Why I Teach From a Manuscript

Over the course of a few years of preaching, my preaching style has changed from following a rough outline of notes to reading my manuscript almost verbatim. Just two years ago, if you asked me to preach from a manuscript, I would have told you that it’s not my style, and I can’t preach like that. Furthermore, it seems like a lesser form of preaching, too much of a crutch for teaching, and a contributing factor to a lack of stage presence. Not only did I dislike manuscripts for myself, but I also frowned upon the notion of it for any other preacher.

Much to my chagrin, I now preach from a manuscript. It developed almost by accident. It certainly did not happen purposefully in my mind. Slowly but surely, I began to expand my outlined  sermon notes into more detailed versions. I added more and more and more. Eventually, abbreviated sentences and incomplete grammar began to irritate me. So I wrote out more of my notes like an essay. Perhaps this came in part because of my saturated study of God’s Word, which I noticed also involves impeccable grammar. I came to realize that the inspired inerrant Word of God also includes inspired inerrant grammar. Therefore, The Word began to change me into a person who not only wanted to become a better person morally, but also one who desired to think, write, and talk a little more grammatically. Therefore, my preaching style began to turn into more of a manuscript style of preaching.

Let me give you a few reasons for why manuscript style preaching might be the best for you as it has become for me.

(1) First, preaching from a manuscript practices humility. When you preach from a manuscript, you basically admit that your ability to teach is mortal, not immortal. You confess that your spiritual teaching ability comes with it’s natural limitations, which is yourself. Thus you conclude that you need help, lots of help!

Part of my frustration with following a rough sense of notes was that I sometimes would lose my train of thought, or fail at making good transition statements. After preaching, I would often feel like I could have explained God much better, if I had another chance. I felt like my spoken words fell short of God (of course, they  always do!). But I also believed that I was capable of better communication. I believed that God had given me more potential than I was using. At other times, I failed to say what I wanted to say because I forgot to say it!

Preaching from a manuscript helped alleviate all of these problems for me.

Once I could get past myself, I could move onto the sermon manuscript. In previous years, I believe that I didn’t preach from a sermon manuscript because of pride. I believed that I was too good for that. I wanted to think that I was smart enough to preach more from memory. I wanted to act like I was a really gifted speaker. And I thought that I was!

However, over time and experience, I began to realize that I am just not the kind of pastor/preacher who can most effectively preach from simple notes. Of course I can do it, as I did, but I won’t release as much of my potential gift unless I use a manuscript.

Maybe you are the kind of person who doesn’t use a manuscript. If you are able to get past the idea that sermon manuscripts are a lesser form of preaching, then at least consider the possibility that it might help you preach better.

Then again, you may do much better without a sermon manuscript. Perhaps you can’t follow your own words. Maybe you are smarter than me and can remember more than I. Maybe you can only preach with passion when you are preaching off the top of your head, or maybe you move around too much to be able to follow specific notes. That’s fine because following a sermon manuscript is certainly not superior to any other form of teaching, but it’s also not any less.

(2) Second, I preach from a sermon manuscript only for preaching, not teaching. This isn’t really a reason for why I preach from a manuscript so much as it is an explanation of why you might become more prone to try it. You see, I don’t limit myself to a sermon manuscript, as I used to think it would do to me. I only use the sermon manuscript for Sunday morning preaching, but not Wednesday afternoon Bible study, or Wednesday night prayer meeting, and especially not one to one teaching. I’m not limited to teaching from a manuscript. I use it as a style of teaching that fits certain occasions to teach.

There is a difference between preaching and teaching. I’ve heard it said that preaching is more of a monologue whereas teaching is more of a dialogue. I also think that preaching is a bit more formal whereas teaching happens more candidly. When I first thought of the idea of teaching from a manuscript, I disliked it because it would seem to cut off my teaching ability. I reasoned, ‘anybody can read from a paper, right? It doesn’t require a spiritual gift to be able to read a paper.’ That was my narrow view. But now, as I’ve adopted the preaching style that relies on a manuscript, I now know that it doesn’t restrict my teaching ability; it broadens it. I’m not held hostage by the manuscript (I wrote it!). I still enjoy teaching freely, candidly, one on one, or in a small group of people. Most of the time, I exercise my ability to teach through the notes of God written on my heart and etched in my memory. Certainly, I am not being pulled by the manuscript. It is being pulled by me. I’ll use it when my sermon needs to fit within a strict time period, or when I have a large group of people in front of me. But I certainly won’t use it if I’m teaching a classroom of students, having one on one time, or teaching a group of youth.

