08.02.08
Not a Sermon…..
Tonight while I was driving home a familiar voice came on the radio. It was the Reverend Lon Solomon, pastor of the McLean Bible Church. He regularly does radio spots with short bits of preaching and always ends his coments with the words: “Not a Sermon…Just a thought!” Very catchy, right?
Well here is what he had to say tonight: ”…..The Bible says that God certified Jesus to be the son of God by the resurrection from the dead. In other words, God PROVED that belief in Jesus Christ is the ONE way to God that really works - by raising Jesus Christ from the dead. Folks, no other religious leader ever claimed to rise from the dead. They are all still dead and in the grave. But Jesus Christ is risen and alive. That’s why we say: “Follow a dead savior and you will wind up just like him.” Not a sermon….just a thought!”
Not to criticize this man’s religion, but what really strikes me about this guy is his absolute certainty. Or maybe he is not so certain himself but chooses that very certain style of preaching as a way to continually grow his congregation. The McLean Bible Church is a non-denominational church with over 10,000 members. You read that right - ten thousand! Obviously style appeals to many folks in this area.
But again, what called him to my attention was the incredibly certain (and somewhat pompous) way in which he speaks. As though there were no questions in the world, no mystery, no paradox. The type of religion he preaches is very much typical of our “Faithful” group. It is ethnocentric (”we are right while everyone else is wrong.”) He uses short, seemingly very logical phrases that seem to sum everything up so as to totally obliterate the need for critical reflection. (The Faithful need certainty.) And his church website says the church mission is to interpret religious concepts literally. All Faithful or Stage Two traits.
Of course now, this Faithful stance begins to make sense when we begin to research Pastor Solomon’s history. It seems he spent his youth as a Lawless or Stage One individual - so no wonder the Faithful concepts hold such value for him. More on that next post!
The entire (short) text of the radio spot can be heard at http://www.notasermon.org/. I had to listen to it several times so I could reproduce it for you exactly in paragraph two above. But I don’t know how long they keep the same audio there on that main page so if you want to hear it, better go there now.