S2: Episode 1 | Jesus? Yes please, just hold the sermons

Young people are flocking back to church - but do they need yet another interpretation?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
She actually talked me get out of here. Oh yeah, yeah,
you've really gone into the bad habit of asking a
huge amount of questions just a question between friends, you know. Well, welcome.
My name is Alden Olmsted and thanks for joining me
on five great Questions. This is a special edition mainly

(00:24):
because I hope that this will be an ongoing series
of I don't know, two or three or four episodes,
as this topic I don't think will be resolved quickly.
So as I said, I hope this is a longer conversation.
I believe it is because we don't just dispense with
sermons that easily, even though that's what I am, that's

(00:44):
what I'm theorizing, hypothesizing. So if you haven't found my substack,
it's Alden Olmsted O Lmsted dot substack dot com. And
this is my most recent post based on a gut
feeling that I've had for five or ten years. This
is not just a whim. This is something that I've
felt and noticed and tested at different churches around the

(01:06):
United States. So this post is how we're going to
kick off. And this is called Jesus. Yes, please just
hold the sermons here. We go. Young people are flocking
back to church, but do they need yet? Another interpretation
by Aldenolmstead, May seventh, twenty twenty five. I love New York.

(01:29):
There's a picture of John Lennon with his New York shirt,
classic sleeveless shirt on. It was in New York City
that I first saw a Gutenberg Bible in the archives
of the Grand Library on Fifth Avenue. The year was
twenty fourteen. My friend Cynthia and Evan were getting married
and a few of us had flown out from la

(01:49):
to attend. Since I'm not the target demographic of sex
and the city, I had no idea that New York
Library was such a perfect setting to get hitched. There's
a picture of my friends and I at the wedding
of Cynthia Nevan. It was a great time. The New
York Public Library is impressive, and walking up that marble
staircase between the two lions, the names are Patients and

(02:11):
Fortitude if you wanted to know. Guarding the entry and
featured in so many films, leads you up and into
Astor Hall, a setting both intimate and holy as a
library should feel, I suppose. And there's a picture of
the New York beautiful opening stairway and entrance a New
York Public Library. The day after the wedding, we were

(02:32):
all given a special tour of the library, and among
the many cool architectural details and facts that I've long
forgotten was a special book under glass, one of just
forty eight in existence, a Gutenberg Bible. And there's a
picture of under glass, the Gutenberg Bible, which is on
display in the New York Libraries Archives. I think it's

(02:55):
the basement. When Johannes Gutenberg mastered movable type on his
mechanical printing press and completed the first printed Bible in
the mid fifteenth century, only nine percent of Germans could
read nine and it wasn't even printed in German, it
was in Latin. There's a meme from Brave Heart. You
don't speak Latin, says Uncle Argyle to a young William. Well,

(03:17):
that is something we shall have to remedy, isn't it?
That means that to hear the Ten Commandments or the
Teachings of Jesus read aloud. In the fifteenth century, almost
every person alive had no other choice but to go
where there was someone who could read, and who could
read Latin, and who could interpret this holy collection of
books into a common application. Monasteries and churches then were

(03:40):
not just holy structures. They were the very sources of
the history of the Israelite people and the New Testament
message of salvation via Jesus death to be passed from
the priests to the commoners, from the few to the many,
because knowledge and inspiration and written form was simply not
available to the masses. I don't need to tell you

(04:01):
how much knowledge is available to the masses today. And
there's an screen stock image of a girl in a
Buddhist Noma ste pose, squatting Indian style with all the
social media icons around her as she's overwhelmed in a garden.

(04:22):
It's enough to desecrate the very meaning of those words.
Tim Keller. When popular Manhattan pastor Tim Keller died in
twenty twenty three, I began sharing my thoughts on the
declining need for sermons. But truthfully, my doubts had been
percolating for about ten years. My handful of pastor friends
didn't exactly embrace my theory. Was I being heretical or

(04:44):
just early? After all, traditions and habits are hard to
break and student loans to Bible colleges are still being
paid off. There's the image of Tim Keller nineteen fifty
to twenty twenty three, very popular Manhattan pastor. Sellar's death,
combined with the totally predictable post pandemic hunger for community

