by: Keith Phemister
I was given an invite to attend a preaching fellowship meeting amongst area pastors recently. I must admit that I had never been to this particular church nor did I personally know the pastor. However, what caught my attention from the flyer to which I was reading were the instructions for area preachers should they preach. Preachers would be called from the floor and were to be ready to preach. Great! However, what bothered me somewhat were the guidelines for those preachers should they desire to preach. The wording was along the lines of “no mean preaching tolerated.” Now I wondered if that would pertain to me. Am I one of those mean preachers to which he is trying to put in their place. What or who is a mean preacher?
Does that pertain to hard preaching as opposed to soft preaching? I had to go to the dictionary to perhaps clarify for my own purposes the term “mean.” The dictionary defined mean as unkind or cruel. I certainly do not think of myself as cruel or mean. However, when I am in the pulpit, there may indeed be some folks who would see me as mean, simply because I proclaim the truth. But, isn’t that what a preacher is supposed to do? We are to preach the truth in love as Paul stated. The truth can sometimes be harsh, and penetrating simply because it is the Word of God. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” I am not for being mean spirited in the pulpit, but when the truth is preached there will be some who won’t like it!
God told Jeremiah, “Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them.” Jeremiah 1:17
You will recall the incident with Jonah. Jonah ran from the will of God to proclaim His message to the Ninevites. We see that running from a call invited God to run right on his tail. God came a second time after chastisement did its work and said, “Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.” It seems to me that what I preach is up to the Lord and as a proclaimer of truth for which I am called. I have a mandate to preach what God commands me, whether popular or not. Now, I do believe in seeking the wisdom of God and using tact in some touchy areas, but I should not shy away from it. Am I a mean preacher for preaching on subjects in which others would never dare to enter?
God told Isaiah to “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” The word “cry” there means to preach or proclaim.
Jonah preached or cried out God’s message. It was rather pointed as well, don’t you think? “Yet forty days and Ninevah shall be overthrown” Jonah cried. Now that was pointed preaching! Maybe we who preach the Word as God commands us and are pointed in our preaching are coined “hard preachers.” Maybe, indeed, hard preachers are thought of as “mean preachers.” A commentator said this about Jonah, “He bids him declare not only the sentence of God, but in the same words; not to consider his own estimation or the ears of his hearers, nor to mingle soothing with severe words, and convey the message ingeniously, but with all freedom and severity to declare openly what was commanded him.”
I was preaching one Sunday morning in a distant state while on vacation, and after the message a dear lady came up to me and said, “I sure appreciate your passion while you preached.” I don’t think I deserve to be behind a pulpit if I am not passionate about the Word of God.
My wife was one day in a local tire shop having a tire replaced and a worker in the store recognized her. He said, “I’ve been to your church. The pastor is a hell, fire and brimstone preacher. I still remember the sermon he preached.” Now, does being a hell, fire and brimstone preacher label me as a mean preacher? If I would be in the ranks of John the Baptist and Billy Sunday then so be it. Years ago people would flock to revival meetings where men of God would let er rip, preaching the marvelous riches of Christ and leave saying they enjoyed the message. The preacher was not thought of as mean. Bold, sure! Passionate, obviously. Intense, ok! We have traded the fire in the pulpit for the sake of the comfort in the pew. As a dear saint came and visited our church one Sunday past said to me, “I am looking for a church that is uplifting.” People are having a tough time in this messed up world. They are looking for answers. However, we don’t need uplifting every service, we need repenting as well. Hard preaching means a mean preacher these days. What has happened to us?
Jesus fully understood that his preaching would offend some, but I don’t see where He backed off from preaching. When John the Baptist “saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance” (Matthew 3:7-8). Let’s not forget about John commenting to Herod and telling him boldly, “It is not lawful for thee to have her?” (Matthew 14:4).
So, if hard preaching makes mean preachers, what is hard preaching? Well, the dictionary would define hard as “Opposed to soft; carried on energetically or persistently; earnest; displaying severity.” If that be the case, maybe I need to be soft in my words, lackadaisical in my delivery and non-caring for the people to whom I preach. Maybe I need to be more concerned about the paycheck than I do about who can be helped. When God’s man delivers God’s message according to the preaching that He bids them, there very well may be some well meaning but backslidden Christian who sees it as severe and harsh; thereby, propelling him to the pages of facebook, citing the preacher as a mean preacher.
Look, I have been in the independent Baptist circles for over 35 years. I have heard them all. Lester Roloff, Tom Malone, Carl Hatch, Lee Roberson, Jack Hyles – men who some would proclaim as mean preachers these days. Go ahead and link them with Stephen then. Stephen did not mince words. Here they are, “Ye stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do you.” Those words, mind you, got him killed. I wonder if they thought he was a mean preacher? I don’t think they said, “What a nice man, I think we will kill him today.”
I leave you with this from the Word of God. “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long suffering and doctrine.” And Paul warns, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” (2 Timothy 4:2-4).
I don’t know if I am a mean preacher by some standards. What matters is that I please Him! I pray that God will help me to do just that.
Keith Phemister, Pastor
Lighthouse Baptist Church
Hudson, NH