Therefore, it is utterly important to realize that the sermon manuscript is not restrictive, but freeing. If you try it, it won’t take away your ability to teach candidly, because you will continue to teach that way too. In other words, the people who preach from manuscripts, like myself, probably only use that strict style of speaking on rare occasion. More than likely, they are using their spiritual gift of teaching in other ways that go without notes through the rest of the week. Thus, learning how to preach from a sermon manuscript will only broaden your ability to speak, as opposed to restrict it. It can strengthen the different times that you do speak without notes, and it will add to your different ways that you can teach.

(3) Another reason that I began to preach from a manuscript was because I realized that I’m a better writer than I am a speaker. I don’t think incredibly fast, which means that when I speak, I don’t always formulate sentences like I should, or make connections between this thought and that thought like I should. But when I write, I have all of the time in the world to think about what I want to say, and say it well. I can edit my work by deleting, adding, and changing my paragraphs. This, I can’t do when I speak. Speaking is merciless because what you say is already said, and can’t be undone or unheard, which is not the case with writing.

So as I began journaling and writing more, I realized just how much I enjoy it! Plus, I began to receive more and more affirmation from the other people who read it. So I began to write out my sermons because of my love for writing. As a result, I began reading more of my writing, which turned into a manuscript form of a sermon.

I also had a 6 month period of time where I developed and recorded 30 minute messages for a radio station. As I tried to teach and preach to my unseen audience and fit it into 30 quick minutes, I realized that eye contact was not important, but time management was. Therefore, I began writing out my messages and recording them verbatim. As I played them back to myself, I realized that they sounded good, maybe even better than my other messages. My message was more clear, my words stuttered less, and my overall flow of the message sounded better. My thoughts were also more comprehensive and holistic, all because I could read my message. In those six months, God gave me the practice that I needed to learn how to preach a message from a manuscript in a way that kept my passion, unhindered my teaching, and used my writing ability.

Perhaps you are a better speaker that you are a writer. Then don’t use the sermon manuscript! But maybe you are a better writer than you are a speaker. Then maybe your teaching ability will increase as you develop a manuscript. No doubt, it will take practice to preach from your writing without letting your writing hinder your stage presence and eye contact. Nevertheless, I believe that people come to listen to the preacher’s words, more than watch the preacher’s body.

(4) That brings me to my fourth point: preaching from a manuscript admits that God’s Words are more powerful than your presence. I believe that God’s Word changes people, rather than my body movements or eye contact. If I could choose between being a vivacious arm gesturing, leg moving preacher verses a hearty truth sculpting, word engineering preacher, I would choose the second option. And if I could choose both, I would take both!

There is nothing wrong with being flamboyant with body movement and stage presence. It might add to your presentation and contribute to God’s Word through your non-verbal communication. During marriage counseling, I remember my pastor saying that a large portion of communication is nonverbal. Therefore, moving your body around is very important in developing your sermon, but I don’t believe that it’s critical.

I’ve never been able to move around while teaching. It takes too much multitasking work for me. I just can’t do it. For that reason, using the sermon manuscript fits me really well.

However, even if I did move around alot, I believe that drawing attention to God’s Word through my words is much more important than drawing attention to my body. Unless I’m using ASL sign language, my body movements and even eye contact will not amount to words.

The last I knew, the spiritual gift of teaching involves using your words, not your body. Even though I don’t want to divorce human communication too much from nonverbal expressions, I also don’t want to act as if our communication is dependent on gestures and eyes contact. God’s Word is written to us, not spoken to us, and it certainly doesn’t come with arms, legs, and eyes that look directly at us.  Therefore, increasing our teaching ability does not necessarily mean that we have an incredible great stage presence. There is a difference between acing your public speaking class and acing a sermon that seeks to bring credit to God and His Word. One is based on more entertainment, and the other is based on God’s truth.

