In this column last month, we commented on the preaching in some evangelical churches. This theme is now picked up by Bill James, Principal of London Seminary, and also a member of the new Theology Team of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC).
He says (p.2): ‘When I was young, I remember having a profound sense of the presence of God when listening to sermons… [But] in the generations following [Martyn] Lloyd-Jones there has been less of a sense of the supernatural in church preaching.’ He describes it as like ‘hot food served on a cold plate’.
It is arguable here that Bill James hits the spot not only in relation to preaching here, but in relation to other key issues in our evangelical constituency – whichever denomination we are in.
For example, in a desire to provide a healthy corrective to over-prescriptive ideas of the Lord’s guidance, it has become more common to speak of ‘making wise decisions’. While it is true, of course, that we need to pray for wisdom, read Scripture, trust the Lord to guide our minds as we think, and not necessarily expect flashes of lightning from the sky (as it were), there is a danger here: that we effectively lose sight of any more dramatic ways the Lord might (occasionally) choose to guide us.
It is the same when it comes to the idea of vocation. As John Benton said last month (p.2): ‘… the idea of a clear call from the Holy Spirit to pastoral ministry has been so denigrated and attacked in recent decades that maybe men now have great difficulty in even recognising God’s call.’
It is striking that this general decline in a ‘sense of the supernatural’ also seems to coincide with issues in the prayer lives both of individual leaders and of churches. Corporate prayer meetings are in decline. And many church leaders seem embarrassed when asked about their private prayer lives – or lack of them.
We might go further and suggest that this loss of the ‘sense of the supernatural’ has provided fertile ground for some of the recent high-profile scandals we have seen among evangelicals. As Paul Stevens of Regent College, Vancouver, put it in theological journal Themelios (Vol 20, Issue 3): ‘Orthodoxy involves more than merely speaking correctly about God. We could do that and still be damned, like the friends of Job – Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar – who spoke with impeccable correctness about God, but in the end received God’s judgment.’
Let this then be said: may we desire that one day, perhaps, more and more of us may, like Spurgeon (‘The power of Christ’s presence’, 2.2.1873), be able to say: ‘As a church, we can say that we have had the Master’s presence with us these many years. Oftentimes, in our assemblies, we have been as sure of His presence as we can ever be sure of anything. Our hearts have been rejoiced, and purified, and sanctified by gazing upon Him by faith.’ He added: ‘Do you believe that Christ can come to us and bless us? Are you living as if you expected Him to come to you? If so, when He comes, you will be overawed by the majesty of His presence – and you will say with John, “It is the Lord”.’
