I’ve listened to many sermons lately, some in our own corps, some at other churches, and some on line. There’s a disturbing trend in this preaching that I want to identify. It revolves around two major themes of the theology I am hearing.

Let me put this in context. I grew up listening to some really great preachers including my Dad. The theme of course was about what God could do for you, which you could not do for yourself. This is the essence of a good Wesleyan theology. It is God who comes to us, it is God who provides for us, it is He who provides forgiveness and redemption. We cannot do this for ourselves.

We must respond to His approach, but it is God who pursues us It is He who saves us and then transforms us. He makes us good, He makes us kind, He makes us better than we can make ourselves better.

And yet, I hear so often sentiments of “you need to do better”. I hear sentiments of “pull up your socks, or gird your loins and get ready to do better.” This is far from The Gospel.

Secondly, is the starting position of these presentations of The Gospel. It begins all too often from the position of our shortage of character. And of course, there are times when we need to think about what we need, but beginning with what God offers can easily need to the acknowledgement of our need of what God has.

I would encourage the writers of these sermons to think about God’s grace, to explore the HESED of God in our lives and what it means to know God’s SHALOM. People need to know they were made in God’s image and God is prepared to finish His work by repairing the damage that this world does on us.

I am not suggesting that we need to water down The Gospel, or tell people that they do not need to be changed, but we do need to know it is God’s work and His mercy that changes us.

⁸ God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. ⁹ Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. Ephesians 2:8,9