Myths To Reaching Unchurched People #1

Hands down the biggest myth I hear when it comes to churches that are focused on reach unchurched people is that CHURCHES WHO REACH UNCHURCHED PEOPLE WATER DOWN THEIR MESSAGE.

I have heard CRAZY rumors about my teaching at Revolution. I have heard I don’t use the Bible, that I just talk about whatever pops into my mind, that I have actually bashed the Bible, that I preach messages that are pop psychology, etc.  I have also heard that I never preach on sin, that we grow because I think it is okay to do whatever you want, and I preach a water-downed gospel.

Of all the myths I hear, this one makes me laugh the most.

Any time someone says these type of things, I always ask them if the people have been to our church. The answer has ALWAYS been “no.”  I never have claimed to be the best preacher around, but I can PROMISE you that you would be hard pressed to find a preacher who preaches harder, use more Scripture, and will call sin out by name than I do.

I often joke that I am an old school preacher who is relevant. With all due respect to preachers who give talks, use one point, go for 20 minutes, or hardly use Bible, that just isn’t who I am.  I scream, holler, spit, I’m an outline preacher, I got about 40-45 minutes, and I will shoot everything moves while I am preaching.

Over the last 4 years I have done series on grace, addictions, the Trinty, marriage, sex, I have preached through books of the Bible, I have talked about homosexuality, baggage, money and hell to just name a few.

I venture to say over the last 4 years I have covered a more diversity of topics than most preachers I know. I always get a kick of people say all we do is preach towards lost people when most traditional churches preach a straight-up Salvation message EVERY Sunday. Nothing wrong with that at all, but isn’t that geared toward non-believers?

The funny thing is I have found out that our unchurched people take hard preaching better than our Christians.  If I can back up what I am saying with Scripture, they will do it. They don’t carry the baggage of knowing everything like those who grew up in church.  They are hungry for truth and if you are reaching men, they want it brought in a challenging way, not sugar-coated.

This past week I preached a message that 90% of pastors I know would not preach. I came HARD, it was tense and people received it greatly.  I called men out for not leading, I told them their job was to lead, and showed them the life the Bible says they should live. I sugar-coated NOTHING.  Matter of fact, I loved Elena’s thoughts on the message, especially since she is a lady and it was directed towards men.

I listen to a lot of teaching and I don’t know any pastors that I listen to that are “watering it down.”  I don’t know any pastors that won’t stand for right and preach against wrong.  Will we do it in a way people can understand?  Will we do it without all the big theological words? Yep.  It doesn’t do much good to preach something, no matter how fancy if the people listening don’t understand what you just said.

Preach it hard, boys! One of the reasons growing churches are growing is because the pastor is bringing IT, not sugar-coating it.