Move From Where They Are to Where They Should Be

Last week I mentioned reading a blog by Kevin DeYoung, where he talked about what he's learned from the current generation of seeker churches and his criticisms. The article got me thinking about ministry a bit. In places I disagreed with him and other places I thought he had some great insights.

This comment on preaching/communication stuck out to me.

***DISCLAIMER - His blog was a book review of a book I haven't read. I'm evaluating the statement from the blog without knowing exactly what the book said. I'm writing not at all to criticize but only to use his thoughts as a spring board for my thoughts. ***

"We are told, instead, to communicate the Bible through the door of our listener’s interests–which can be a good strategy except for when the audience doesn’t have the right interests. Good preaching doesn’t just accept existing categories; it creates new ones." - Kevin DeYoung

If I'm understanding him correctly, he is saying that we can only communicate through people's interests if they have the correct interests. I think I would totally disagree with that idea. I don't think that using someones current interests as a starting point is the same thing as "accepting existing categories." Likewise there are ways to communicate through someones interests which is a critique of their current interests.

When I'm communicating a truth, I try to start where the people are at and move them to where they should be.

• Why is it that every teenager girl has read the Twilight saga?
• Why are grown men studying statistics about college boys wearing big pads tackling each other?
• Why do underdog stories continue to stir the emotions of people?
• Why do successful men with high paying jobs continue to make choices which compromise their families for the sake of their careers?

People have wrong interests because they're seeking satisfaction in their wrong places. Most of the most powerful sermons I've preached have involved getting people to examine why they are seeking satisfaction in all the wrong places, and then offering scriptures answers to the gap in their soul. No matter how perverse their interests, they are going to that place for a reason. Follow the path of that reason, and you'll discover something which has a biblical source.

When you approach truth this way you do three things:

1) Help people discover something about themselves

2) Help people to evaluate their motives and interests

3) Teach truth in a way which is intellectual and emotional