Leadership Journal

Carl Sandburg captured well the human condition: "There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud."

That's a paradox. Seemingly contradictory statements that are nonetheless true. Recently paradox has become more important in preaching.

A new worship attender came to see me. A believer, she vulnerably shared some of the mud in which she was currently mired. Then she blurted out: "I got so frustrated at the church I used to attend. Everything was five easy steps! I need to hear something more than pat answers."

I am finding more and more people recognize that a steady diet of "how to" preaching has left them spiritually anemic.

For those who aren't helped by "three easy steps," a better alternative is to preach the power of paradox.

Paradox is the wild territory within which most ministers live and work. We see unseen things. We conquer by yielding. We find rest under a yoke. We reign by serving. We are made great by becoming small. We are exalted when we are humble. We become wise by being fools for Christ's sake. We are made free by becoming bondservants. We gain strength when we are weak. We triumph through defeat. We find victory by glorying in our infirmities. We live by dying.

With the passage of time, most preachers clear land, build a homestead, and try to tame this paradoxical wilderness.

We are told that we're vendors in a spiritual street market clogged with competitors. People pause only a moment before strolling on to the next booth, so we've got to grab them with snappy "How to … " titles. People are looking for answers to make a difference in their lives … yesterday. So we preachers must hit felt needs quickly, cut to the chase, offer "spiritual principles" and "practical handles" that plug directly into people's pragmatic expectations.

Is any attention still being paid to Baron Von Hugel's observation: "The deeper we get into reality, the more numerous will be the questions we cannot answer"?

Addressing the person who asks, "How will Christianity improve my life?" C.S. Lewis replies: "Frankly, I find it hard to sympathize with this state of mind. One of the things that distinguishes man from the other animals is that he wants to know things, wants to find out what reality is like, simply for the sake of knowing. When that desire is completely quenched in anyone, I think he has become something less than human.

"Foolish preachers, by always telling you how much Christianity will help you and how good it is for society, have actually led you to forget that Christianity is not a patent medicine. If Christianity is untrue, then no honest man will want to believe it, however helpful it might be; if it is true, every honest man will want to believe it, even if it gives him no help at all."

Raising questions that might not have easy answers—leaving the security of the homestead to venture deeper into life's wilderness, beyond the sight lines of ...