Are you a truth-teller or a calf-maker? Every preacher is one or the other. It all depends on what drives his ministry and determines the content of his preaching and teaching. What motivates you? What is your message? Consider Paul’s example. He was driven by one ambition—to please the God who tests the heart—and devoted to one task—to be faithful to the message God had entrusted to him.

For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts (1 Thess. 2:3-4).

In contrast to Paul, consider the observations made by Eugene Peterson in Under the Unpredictable Plant:

We assume that because people want more religion, they want more of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We assume that when they gather in our congregations and ask us to lead them in prayer they want us to lead them before the throne of a Holy God. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The people in our congregations are, in fact, out shopping for idols. They enter our churches with the same mind-set in which they go to the shopping mall, to get something that will please them or satisfy an appetite or need. John Calvin saw the human heart as a relentlessly efficient factory for producing idols. Congregations commonly see the pastor as the quality-control engineer in the factory. . . .

The people who gather in our congregations want help through a difficult time; they want meaning and significance in their ventures. They want God, in a way, but certainly not a ‘jealous God’ . . . Mostly, they want to be their own god and stay in control but have ancillary [additional, supplemental] idol assistance for the hard parts, which the pastor can show them how to get. With the development of assembly-line mass production, we are putting these idols out in great quantities and in a variety of colors and shapes to suit every taste. John Calvin’s insight plus Henry Ford’s technology equals North American Religion. Living in golden calf country as we do, it is both easy and attractive to become a successful pastor like Aaron.^[1]

Aaron’s motivation was man-centered—please the people and give them what they want. Paul’s motivation was God-centered—please the God who sent him and speak His message. Paul was a truth-teller. Aaron was a calf-maker. Which are you?

Endnotes:

[1] Eugene H. Peterson, Under the Predictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1992) 80-81.

 

Making It Personal

• Are you more concerned about what people think of you and your ministry than what God thinks?

• What determines the content of your message: the gospel which God has entrusted to you or the cravings of the people to whom you preach?