Many Pastors are like Ben Franklin. We want others to practice faith in God but don't do it ourselves. We know prayer and meditation are good for us spiritually, mentally and relationally, but we are too busy to slow down and rest in Christ ourselves. We can preach sermons on the benefits, write articles about all the research and urge our friends to "Abide in the Vine of Jesus" but find God as a "Mean task master" personally.
Conservative Preachers favorite passages are those designed to motivate members to change. Like-
"Choose this day whom you will serve!!!" (And then spend 30 minutes telling people how to serve the church!")
We remind listeners to "Find the Sabbath Rest daily" by "Going to Jesus whose yoke is easy and burden is light..." As one man shouted to me after a sermon on Grace, "You are preaching grace too much. That will make people SIN!!"
We think about our Professors and fellow Ministers. Will they affirm my theology? Will it be consistent with the big men on campus? If we conclude they might disagree, we get anxious.
We might even preach a series on "Jesus doesn't want you well so you need to stop praying and accept your pain!" Sure, it has some truth in it but are you afraid people will be disappointed if you pray for healing?
Few people are totally "CURED" but almost everybody gets better from church attendance and study. People get substantially better. So why not preach about that?
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