With that being said, I don’t think that I’m a boring preacher (at least I hope not!). Really though, I get pretty fired up when I’m preaching from my manuscript because I labored hard to write it to a particular group of people. Nevertheless, one of the main reasons that I preach from a manuscript is because I believe that words are more important than my body presence. Glancing down at my paper doesn’t take away from God’s Word, even though it may take away from me and how I look. So be it!

(5) Fifth and finally, if you will consider the possibility of preaching from a manuscript, then you must understand that I don’t preach from my manuscript; the manuscript preaches through me!

I sound much different when I read somebody else’s words, because they aren’t mine! When I preach from my manuscript, I own the words. They come from me. So instead of thinking that I’m preaching from my manuscript, I like to imagine that the manuscript is preaching through me. It’s not just a manuscript. Its my manuscript. All of those words came from my heart. So when I preach through my manuscript, those words are already engraved on my heart and in my memory. They act like a mirror to me. I only need to glance down, and those words seem to reflect what’s already in me, because they came from me! Thus, after you get accustomed to preaching through a manuscript, glancing down at it will be all that you need to do once, because those words become like one solid picture that your brain and mouth only need to glance at before you speak it.

In time, you won’t be reading your manuscript, but it will seem to be reflecting you. Instead of being restrictive, your manuscript will become freeing. I know that this is true for me. How about you?

Personality vs. Pnumatology

 

The other day, a young man from my Church gave me one of the most encouraging compliments in the world. He told me that even though he enjoys spending time with me, it’s not really me that he enjoys the most, but my conversation about the Lord that he loves.

I could not have felt more happy. My soul was crying with thrilling excitement as my emotions were pumping their hands up to God on the inside! Of course, I didn’t show these emotions on the exterior, but I certainly felt them on the inside.

I responded with enthusiasm to this young man’s confession because he was in one sense accepting God by rejecting me. He was basically telling me that I was third base, but God is home plate!

I further rejoiced in his confession because it made me feel as if I’m doing something right like John the Baptist said in John 3:30, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

I worshiped God for shielding this young man from my personality by instead attracting him to God through pnumatology (the study of the Spirit). It seemed like the Spirit was drawing this young man to God through God’s Word instead of my personality attracting this young man to God through me!

John 6 is a perfect example of how human personality can distract from the spirit’s power. In John 6, a great crowd of people are following Jesus because of his personality and pragmatism. However, in verse 35, Jesus begins using His words to filter out the false followers from the true followers. He does this by teaching them some hard truths.

It turns out that people are attracted to Jesus miraculous example but not His powerful words, because in verse 60, John writes, “when many of His disciples heard this (this being the teaching words of Christ), they said, ‘this is a hard saying; who can listen to is?'” Again, people were following Jesus because of His personal example (vv26-27), but they would turn away because of His words.

Finally, in John 6:63, Jesus says, “it is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” This is Jesus way of saying that Spirit of God is the attractive personality that will draw people to God, and Christ’s words are the avenue where the Spirit leads people to Jesus.

But if we as Christian’s aren’t careful, we might let our personality get in the way of truly attracting people to Christ. A strong and entertaining personality may be enough to attract people to a Church, but it’s not enough to attract them to Jesus.

I like to say often, ‘I’m not trying to attract people to Church, I’m trying to attract them to Jesus.” There is a difference between the two!

Jesus had created a crowd of people. On the outside, it may have been perceived as a “Church gathering.” In John 6:15, the crowd actually tried to make Jesus their King! That sounds good, doesn’t it!? Then why did Jesus flee when He perceived their plans?

Jesus perceived that they wanted to gather together to make Jesus as their King for the wrong reason. They were attracted to Jesus Christ’s personality and pragmatism (because he just got done feeding the 5,000) but not His truthful words. They were attracted to what Jesus could do for them, but not Jesus Christ Himself.