(05:04):
brought my hunches to a head. Lord knows. After being
force fed so much fear and NonStop information during twenty
twenty to twenty one, the last thing we all need
is more information, especially today when much of it isn't
even true. So how does this portend? Less preaching? It
seems to combat this chaos of modernity and overstimulation. We

(05:27):
should have more preaching, right, Alden, More clarification, more knowledge,
more truth, not less. Wait, Alden, are you implying truth
and wisdom only come verbally or that the Gospel message
only travels through man's interpretation of the Bible? Of course not.
I hope you're not implying that either, because if you've
had a child or spent time with an elderly person

(05:49):
unable to speak, you already know the answer words are
not the only way. But you say, Jesus spoke to
the people. You say, through four gospels we have so
much the examples, Yes, but in short parables, a quick
bite sized lesson after feeding the crowd, or before a
nice walk along the seashore, like providing wine at a
wedding John one, or fish at the seashore John chapter

(06:13):
twenty one, or shelter in a storm Mark chapter four.
Where in the Bible is a forty minute sermon with
three points of application declared as necessary? Or even where
is it modeled? And there's an image of painting of
Jesus teaching on a hillside in Galilee. But where to
preach the gospel? It says so in Mark and he

(06:34):
said to them go into all the world and proclaim
the Gospel to the whole creation, Mark sixteen fifteen. And
in Acts, and he commanded us to preach to the
people and to testify that he is the one appointed
by God to be judge of the living and the dead,
Acts ten twenty four. And what about the beautiful history
of sermons in Britain? Alden quote Sermons were highly influential

(06:56):
in religious and spiritual matters, but they also played important
role in elections and politics, science and ideas and campaigns
for reform. Sermons touched the lives of ordinary people and
formed a dominant part of their lives. That's from the
Oxford Handbook of the British Sermon sixteen eighty nine to
nineteen oh one. And what about Jonathan Edwards in America

(07:17):
all and what about some good old fire and brimstone.
Couldn't we use some of that energy today? There's an
image of Jonathan Edwards from born seventeen oh three died
seventeen fifty eight. If you think the world well, that's
when his sermons were were popular. If you think the
world today needs the sermons of Jonathan Edwards, I say,

(07:38):
have at it. You'll probably attract a crowd, and okay,
maybe a few converts, but I still say it's not
what this generation needs. Ditto the sermons from Britain's Golden Age.
And as far as the Biblical imperatives I'm preaching, let's
look at each verb. Proclaim, preach, testify, disciple, offer a defense,
and so on. Nowhere does it say these actions must

(08:01):
come through a sermon. In fact, it isn't a stretch
to interpret the opposite that regarding teaching less is more,
after all, the Samaritan woman at the well didn't get
a sermon. She got a conversation and compassion and John
chapter four. Zachias the tax collector, the grifting tax collector
didn't get a lecture or a sermon. He got a

(08:22):
HouseGuest Jesus and had his sins confronted Luke chapter nineteen.
But these interactions are to non believers, Alden, what about
speaking to believers? Even Harsher. Much of Jesus's interactions with
the Pharisees involved them trying to trap him or question
him about the law on matters such as divorce Matthew nineteen,
or adultery, the famous throw the first Stone passage, John

(08:45):
chapter eight. Possibly the most remembered example of his actual
teaching of believers is in Matthew chapter twenty two. But
when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,
they gathered themselves together. One of them, a lawyer, asked
him a question, testing him, teacher, which is the greatest
commandment in the law? And he said to them, you

(09:06):
shall love the Lords your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is
like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself on
these two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets.
Does that sound like a sermon? In fact, many of
Jesus's responses were along the lines of do you not

(09:29):
know your own scriptures? Believers today have no excuse to
not know the scriptures. After all, we've only had written
copies for over five hundred years. But revival is coming.
How can we have a revival without sermons? In twenty
twenty three, a worship afternoon at Asbury College in Kentucky
turned into a two weeks long spiritual call out that

(09:49):
many were declaring a revival and that even a secular
nation took notice of. And there's an image of worshippers
at Asbury College. People traveled from overseas to see the
spectac which in the end may have been all it was,
or may be a post pandemic totally predictable, refreshing community
gathering excuse me, or it may have been real complimenting Asbury.

