America does stand for liberty and freedom so that her people are able to express their opinions, as Meachem did in his story and as I am doing here. Nevertheless, journalists and the news media should be expected to report the facts of current events openly and objectively. When journalists shape their stories and the “facts” according to their own agendas and desired outcomes, they are no longer journalists, but commentators seeking to make people believe what they want them to believe.*

While I believe this needs to change, I don’t believe that it will, at least not soon. Therefore, we must be careful; we must be discerning. We don’t have to be afraid of the media, and we must read and keep up with our world. We just have to be wise and understanding. From whatever source we get our news,we must learn to separate the factual accounts within the story from the author’s commentary and flawed conclusions. For my part, I will continue to read Time and World each week.  With both I will be a careful reader so that I may learn from them more about the world and cultures of our day so that, by the grace of God, I may be better prepared to give a defense for the hope that is within me.

*Blogs don’t have footnotes?! At this point, I’m sure that Mr. Meachem might ask, “How are preachers any different?” That’s a good question. Next time, we’ll address “When Preaching Isn’t Preaching”.