Like Jesus, it’s possible for a pastor to build his own mini following, revamp the church gathering population, assume that people are gathering together as a Church to crown Jesus as the King, when in actuality the people are coming for the wrong reason. Perhaps it’s the Pastor’s eloquent preaching, friendly persona, funny disposition, winsome character, or even hansom appearance that attracts people. The question is, if the pastor leaves, will the Church continue?

I don’t want my personality to draw people to Christ. Sure, I want it to be one of the running bases on the way to the home-run plate. Yet, nothing counts and no points are scored unless they come around to the home plate. I want to suggest that only the Spirit of God, by using the word of God, can empower a person to make a 360 degree effort to round all of the bases and score and arrive home to eternal life.

As 2 Corinthians 4:5 says, “For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus sake.” I thank God for helping my young friend see past me and hear through me, to behold our Lord Jesus Christ.

I pray that God will make followers of Christ through me according to His Spirit and with His Word. My simple job is to be an instrument (Acts 9:15) of praise to God. Let the wind of God’s Holy Spirit blow through me with the distinct notes of God’s Word into the hearts of God’s people (1 Thess. 1:6-8, 2 Thess. 3:1).

Let them “be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1).

How Long Should My Sermon Be?

How Long Should My Sermon Be?

I’m a fairly new Pastor. I’ve been pastoring a small Church in upper state New York for just over two years. My preaching style has morphed over the years. My sermon preparation, notes, and delivery have transformed into completely different forms. I’ve read books on preaching, listened to good preaching, inevitably compared myself to other preachers, and yet the number one game changing aspect to my preaching preparation and delivery has been the Word of God.

When I read good books on preaching, I found them helpful and interesting, but nothing compared to the Word of God. When I listened to other pastor’s sermons, I found them helpful and entertaining but usually found myself overcome by the insurmountable temptation of comparison.

One day, I sat face to face with a gentleman from my congregation who told me that my sermons were too long, or at least, I didn’t end at 12 o’clock noon. As a rookie pastor, my sermons would extend anywhere from 40-60 minutes. Keep in mind that my congregation runs an average age of 60, which means their attention span should be a bit longer.

However, I did come face to face with an audience that looked distracted and finicky towards the end of my sermons. I felt conflicted because there seems to be two prevailing opinions on the length of sermons among ministers: shorter is better or longer is holier. I didn’t adopt either of those views, but needed clarification on how long is too long and how short is too short. I needed to find my position.

It all clicked one day as I was studying through Hebrews 11. Towards the end of the faith chapter, the author says, “and what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson…” (Hebrews 11:32). That statement struck me for several reasons.

First, it’s unknown who wrote the book of Hebrews. For that reason, I like to give simple credibility to the Holy Spirit who inspired all of Scriptures literature, regardless of what person wrote it (2 Peter 1:20-21).

Second, because the Holy Spirit is ultimately the source of Hebrews, and Hebrews is written very much like a sermon, then Hebrews 11:32 is apart of a Holy Spirit Sermon!

For that reason, I realized that the best instruction on learning how to develop a sermon comes by studying the Scriptures, observing their outlines, listening to the words, focusing on the different styles of authorship and length, and then asking God how He would like His Spirit to preach through you.

It’s no coincidence that God’s Word is filled with 66 individual books with varying degrees of length, style, and topics. What makes them all different? The people make them different, but what make them all similar? The Spirit unites them together. Therefore, if I was to preach a Spirit filled sermon along with other Spirit inspired sermons, I reckoned that it would sound very different than the myriads of other stellar sermons, mainly because I’m a different personality with a different God made mind.

Isaiah doesn’t write like Amos, and Peter doesn’t write like Paul. Isaiah uses some rich language and lengthy discourses while Amos writes a smaller book with farmer language. The Apostle Peter writes with fisherman schooled language whereas the Apostle Paul writes as one trained under the mighty academically acclaimed Gamaliel.

Here’s the point. The Spirit of God uses every different author of the Bible to write out their messages uniquely according to their personality and background. Therefore, it’s true that some Christians who read Roman’s will scratch their head and wonder what it all really means because it’s too deep for simple thinking and too long for their short attention span. But the same people who have difficulty following Romans will love a book like proverbs because every statement comes in bite size portions with a scatter-brained feel. However, the real intellectual might love Romans or Hebrews because of some of the deep thoughts.