(10:14):
The following year, LifeWay Publications reported a twenty two percent
increase in Bible sales in America. This contrasts with just
a one percent rise in all book sales two weeks
of largely young people expressing a desperate need for faith
and worship in their lives. Reminded us of four facets
of Christianity that were practiced worship, prayer, scripture, reading, community

(10:37):
with fellow believers. No sermons, now, hold on, I'm not
implying there were sermons in Kentucky in twenty twenty three
at Asbury College. Obviously there were, but people weren't there
to hear sermons. They didn't fly from Europe to hear sermons.
They were there to be there to be where other
believers were practicing the above activities and hope to be

(11:00):
where the Holy Spirit was present. A godless Britain no more.
In the UK, young people are returning more so to
the Catholic Church than anywhere else but to church. Nonetheless,
the reasons aren't too difficult to ascertain in my opinion,
but you can read about it in the Week, a
British newspaper, the Young and this is from the Week

(11:24):
and the title is the young converts leading Catholicism's UK
comeback and it's It's sorry It's a meme, an image
that says only four percent of young people aged eighteen
to twenty four said in twenty eighteen that they went
to church. The number is now sixteen percent in twenty

(11:45):
twenty four. Gen Z is rejecting secularism, at least the
extremely godless secularism we've witnessed the past six decades. Maybe
they're at last rejecting the hippies and hedonism birthed in
the sixties. Going further back, maybe we're all rejecting the Enlightenment.
I explored that recently in the previous post. Either way,
the kids are coming back to church. I just don't

(12:07):
believe they're coming for sermons the way. But Alden, if
we have no sermons, then what do we center church around?
Short answer, I don't know. How about community? How about
sharing worshiping, praying. In the early nineteen seventies, Greg Glory
started a Jesus Revolution and okay, including servants, but more importantly,

(12:31):
I believe it succeeded because of Greg. When we lose
our lives for something greater like Jesus, people notice people
follow Hey, square, I am not a square. I think
we should have this weekend. What's this weekend? These people

(12:57):
are kippies, rebels against old fashioned of Burready, I think
these kids need help if they needers are bad. You're
passing judgment on people you know nothing about. And maybe
that's why your church is so empty. God, what'ves get here?
Brings me a hippie? I'll ask him what it's all about,
because I do not understand. His house is a very
good vibe. There is an entire generation searching just in

(13:26):
all the wrong places. If you want to reach my people,
you need to speak to them in the language they
understand finding them. I need as much job. We can
only walk through doors open to us. In your church,
that's a door that's shut. I've probably noticed that we
have some guests here today. I'd like you to meet

(13:46):
my new friends. I'm woken. They don't belong here half
the morning wearing shoes, they're standing. Didn't you shag carpet?
They need our help. If you feel like you're miss
understood and judged, you will find forgiveness and freedom right here.
That was awesome. That door is open anytime. And if

(14:09):
there are some who don't like that, well then that
door works both ways. All right, Pastor, let's begin. I
was a most done with this at the new kid
with somebody else, we'll get inter this thing that we
found I feel I can belong. If you're going to
need a bigger church. Your country is a dark and

(14:31):
divided place, but now there's hope and it's great. This
is your home, and I want you to tell all
your friends bout it. For many who know that's That
was the Jesus Revolution official trailer. When southern California pastor

(14:51):
Chuck Smith famously declared no shoes, no problem in the
late nineteen sixties and welcomed the hippies and the spiritual
seekers into his Cavalry Apple Church. That expression of Jesus's
love made such an impression on a young Greglory that
it transformed his life. Greg took the baton and ran
with it. Greg used his own artistic talents to create

(15:12):
whimsical but honest Bible tracks to hand out. Dare I
say his own version of the Gutenberg Bible, I e.
The Gospel in written form, And there's an image of
Greg Laury with his characters the Dog and the Dude
in the Volkswagen Bus tweaked for a new generation. The
Jesus Movement absolutely affected Christianity in America for twenty or

(15:32):
thirty years, but not because of sermons. The Jesus movement
spread because people gave their lives to Jesus, That's it,
and then they followed him. I mean, heck, even Bob
Dylan converted. There's an image of Bob Dylan's famous record Saved,
and he had three records that were his air quote
Christian records. Every generation is unique, and just as Chuck

