What does rage, the mob mentality, and preaching have in common? I wish the answer to this question was a resounding “nothing,” but that is not the case. So how exactly are these three things related? Let me play out a scenario for you.
A random preacher, caught up in the frenzy of his message, further incited by the response of the congregation, begins a tirade that utilizes a variety of colorful words, innuendos, and grossly non-scriptural assumptions. The result? The congregation goes wild, shouts of “preach it” reverberate, and fists are pumped into the air as a sense of a collective “he’s telling it like it is,” fills the house.
Ok, nothing wrong with a collective response to the Word of God. Nothing wrong with shouting, getting behind the preacher, and sending forth agreeable articulations that encourage a preacher to “preach on.” I agree with all of these demonstrations and encourage these demonstrations to abound among us! But, there is something deeply concerning when we are engaging in these important and powerful responsive demonstrations when the message we are hearing violates scriptural honesty and/or the message contains a vitriolic undercurrent of disdain, animosity, or a plethora of various other brutish emotions and feelings.
Is it troubling to recognize that many are comfortable with a message of animus that finds nothing out-of-sorts with a preaching that articulates undesirable adjectives that counter common-sense teaching in the home. Yes, my children are taught that we (parents as well) never label people, regardless of their behaviors, sinful lives, or less-than-disirable characters with rude, hateful, and vitriolic verbiage. I was raised this way and I expect my children to be raised as such! I was raised under the strong admonition that my speech “always be gracious, seasoned with salt…” (Col. 4:6, KJV). This is exactly how I am raising my children and how I expect them, one day, to raise their own children.
Unfortunately, we seem to lose our minds when it comes to certain styles of preaching. Somehow, many have tolerated certain language, innuendos, and a variety of colorful colloquialisms that can take place behind a pulpit. Many have come to tolerate jokes with a “play-on-words” that are riddled with colorful innuendos and, just as concerning, outright vocalizations that contain unsavory slurs and hateful rhetoric. Again, our speech ought to “always be gracious, seasoned with salt.”
Now, perhaps your response to this, thus far, is one that borders on agreement or disagreement. May I, for the sake of inquiry, ask upon what grounds you thus far disagree? Are we not admonished in scripture to teach sound doctrine and “in all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech, that cannot be condemed; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashaming, having no evil thing to say of you?” (Titus 2:6). Are we not further admonished, principally, to not let our “good be evil spoken of?” (Romans 14:13).
Have we, in our collective efforts to circle the wagons, tolerated for “circle” sake what we would not tolerate in our own families and/or local churches? With what spirit are we preaching when we utilize crude and slanderous language not fit for the family dinner table, let alone the churches and/or venues we preach? Am I merely prudish and need to lighten up or have we allowed an erosion of reverence for that most sacred desk called the pulpit?
You see, I bring up rage and the mob mentality because I see many similarities throughout our divided states of America. We, like so many, are assaulting the ears of countless listeners with our tirades surrounding points-of-issue that we have with the church culture, the sin culture, and the political culture. In a sense, we have engaged in a homiletic of rage where we interject personalized frustrations, bias, opinions, and angst about issues that assault the church every single day. Furthermore, the flesh is urged on by the resulting mob mentality that occurs while one is entering into their homiletic tirade of rage. Three points to consider:
- Rage will always tap into rage
- Negativity will always tap into negativity
- Anger will always tap into anger.
This is the mob mentality. There is where good people, stirred by frustration, anger, and the boiling cauldron of collective emotion rise up and do things they later regret. How many articles have we read where people, with a stunned look on their face, say, “I don’t know what happened, but I just responded.” Folks, not every lynching that occurred in America involved a true 100% all-in crowd of people. No, many were simply caught up in the fervor of fear, anger, and collective emotion– only to gaze, with a sick feeling in their stomach, at the ramifications of what their impulsive response to a mob mentality had produced.
I am alarmed at the lack of thought-and-foresight that goes into many of our collective responses to homiletic tirades or rage. Wait, why am I shouting with maddened fervor after that was said? Wait, how does this affect my witness? Wait, what did he just say?
We can sweep this under the rug and pretend like it never happens but it happens all the time and we become disingenuous to ourselves and those we are meant to lead by example when we act like it is not a big issue. Ministry is not a license to be ugly, rude, unkind, mean, vulgar, hateful, or any of the other variants of fleshy and carnal eruption. Hey, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, right?
1 Timothy 3:1-13 (ESV)
1 The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.
2 Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
3 not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.
4 He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive,
5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?
6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.
7 Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.
8 Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain.
9 They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.
10 And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless.
11 Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things.
12 Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well.
13 For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.
Am I still prudish to expect reverence and honor in the sacred desk called the pulpit? Have we succumbed so immeasurably to the pull of politics that we now demonstrate an unrestrained toleration for our friends and peers so that we no longer stand for the necessity of ministry to “rightly divide the word of truth?” (II tim. 2:15). Are we no longer to heed the principle that undergirds the admonition to “speak the truth in love”? (Eph. 4:15). Did all of this fall to the wayside when we failed to address the proud look, sowing discord among the brethren, and slanderous tongues that pierce and devour one another?
As a pastor, a father, a husband, and a saint, it behooves me to to live my life in such a way that instructs one into the paths of righteousness. No friendship, peer-group, fellowship, or loyalty ought to trump my committment to an ethical and righteous lifestyle. This demands my words, behavior, conduct, character, and circle-of-influence align to such lofty heights. Sir, if this article robs you of your peace and you merely wish to slander its author because its contents hit to close to home, I do not apologize. No, it is my children I will have to apologize to when they ask:
- “Dad, why did he say that word?”
- “Dad, why does he say those things about that scripture?”
- “Dad, what does _______ mean?”
No, it is I that will have to fix (at home), with such an effort to not tear down the ministry and/or slander anyone that aspires to such a lofty goal, the scriptures you twisted, turned, and bent to fit your context and your homiletic of rage and bias. I don’t have a calling to stroke your egos, preserve your reputations, or go-along-to-get-along; I have a calling to live a life that holds up to the measure and standard of Jesus Christ. I have a calling to raise my children loving truth, loving souls, and loving all things that are lovely, pure, and of a sound report.