The church is in desperate need of gospel clarity. Rampant on every social media platform is a barrage of claims to Christianity rife with compromise. Gospel clarity must be anchored in biblical and theological consistency. Ultimately, that clarity must begin in the pulpit. An old preaching adage I first heard in my expositional preaching class asserts, “If there is a mist in the pulpit, then there will be a fog in the pew.” [1] The lack of gospel clarity among Christians stems from a lack of clarity within the local churches’ leadership. A church devoid of conversions is, plainly speaking, a dying church. A church with no gospel conviction—no evangelistic vision, passion for reaching the lost, nor any fervor for the Great Commission—has succumbed to apathy and complacency. Too often, local churches look to secular business models for church growth tactics and lose sight of their missional mandate—make disciples. Business models become transfixed on numerical growth that thr...
I have been reflecting on the clear distinction that exists between a healthy biblical church and an unhealthy one. Large crowds do not necessitate that a church is devoid of Spiritual vitality, just as a small church does not guarantee spiritual depth. Numbers do not mean compromise, and poverty does not mean piety. At the heart of every biblical church should be the centrality of the gospel. But what does that truly mean? Moreover, what does that even look like? I believe it begins in the pulpit and, more specifically, the man filling the pulpit. My friend Adam Hughes (pastor, theologian, and professor) is fond of saying, “If there’s a mist in the pulpit, then there will be a fog in the pew.” If the man of God shepherding the congregation hasn’t a clue, then that cluelessness is amplified. Essentially, the spiritual health and depth of the congregation as a whole will never exceed that of its leadership. Puritan Richard Baxter charged pastors when h...