(15:54):
Smith recognized that the Hippies needed welcoming over consternation, Jonathan
Edward recognized the early Americans needed black and white biblical clarity,
and Jesus knew that the Pharisees needed rebuke via their
own scriptures. Today's generation needs the Gospel and its truth
in their own unique cultural language. But lest we think

(16:18):
just another modernization is what is needed to capture the
new generation as they re enter the church doors, we've
already seen that it failed. Rob Bell and cold Play
Christianity side note this could probably be a whole separate
topic here, separate series. My term, sorry, Rob Bell and

(16:40):
cold Play Christianity is my term for the softened, uber
cool Christianity ushered into churches in the two thousands, messaging
that pastors hoped would slip the Gospel into young people's lives.
Via nebulous and non confrontational sermonettes starring Mars Hill pastor
Rob Bell, featuring minor chords and a willingness to dance
clothes but not into controversial topics, all in a cool

(17:04):
dystopian esthetic. And there's an image of Coldplay's video I'll
Fix You and Rob Bell's Numa video with almost the
same visual aesthetic Jesus Will Fix You. At the time,
it felt good, it felt right, but it failed. It
failed so badly in fact, that the faith of many

(17:25):
Christians seems to be permanently numbed, permanently lukewarm. And that
was even before Rob Bell famously declared that there was
probably no hell. And now Mark Zuckerberg wants your kids
to have chatbot friends ugh truth over politics. While I
don't pretend to have all the answers or a clear
new strategy for a Jesus Revolution two point zero, I

(17:47):
believe it's important to state the obvious. People are hungry
for truth, starving, in fact, thirsty, desperate. The Western Church,
in seeking not to offend, has instead become all too
proficient at not taking a stand any stand. No example
of the effects of an apathetic church is clearer than

(18:08):
the transgender movement. Would the church's firm preaching in the
twenty tens have halted the trans movement in its tracks,
of course not, but at least a few of the
many young people drawn into this horrific and harmful social
contagion would have known the Church's stance, God's stance that
according to their Lord, they absolutely were not born in
the wrong body. They would have heard that they were loved. Instead,

(18:33):
from the Church, they heard nothing. I know because I've
been to churches all over the United States, traveling specifically
since twenty eleven to the present. The Church did not
want to speak the truth for fear of losing young
people being canceled by Hollywood. Now a generation is lost.
Millennials born nineteen eighty two to two thousand appear to

(18:53):
have been the sacrificial virgin in the volcano for the
smartphone wild West and indirectly the transgender's social contagion that
is now coming to a head via medical lawsuits across
the country and the long overdue Title nine enforcement via
the current administration. And yet the Church's silence is deafening.
The Bible speaks very clearly and honestly about a lukewarm church,

(19:18):
and to the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans.
Right these things, says the Amen. The faithful and true
witness the beginning of the creation of God. I know
your works that you are neither cold nor hot. I
could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because
you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will

(19:38):
vomit you out of my mouth Revelation three, fourteen, verses
sixteen fourteen or sixteen. Obviously, no pastor is hoping that
describes their church, but it has to be about somebody's church, right.
I believe it will be whichever church does not stand
up for the truth or waters down the Gospel to
avoid offending. I believe the Bible is speaking of the

(20:00):
American church harvest. It's true. We may be on the
brink of a huge harvest of the unchurched coming in
from a cold, depraved world. I hate to break it
to any pastor's reading, but they're not coming for your
interpretation of the Bible. They're coming for community. They need connection,
they need love, and they want Jesus. They want truth.

(20:25):
Sermons are Bible truth filtered through our own biases and
life experiences, which can, of course point the way, but
which can also dilute the message and stagger the gospel's impact,
as if a slow drip through a strainer. I say
it's time for us to let the truth flow free,
let Jesus do the preaching, let the word speak for itself.

(20:46):
Martin Luther and the Reformers famously claim sola scriptura i
e scripture alone. Okay, then I say prove it. Homestead
Highway Ramblings by Alden Olmsted is a reader supported publication.
To receive new posts and support my work, considered becoming
a free or paid subscriber. All right, well, thank you

(21:08):
for listening. This has been hopefully chapter one of a
longer series about do we need a sermons today? And
if not sermons then what? Thank you