Things People Should Never Say They Never Heard at Your Church

I cringe every time I hear the testimony of a Christian who grew up in the church and only later came to understand some fundamental article of the faith. Granted, some things are hard to understand. We have to drink milk before we get to meat. I’m not chagrined about the folks who never learned the word propitiation or never knew the difference between Christ’s active and passive obedience. Those are incredibly important concepts and we ought to teach them from the ground up. But I’m talking about the basics, about the things that every Christian should know backwards and forward, the things we should hear in church all the time.

Granted, people do not remember all they should remember. It’s possible the fault lies with the hearers as much as the speakers. But still, that’s only more incentive to make certain thing crystal clear. We must not assume our people know what they need to know. We can’t assume they’ve heard what we think we’ve told them.

As a pastor, there are certain things I hope the people at my church will never say they never heard. These are not necessarily the most important doctrines of the faith (though some are). Rather, these are the things we easily assume our people know, but often still miss.

And when they miss these things they can end up missing everything.

1. “Being a Christian is more than going to church and being a good person.” We have to make this one absolutely and repetitively clear. I promise you there are people in your church (and mine) who think Christianity consists of attending religious services with some regularity and not screwing up in major ways. Make sure they know the gospel, that Jesus Christ lived the life we couldn’t live and died the death we deserved so that by faith alone we can be made right with God. Make sure they can articulate the gospel too.

2. “We must be born again.” I’m struck that the history of revivals shows that awakenings often follow when preachers return to this theme again and again. Do your people know that they are dead in sin and need the miracle of regeneration?   Continue at Kevin DeYoung