It’s also true that the Preacher can’t please everybody with his messages. Some will think that it’s over their heads, and others will think that it was too long. Perhaps others will feel as if you were too simple or shallow.  

That’s okay though because God wants to use a pastor’s personality to preach.

That is to say that the Spirit will use every preacher very very differently within their types of sermon deliveries. Some will be simple, some might be more deep. Some will be longer and others will be shorter. There is not necessarily a right or wrong length to a sermon.

However, the one aspect that makes one’s sermon length right is time sensitivity

When the Author of Hebrews (the Holy Spirit ultimately) says, “and what more shall I say?,” it’s like getting a glimpse into the sermon speakers mind. That phrase “what more shall I say” doesn’t need to be told to the audience. Rather, it’s the writer choosing to speak out loud. It doesn’t contribute to the argument or topic of the book. It’s more of a side comment that a speaker might say at the beginning of his Sermon like, “Oh wow, I’m nervous.”

But in a rare instance, we get a glimpse into the Spirit’s mind of writing and preaching. The Spirit of God thinks “what more shall I say?” In other words, He has alot more to say since the next lines are filled with a summary of a dozen other faith-biographies. The Spirit has more to tell that He’s just dying to write but doesn’t have time to say it.

He says, “but time would fail me.” Now that is an incredible statement! The all sovereign Spirit of God who lives outside of time is time sensitive. I like to think that if the immortal Spirit of God was sensitive to His readers time, then so should every mortal preacher.

To answer the question, “how long should a sermon be?” Honestly, I don’t think that there is a right or wrong answer to that question. God’s Spirit filled different individuals of the Bible to write different varying lengths of sermon style Scriptures. Thus, every preacher needs to be wise and discerning by knowing their audience, their service, traditions, nature of the event, etc…and then act accordingly. However, whenever somebody tell you that your sermon was too long, listen intently and consider that they might be right. Certainly, you had more to say, but the time failed you. We are God’s creatures who live in time. Instead of trying to fight against it, we should rather aim to work with it.

Time can be a preachers worst enemy or best friend depending on how they look at it. It’s their worst enemy if they insist on saying everything that they want to say. It’s their best friend if they consider it like a form of measurement to their performance, a coach if you will, who helps them train. Every running athlete invites the clock into their performance. Without it, their work would count for nothing and success would be unmeasured. Every preacher can adopt the same outlook. To preach a shorter message is typically harder than preaching a longer message. Thus, consider it a challenge. It will test your work and your words. Sometimes, shorter can be better because “time would fail me (Hebrews 11:32).”

Church or No Church?

I’ve been alarmed at patterns of people around me recently. Not only are self proclaimed Christians neglecting to meet together with a local Church, but they are giving excuses for why they don’t.

They say, “I don’t need to go to Church in order to be a Christian.” Technically that’s true. Biblically,  it’s hardly true. Here are a few reason’s that this particular excuse fails.

First, let me explain why that line of logic does deserve a little bit of credit. Technically, it’s true that you don’t need to go to Church in order to be a Christian because a person is saved by God’s free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ’s crucifixion for sins and resurrection for life…period. To say it another way, “Jesus + nothing = everything.” And Romans 4:5 says, “to the one who does not work, but believes, his faith is accredited as righteousness.” As Romans 11:6 reiterates, “if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would not be grace.” Only Jesus has the power to save (Acts 4:12), which adding works to the equation will disqualify. It’s very important that every person realized that they cannot work for Heaven, Heaven worked for them. People cannot work for God, God has worked for them. People cannot give to God before they receive from God. Jesus is the one person that a person must accept and receive if they are to know God (John 14:7, 1 Tim. 2:5). Jesus is the gift as Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.” Thus, Jesus is the gift. Therefore, to try and give God our Church attendance or anything else that we deem good as a payment for our sin or a token for Heaven will not cut it. To give God something for His gift of Jesus is to make void the gift. A gift cannot be a gift without receiving it freely! This is the essence of the gospel.

