Southwood Presbyterian Church

You say ‘quit’ Sunday School, why don’t you ‘quit’ preaching?

Monday, March 07, 2011

(This question was submitted via Knots last evening and was inspired by yesterday’s sermon which can be found here)
Pastor Larroux,

I chose to go to Sunday School Class this morning after the first service.  I briefly considered sitting and drinking coffee and waving, but I would have missed out, not on grace, but on the class and it seemed like a profitable way to spend my time. But I wondered, not in an effort to be witty, but in an effort to understand what you are saying: would you be willing to decide at 8:25 a.m. to go and sit on the couch and drink coffee, leaving the pulpit empty, and a few hundred people scratching their heads and looking at each other?

What would be the thoughts that would contribute to your decision either to go and preach, or go and sip coffee on the couch? By the way, if you are going to sip coffee on the couch next week, please let me know, and I will skip the sanctuary and head straight to the couches, assuming the coffee is decent: I have a few other questions I would like to ask, which would be more appropriate sitting on a couch over coffee than shouting them from the back of the sanctuary while you are preaching

As a follow up: if you ditched preaching suddenly next Sunday morning to sit on the couch, would you feel guilty about that?  Do you feel obligated to preach the pure Gospel, and if you didn’t, would you feel guilty about that.  If you don’t feel obligated, why do you do it?

Just trying to triangulate on what you are teaching. Trying to grasp the Gospel!

Signed,
(name withheld/details edited by Jean in order to post question for the blog)

Dear ‘trying to grasp the Gospel’—-

First of all, I’m thrilled that you are wrestling with these issues, thrilled. I think that this is precisely the kind of contemplative Christianity that the Puritans would have commended where the people of God meditated on the things of God for their own personal lives. Thank you for not simply being a sermon ‘consumer’ but someone who is applying the Word to their life.

Secondly, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head when you ask me if I’d feel ‘guilty’ or ‘obligated’ about preaching or not preaching. This IS the issue. The questions we are wrestling with are really about heart motivations not behavioral modifications. So, in answer to your first question: “Would I be willing to ‘skip’ preaching and sit on the couches?” I would answer ‘yes’ and ‘no’—-but each answer has to do with my heart motivation for being in the pulpit in the first place.

“Would I skip?” Yes. I would have no angst about calling Will Spink or Ken Leggett on a Saturday night and telling him that I just didn’t have it in me to preach the next day, telling them that ‘organized religion’ had exhausted me, that I had no motivation or passion left and that I was ‘skipping’ preaching. I wouldn’t skip BECAUSE I’d lost my first love, but because I didn’t want to! Now, would I sit in the couches on that Sunday? NO WAY! My reason for skipping would be due to burnout and spending an hour answering questions about ‘why I was skipping’ or ‘what was wrong’ would be equally exhausting. P.S. If you we’re asking me if I would skip church as a general member of the congregation, I think you know my answer- absolutely! Again, the REASON for skipping is the issue, NOT whether one can or cannot ‘skip’!

“Would I skip?” No. First of all I find it interesting that you equated the two issues as parallel issues (worship and Sunday School) and I would suggest that this isn’t ‘apples to apples.’ Suffice to say that Sunday School is NOT commanded by God’s Word, nor is the neglect of it forbidden, so I don’t know how far I would actually entertain the parallel, but I think the principle is what you were after, correct? Worship is clearly, as Ken Stuart said it yesterday, the ‘crescendo’ of our week. So if you are asking whether I would have more heartburn over ignoring my calling, neglecting the pulpit and abandoning the ‘lambs’ who I was supposed to feed during the public worship of the people of God vs. skipping an optional classroom event, yes. I would have more heartburn over ignoring worship.

ASIDE: I think this is the same reason that our teachers/leaders shouldn’t just ‘walk away’ from their classes next week. I so deeply appreciate all of our teachers and their hard work in preparation for Sunday School. For our teachers to just ‘walk away’ or to think that I didn’t value their preparation would be a terrible mis-application of grace! Commitment from leaders to accomplish the task before them is not only godly, but it is actually motivated by GRACE. When the Gospel transforms your life and you see the sweetness of Grace, you realize something profound: there is NOTHING you could do to repay it, no service, no mission trip, no quiet time, NOTHING. Consequently, all of life become a joyful response to grace. I hope we have teachers and preachers who would sooner die than give up their classrooms and pulpits. By the same token if there are some who are serving out of guilt, obligation or regret then I hope they are being set free to step aside! The fancy way to say this is that Gospel indicatives always fuel Gospel imperatives. Always. (That is a whole other subject however!)

