Unfortunately, sound also reverberates in places that should be havens of love, and the repercussions are devastating. This dearth of love is not only a problem in the dog-eat-dog business world, but it far too often is present within our places of worship.
I have the privilege of speaking in many churches and have to admit that, as a speaker, I often repeat the same message in different locales. The reason for this is quite simple. Travelling allows me to speak to different audiences, thus allowing me to repeat certain messages simply because the listeners are different. To the new audience, an old sermon is new.
When you preach as often as I do, most places seem the same and their congregations tend to fade away in your memory. However, I do admit that there are some places I will never forget. Some of these churches are congregations in which you can feel God’s presence abiding among His people. They are places that energize you as a speaker, and there just seems to be that extra pizzazz of spiritual dynamism that enters every word you speak. These are wonderful places to visit, and when they ask me to return, I accept their invitation right away. However, there are a few places where I don’t like to speak. These are the churches that leave you drained and tired. Speaking at these churches is like a long and tiring wrestling match in which I must tussle with the audience to make the spoken words apply to their hearts.
What is the difference between the two? Why do some energize me while others drain me of every last ounce of energy? The energizing churches are those where love and grace abound through the presence of the Holy Spirit, while the draining churches lack grace and love. The churches that are full of love have no distractions present, and because of this, they can hear God’s Word clearly. Churches that lack love have a resounding gong clanging in their midst, distracting them from clearly hearing God’s Word.
When I think of this truth, there is one church that stands well above all others. To me, it is the perfect example of the resounding gong syndrome. I’ll never forget that day when, with one of my best sermons in tow, I arrived at this church prepared to knock them off their feet. Spiritually speaking, I felt great. I was going through one of those stretches of life where I felt animated daily with God’s presence inside me. I was in the midst of a spiritual high and on top of this, I brought a sermon that was one of my top ten hits. I was going to preach one of my time-tested, stellar messages. Everywhere I had previously given this sermon, God seemed to move mightily. I couldn’t wait to meet and speak to the people at this church. However, my hopes and dreams for that Sunday were quickly shattered. The message that was so powerful in the past was a dud with this crowd.
I should have known that I was in trouble. The negative signs were clearly evident the very second I entered the church. As I walked through the front doors, I was greeted with a strange feeling of lifelessness. It was obvious to me that something wasn’t right.
At first I thought that I was the problem. I did a quick self-examination to find out what condition my soul was in. Perhaps I wasn’t doing as well spiritually as I thought. Perhaps there were some unknown spiritual issues I had not dealt with. I quickly walked through the past few days and confessed to the Lord every possible shortcoming that came to mind. I knew that personally I was clean, yet that strange, cold feeling remained. I thought that perhaps what I was feeling was just fatigue or there was some other fairly innocent reason. However, deep in my soul I knew this was not the case. The negative feeling remained. Then it occurred to me. Perhaps the problem wasn’t me. Maybe I was unaware of issues present in this church that were so grave, even as an outsider I could feel it. As soon as the worship service began, the feeling of darkness in that place not only remained, but got stronger. It was as if the church was just going through the motions. No one smiled, no one clapped, not one sign of emotion or sign of true worship in that building. The looks on the faces of everyone were cold and robotic. I was staring at lifeless figures sitting together under one roof. A few hymns, a couple of announcements, a solo and then it was my turn to speak. I preached my heart out, but still—no response. The sermon did not seem to be clicking with the audience.
It was as if words left my mouth only to flutter to the ground in a dissolved heap, unable to reach anyone in the front row onwards. There seemed to be no connection between the people in the pews and the words leaving my lips. It was a completely different experience than I had ever encountered. The negative vibe was so strong that I had to struggle through the message.
When I finished my concluding illustration, I was glad that the whole thing was over. All I could think of was getting out of this place as soon as possible. After the final benediction, the pastor came to the pulpit and instructed me to go to the back of the church where I would have the opportunity to greet everyone as they left the service. This was something I did not want to do. The last thing I needed at that time was to shake hands with every cold and lifeless soul who attended this church. Usually, I enjoy meeting new people, but this time all I wanted was to get out of there as quickly as I could. However, there was no escape, no place to run. It was after I had greeted the first few people that I suddenly realized what the problem was and why the feeling in that building was so dark. I was immediately surrounded by angry people who complained incessantly about their pastor. What made it worse was they were using pieces of my sermon to vilify and justify their complaints!
Like unethical journalists, they were twisting my words out of context to back up their obvious anti-pastor/church-leadership agenda. I was embarrassed, especially since these complainers were using me as their instrument of destruction right in front of the pastor, who was standing with me as we greeted people!
These people had no love. Love had left that place long ago and when love leaves, God goes with it because He is love. Gossip, manipulation, slandering, backbiting and lack of humility are all annoying gongs that make a church an unpleasant place. Whenever these unloving qualities are present, they should act like a fire alarm, indicating to us that there is a serious crisis at hand.
When love leaves, God’s active presence goes with it. When this happens, marriages, families, businesses and even churches are in big trouble. The problem is that too many people have just gotten used to it. It has become an accepted part of life. The strangeness of all these dysfunctional qualities has become normal. Instead of indicating that danger is present, we just ignore the alarm. How contrary this is to the plan of Jesus and to the words of Paul.
Without love, we Christians and our well-financed ministries and well-oiled churches are nothing. What we need to do is invest more energy in love over and above anything else we do. The good news is that love does not cost much money. You can love without blowing the budget.
We need to function with God’s power by prioritizing love above all else. To do this, we must come to know how to speak truth with love. When we do, people will “see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16, NIV). Now that is a powerful truth.
This is the heartbeat and the blood that flows throughout UrbanPromise—love. We simply love our kids, youth and their mothers, no matter what has happened to them in the past, no matter what they have done or what they are currently doing. We simply love them and because of this, the transcendent God is present, transforming lives as He works through His chosen medium, which is the active presence of love. I am always amazed at how much love we receive in return, not only from the kids and youth with whom we work, but also from their mothers. This love is such a dominant force in our communities that many people who come and visit our programs often tell me that they feel God’s presence in our community. This is a common thread felt by newcomers who meet our people for the first time. Many tell me that they are inspired by the children, youth and mothers they meet. It is as if both UrbanPromise staff and those we have come to serve reinforce and energize one another’s love for each other.
The communities we serve have taken root in our hearts. My staff eat, breathe and sleep every minute for the people we serve. Though we come from varied backgrounds (Canadian, American, Australian, Asian, Caribbean, Irish, etc.), we all become part of the community in which we are active. This means that we have been absorbed