So, when people use the “I don’t need to go to Church in order to be a Christian,” they are using good logic. They prove that they know what it means to be a Christian. They probably learned that truth preached from a Church. However, to use that logic as a reason NOT to go to Church instead of a reason to go to Church is no good. It’s truth misapplied. Let me explain.

The person (perhaps it’s you) who makes an excuse for Church negligence on the foundation of gospel logic is one who is digging themselves into a deeper guilty hole of accountability. Their excuse does not excuse them. Their excuse actually gives them less of an excuse. It sheds light onto their spiritual understanding, thus making them even more accountable for their negligence, rather than less accountable for it. Their excuse speaks about their understanding of true salvation in Christ Jesus. The “Christians” who says that they don’t need to go to Church because it doesn’t make them a Christian is deeply right from one standpoint, yet terribly wrong from another angle. They are right because they understand that a person is saved “by grace through faith” in Jesus (Eph. 2:8-9), and yet wrong because if they quote Ephesians 2:8-9, then they should also quote Hebrews 10:24-25 which says, “and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”  I think that’s a really clear sentence that can stand without exposition. However, let me make four points that come from Hebrews 10:24-25 for the Churchless Christian.

First, the point of Church is to “consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.” Meeting together as a Church is meant to be a positive expression of love. It shouldn’t be primarily burden filled. It should be freeing, invigorating and refreshing. To meet together with brothers and sisters in Christ means to encourage them. I could tell the Churchless Christian that they need Church for their own soul’s nourishment, but the writer of Hebrews doesn’t say that. He says, “don’t neglect meeting together because other people need you! They need your love, your unique personality and set of gifts to stir their passions and put agility back into their spiritual life. Attending a body of Church believers must be first and foremost a selfless act that thinks of other people before yourself. The writer of Hebrews says, “consider.”

Consider what? Consider that the reason that you should attend Church is for other people’s well being even before it is for you! Why does that need considered? It needs considered because most American Christians don’t harbor the discipline of Church attendance for other people. They harbor it for themselves. Therefore, this is a foreign concept that needs consideration. Christians think that their kids need a good children’s program, the parents need good preaching, and the family needs plenty of families just like them. We don’t innately think, what Church needs me? What Church could use a family or young person to encourage them. We really need to ask God to search our hearts and ask Him why we go to Church and how we choose a Church. Many Christians go “Church shopping” when moving into a new area, and they use that language to explain their hunt. It’s sad to say that they use the right language to express their true intention, because much of Church decisions have been reduced to a consumer mentality and left without spiritual meditation. When choosing a Church, how about praying, “make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul” Psalm 143:8.

Second, consider how Hebrews 10:24 says, “not neglecting to meet together.” This statement defines Church pretty well. Church literally means “called out ones,” which means that the Church is not made our of wood and bricks, but blood and souls. The Church is made out of people who have been called by God and responded through Jesus Christ. As many T-shirts have been accurately designed, “Church is not a building, it’s a people.” So, when you go to Church, you are going to where the people gather, wherever that is. It can happen anywhere with or without a roof, in or outside of a building (but in the northeast, we prefer a roof and some heat!).

A few months ago, my Church family had Church in one of our member’s homes as we were waiting for a furnace to be installed. I felt very first century during the service because most New Testament Churches met in homes.

We were simply “meeting together.” However, many people neglect this. Notice how the author of Hebrews phrases this Church clause in a negative way…”not neglecting.” He says it that way in order to catch the attention of those people who neglect the Church gathering. This habit was present in the first century, and it is present now.

Many Christians neglect Church for numerous reasons. They’re too busy, the sports schedule falls on Sunday, their job interferes with it, or they think that a sermon online or podcast on their phone constitutes as Church. Therefore, they neglect.

But notice what is really said here: “do not neglect meeting together.”  In other words, Church needs to be a personal reality, not a virtual reality. In order to follow the instructions of God here, a Christian needs to hop in their car and drive to a group of Christians. Turning on the television, radio or phone does not count.