The issue is motivation. It is always going to come back to that. As I said yesterday, “the degree to which you feel ‘obligated’ to do or  ‘guilty’ when you don’t is the degree to which your heart has polluted grace.” According to that paradigm there are ministers who SHOULD not only skip the service next week, but probably leave the ministry, because the entire deal has been about ‘obligatory’ service. I would and HAVE encouraged men (who were friends) in those situations to resign. By the same token, there are those who feel no obligation or guilt either way about Sunday School and just simply love it—- amen, forge ahead! I would, however, add a word of caution: it is easy to give yourself credit for being ‘free enough’ to do either, but not really have dug deep enough to consider what would really happen in that scenario!

At this point you should ask yourself: Am I a ‘take it or leave it’ individual when it comes to the non-essentials of Christianity? I’d encourage you to consider the following if you have determined you are ‘free enough’ by grace to skip or not to skip:

1.) Could you skip and never mention to anyone in the class where you were? (Just don’t show up and don’t ever tell anyone where you were. Often we subtly allow others to know that we had an appropriate ‘spiritual’ alternative i.e. that you went to visit your aunt Vera who was in stage 5 cancer in Montgomery so you could share the gospel with her. Could you let them think you were equally likely to be on a mission’s trip or sleeping late? This will help you see how deeply the approval of men is driving you and your behavior.)

2.) If you assert that you are free enough to ‘just skip’ would there be a spiritual ‘bread crumb trail’ to something that would legitimize the absence? (for instance, “Yes, I did skip to go to the Auburn National Championship “War Eagle!”, but I made sure I listened and downloaded the sermon as we drove home. Cha-Ching, give me my gold star! Same as #1 just asked a bit differently. We are adept at ‘adding ketchup’ to a situation to make sure we baptize it into our spiritual life so as to legitimize it rather than just living with the verdict of God as enough.)

3.) How do you feel about others who choose NOT to attend for no other reason than they just don’t like it? (Do you have even the slightest bit of subtle disappointment with them? If you saw them sitting on the couches answering their email or watching a funny YouTube video instead of going to class each week would you find yourself even, ever so slightly wagging your head? Is there some part of you that thinks they should want to be in Sunday School with you? Often we will give people a ‘hall pass’ on HAVING to be in class, but we would say, with Southern, Evangelical charm, that we just wish ‘their hearts would WANT TO be with God’s people.’ There is a subtle sting in such a statement indicating that their hearts might not be ‘longing’ for the ‘right’ things, as you define the ‘right things.’)

4.) Does even the mention of the idea of skipping Sunday School from the pulpit cause you some heartburn, anxiety and/or the need for clarification and disclaimers? (The answer to this one is obviously, “yes” or you wouldn’t have written your email. I’m now trying to triangulate your triangulation. The anxiety you feel over my suggestion needs to be deeply considered by you. Why do you feel so anxious? What is really bothering you about what I said? If you are indeed a, ‘take it or leave it’ Christian, why even send an email? Why not smile and think to yourself, “I’m so glad he’s saying that. I know there are some who go out of obligation, they need to be set free. Thank God our pastor is setting them free! I don’t have any angst/guilt about ‘going’ or ‘not going’ and I plan to continue joyfully going, but I totally understand that paradigm. I am thankful that the Grace I’m learning about from the pulpit AND Sunday School is being applied deeply enough and scandalously enough that others are being set free from false obligations and moralistic guilt.” I think a true ‘take it’ or ‘leave it’ mentality would produce such a response.

Now honestly, I appreciate the struggle. I really do. I appreciate the fact that you are struggling with the struggle. You are not alone and that’s why I posted your question. I am trying to push you deeper toward the implications of your questions. I hope that is helpful. I would really suggest that you purchase and read two of the books listed on the blog. They will really help. I would start with ‘We would see Jesus” by Roy and Revel Hession, then “Scandalous Grace” by Steve Brown. P.S. the sermons from RYM which are linked from Joe Novenson and myself are also very helpful. P.S.S. Dr. Tim Keller’s study on the Book of Galatians is worth it’s weight in gold. If you have a small group or a group you gather with this would be a primo rescource. Final suggestion: World Harvest Mission has a program of discipleship that would be a major blessing in your life. I’ll post more details later, but check out: http://www.whm.org/mentoredsonship

Let me share with you a portion of another email that I got last night. I hope it encourages you to know that as God is stirring your heart to wrestle he is concurrently stirring the hearts of others to rest:

“Each week brings my heart another reminder to dip into the cup of grace; breathe it, snort it, surround myself by it; cry because of it; humble myself that he would call me by not any of the exhausting checklist things I had done and had not done – but because his son suffered deeply, died filled with pain and abandonment by the ones he loved, rose and lives .

All to say – keep preaching grace. We can’t hear it enough. There are many, like me, need to be drunk on grace – soon the slumping shoulders will be lighter! For without it, we are nothing. Oh! What an awesome God we have who saves us from ourselves and when we are at our very worst, will hear us cry out “Abba, Father”, pours his mercy over me and floods me with grace.” (appropriately edited for privacy)

-Jean