Simplicity

Someone has said, "Simplicity is truth's most becoming garb," and the older I get the more I appreciate that insight.

When I arrived at my first church, fresh from a wonderful and (for me) eye-opening and enlarging experience at seminary, I couldn't wait to pass on all the "good stuff" that I had just received. So my poor congregation had to sit through a maze of theology and apologetics and who-knows-what-else that I dumped out on them each week.

I was so offended when one of our members -- a well-education person I had previously thought -- came up to me one Sunday after church and said (very kindly), "Pastor, we just need something to get us through the week." Now, however, I take it as a badge of honor when one of the children engages me in conversation about the sermon after the service. Or when a parent confides in me that her eight-year old really enjoys my messages.

"Simple" doesn't mean "dumbed down" or inane. Indeed, the simpler my sermons become they harder they are to produce! I work very hard to take complex and sophisticated concepts and word them in a way people can grasp and respond to. These are not "children's sermons" by any means.

By the way, I really don't believe in special sermons for children. The ones I've seen usually only serve to bring the service to a halt and draw the congregation's attention to the cute giggling children, while the pastor pulls out some object lesson that (according to most developmental psychologists) is beyond the grasp of most of his listeners! Young children have a hard time sorting out the "object" from the "lesson!" A good sermon, carefully crafted, should speak to the whole family of believers, not just the adults with post grad degrees! (At the very least, it should provide an opportunity for parents to talk with their children at Sunday dinner.)

I was humbled some years ago when, after the service, a member handed me a slip of paper with this quotation from Ecclesiastes 12:10 in the Living Bible: "For the Preacher was not only a wise man, but a good teacher; he not only taught what he knew to the people, but he taught them in an interesting manner." That's true simplicity.