Is the Gospel Boring?
The Apostle Paul prays, “that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:16-19).
I was blown away! I was talking to a high school senior about church, and she said she was sick of hearing about grace and the gospel all the time! I was speechless. When I pressed her to find out why she felt this way she responded, “Because it is boring!”
In communication theory there are four main aspects of communication: sender, message, channel, and receiver. The sender is the one who is trying to communicate, in this case it is the pastor. The message is the content of that communication which is the gospel. The channel refers to “how” the message is sent. It might be in person, over the phone, in a letter, in an email, in a text message, through radio, or through television. The channel is the medium used to get the message to the receiver which, in this case, is preaching. Of course, the receiver is the one who is gets or “receives” the message. This person is the recipient of the communication.
Is the message of grace and the gospel boring? We know the problem is NOT with the message. The gospel is the word of life. It is the message that provides hope for the hopeless and forgiveness for the sinner. There is no greater message about no greater Person than the message of the gospel. It is a message of the Father’s great love for us while we were yet sinners. It is a message of God the Son leaving the glories of heaven, living a perfect life, and dying a sacrificial death. It is about the resurrection, ascension, and exaltation of Christ. The message of the gospel is not boring!
If it isn’t the message, then what could possibly make it boring? God has ordained that it is through the foolishness of preaching that the gospel is proclaimed (1 Cor 1:21). The issue is not with the channel or the way in which the gospel is delivered. We may think that the medium of preaching is old school, outdated, or archaic, but it is God’s ordained means to communicate the message of Jesus.
There are two final possibilities on why one might find the gospel boring. Either it is the speaker who has taken the life-giving, exciting message of the gospel and made it boring. Or the heart of the one receiving the message has a dull or unresponsive heart. As a pastor, it isn’t my job to make the gospel exciting, it is exciting. My job is to communicate it accurately and not make it boring!
As one who is hearing the gospel being preached, how can I be open and receptive to the message? This is important for every believer each week as we gather to hear God’s word. God has given us responsibility over the state of our heart. We can pray and ask God to grant us repentance so we can address the sin that is in our heart. Unaddressed or unconfessed sin dulls our heart and over times hardens our heart, so we become not only insensitive to God’s word but hostile to the message of the cross. We should also arrive at the worship service ready to hear from God and be receptive to what he is telling us. We should have an expectation of feasting on the word of God as he has called us to taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8). Rather than entering corporate worship with a critical heart we can cultivate an attitude of profound gratefulness for our forgiveness of sin and the new life we have in Christ. We can ask God for the grace to be in awe to the reality that we are beloved children of God. If we think the gospel is boring, the best place to begin is by looking at our own hearts.
