Entropy has a lot of definitions, depending on context.
The one I’m basically working from is this: ‘The tendency for all matter and energy in the universe to evolve toward a state of inert uniformity.’
Read a whole bunch of definitions here if you want.
A pastor and a congregation have a relationship based on change and growth. The pastor is an instrument of change and growth among the people. The people pray for and support the pastor in his own efforts to continue to change and grow as a teacher and encourager.
It is possible for something bearing the appearance of this process to be taking place, while actually all that is happening is that a symbiotic status quo has set in.
The pastor will preach, biblically from God’s Word, demonstrating sin’s influence and effect and pointing the people toward practical steps of repentance that flow from faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus.
The people will respond with appreciation for having sin exposed and encourage the pastor to keep on preaching to them along the same pattern.
Sounds good doesn’t it?
The problem is that this can take place and yet it is possible for nothing to change.
The sins presented are either those of people who don’t come to church, or are presented in a general way.
The pastor is gratified that the congregation express conviction, even enthusiasm for being told how bad they are.
Kevin DeYoung writes about ‘Religious Cushioning’ and the need for true preaching to be the agency through which genuine conviction of sin and profound appreciation of the saving work of Christ are held before God’s people.
His words:
“But the sin we should hear about most is our own. Just as the iniquity I should most disdain is mine.
Along with a convicting awareness of sin permeating the church, the preaching, and the leadership, there must be an exuberant delight in the Savior. Christ must be seen in his all his glory, which means he must be beheld as a crucified substitute, not simply a dear friend, good example, or revolutionary. We should smell in our churches the stank of sin stinking up to high heaven and the aroma of Christ, the acceptable offering before the Father.”
For some, the Christian corporate gathering is little more that a training event, a self-help seminar with a message emphasising seven or ten or twelve points towards this week’s desired outcome. Salvation, if it is mentioned at all seems, to be simply a precursor to living your best life or becoming purpose driven.
This is simply moralistic, therapeutic deism.
Week by week now, our worship at mgpc includes an action of corporate confession. This can be a prayer, song or unison statement. Afterwards a text is read that proclaims God’s forgiveness of the penitent who trusts in Christ alone for forgiveness.
After this, when the Bible is read and preached, the fallenness of humanity and the saving grace of God are held forth.
It is not true that a pastor is the agent of change in a Christian congregation, that role belongs to the Holy Spirit. If He is truly changing us we will be turning more and more from sin and self and more and more toward a realisation that all of God’s blessings for us are found in Jesus.
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