I recently sat in the pew of another church and listened to a pastor give a sermon from the bible. I admit I was looking forward to it; I’m always looking for ways I can learn from others, and I don’t want to sound too critical, but to say the least, I was a little disappointed.

Scripture was read (and lots of it), the gospel was given clearly, but something was missing. It seemed like the gentleman was just going through the motions. He had all the ingredients of a message… but it was lacking. I first asked myself, is it because I am tired? No, I had a great night’s sleep. Is it the style of the service? Again, no, because I grew up accustomed to conservative style services.

I walked away thinking this was a boring service, not because there were no props on stage, or because of too few illustrations, but boring because it lacked life and personal application. If church was like this every week, I could understand why people don’t attend anymore and why they don’t see it as relevant to their everyday life. (I kind of felt like maybe I didn’t want to go to church anymore either.) If you looked around that auditorium it was painfully obvious there were a lot of people who were wishing they were somewhere else.

If you are a Christian, you know the gospel is anything but boring. It’s the most exciting news available to people. The gospel has been changing lives since the beginning of time and it still continues to change lives. Every time I speak, I feel this heavy responsibility to present God’s Word accurately and to explain it in such a way that people get it and can apply it to their life. And I believe God will hold responsible those who present God’s Word as some boring outdated book that couldn’t possibly be helpful for today’s living.

When you’re talking about God and his Word, let’s make sure people understand it’s the best and most exciting thing happening on planet earth. What’s your presentation like?

Pastor Donald Calder