Consider a third aspect of Hebrews 10:25 that says, “as is the habit of some.” Neglecting Church becomes a habit. You should see the progression here. People neglect an array of different responsibilities. Even though they are always responsible for what they don’t do, personal neglect can be accidental. However, when neglect becomes a normal part of one’s schedule, then it becomes a habit. When a person neglects Church, they feel a little guilty. They know that they should be going but they give into their lackadaisical lethargy.  But when a Christian gives into their Church neglect for years upon end, it turns into a habit. In other words, they become numb to their neglect, and their guilty conscience becomes calloused. They no longer think that what they are doing is wrong because it apart of their normal routine. Perhaps that’s you.

Hone in on the idea of  the writer’s words. The author of Hebrews is encouraging Christians to not neglect meeting together as some are in the habit of doing. This presupposes that these Christians do have some habit of Church attendance, otherwise, how would they ever hear this letter? The audience who needs to hear this are those believers who come to Church periodically, but not often enough. This means that is would be absolutely ridiculous to think that God is addressing Christians who have absolutely no tie with the Church or any positive habit whatsoever of coming to Church.

In the New Testament, being righteous and changed by Jesus always assumes that you are joined to a body of Christ and active in it. A lone Christian who doesn’t meet with a body of believers is absurd and it doesn’t make sense. When a person is drawn to Jesus and becomes a Christian, they become apart of the body of Christ. The body of Christ is described as interconnected and dependent on every other body part (1 Cor. 12). It’s also described as being attached to the head. In order to function as a body of Christ, Christians are told to serve one-another by using their spiritual gifts accordingly, all of which depend on personal interactions and deep relationships. The local body of Christ cannot be cut up into parts, otherwise the body wouldn’t be the body. You can’t mail 100 pieces of somebodies body in 100 different directions and expect that body to be alive. (Judges …) Again, the Church needs to be an actual reality, not virtual reality. If you don’t want your body treated like it be in 5 different places at one time, then don’t treat the local body of Christ (the Church) the same way. For you to stay away from literally meeting together as a body means for you expect the body of Christ to stretch itself out like elasti-girl! It doesn’t work that way! Furthermore, if you don’t want your body to be split up into 5 different sections, then don’t expect that of the Church either. Meeting together means to literally join a body of believers. In part, this will help prove your genuine relationship with Christ.

Lastly, within this statement about habits, hone in on that idea of “habit.” Do you realize that God never addresses Christians who make an excuse for not going to Church? He only addresses those who have formed bad habits. That is, God addresses those Christians who have neglected Church by thinking too little about it. He doesn’t address Christians who neglect Church because they’ve thought too much about it! There is a huge difference between the Christian who neglects Church out of habit and a Christian who neglects Church because of an excuse.

When Christians make an excuse for why they don’t need to come to Church, they are trying to justify their actions, which is very different than Christians who neglect Church out of bad habit. Making an excuse for a lack of attendance means overt intentional disobedience. It’s disobedience, since, how could it not be disobedience when Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “do not neglect meeting together.” Yet those who make an excuse for why they don’t need to attend Church propagate the polar opposite of God’s Word. God’s Word says, “DO NOT neglect meeting together,” and they say, “YES, neglect meeting together.” Therefore, making an excuse for why one does not need to meet together for Church comes from a rebellious spirit that flies in the face of God’s Word. It would be comparable to a Dad telling his son don’t hang out with those group of friends, and the son coming back with “no Dad, I will meet with those group of friends!” Or imagine the government mailing a letter summoning a citizen to come to jury duty, and the citizen writing a letter back with all of his/her reasons for why he/she will not come and doesn’t need to come. In essence, that is the heart of the Christian who names reasons for why they don’t need to come to Church. They aren’t neglecting, nor are they forgetting, but they are intentionally premeditating their disobedience.

Fourth, consider how Hebrews 10:25 says, “encouraging one-another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” The reason that it’s incredibly important to show up to Church regularly is because the judgement of Christ is quickly approaching. We need the endurance, purity, and determination to hold onto our faith to the end. We need the help of other people around us.

Here’s another reason that a Christian’s theological excuse for Church negligence is wrong. They are using the rules for heaven’s culture to guide earthly culture.

Last, the final reason that Church negligence is a preposterous and hideous lie is due to the common sense logic.