The Pulpit Is Not a Cable News Desk

In this episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, Todd Rhoades discusses the challenges of addressing current events from the pulpit. He urges church leaders to focus on the gospel rather than chasing the latest news stories, emphasizing the importance of providing a consistent and true message. Todd argues that while significant events may require a pastoral response, the pulpit is not meant for hot takes or performative commentary. The key is to balance acknowledgment of current events with keeping the gospel central. • Todd Rhoades discusses the temptation for church leaders to comment on major current events like the White House Correspondents' Dinner. • Emphasizes the pulpit's purpose is to uplift Jesus and not be a platform for hot takes. • Differentiates between addressing a moment and chasing it, advocating for a focused and true message. • Suggests that acknowledging events in a minimal and appropriate manner can be effective. • Mentions Andy Stanley as an example of balancing acknowledgment of current events with gospel-centered preaching. • Encourages church leaders to focus more on truth than on being timely or relevant.

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Transcript

Welcome And Why This Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Hi there, welcome to the Healthy Church Death Podcast. My name is Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders along with Matt Steve over at chemistrystaffing.com, and this week on the podcast, we're taking a special look at kind of some dicey topics. We're talking about some thoughts that I've put down on paper and want to share with you based on what happened last Saturday night at the White House correspondence dinner in Washington, D.C. Now, there are temptations in weeks like this when there's a major political or cultural or news event that happens. There's a real temptation that we have in our churches when we're preaching, when we're teaching, when we're communicating, to be timely, to be relevant and to weigh in. And I want to push back on that just a tad bit. We're talking about what's said from the stage today. And I realize, again, not everybody's going to agree with me on everything, but I wanted to share some things I've been thinking through and just see if they're resonating out there as well. You can always send me your comments at podcast at chemistry staffing.com. But here's my thought for today. The pulpit, the stage is not built for hot takes. And the bottom line is your people don't need another voice telling them what to think about the news. The pulpit is for one thing. This is my premise for today, and it's lifting up Jesus. That's it. That's it. Everything else, application, illustration, cultural commentary, all that serves that one thing, or it just doesn't belong. And that's basically what the Apostle Paul said, I think, when he said, I resolved to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. He wasn't being anti-intellectual, he was being razor sharp focused. Here's the problem I see. Whenever we jump on that bandwagon where we're going to address the moment and make it the thing that we're going to talk about this week. Pulpit, I think I mentioned this on Monday when we started the series. Your pulpit is not a cable news desk. Okay. And that's what happens when you address a news cycle from the pulpit. It's a trap. It's a trap. Half the room here's what you said. Half the room here's what they think you meant. And a quarter of them text each other before you finish the service. You spent 45 minutes preparing a message, and the only thing anybody remembers is the 11 seconds that you spent on the news. So I'm not saying never address current events. I think that's important. And I think you know where your church is, hopefully, on those kind of how you weave those things into your messages. There are weeks where you just have to. The Sunday after 9-11, the Sunday after the school shooting in your town, those are pastoral moments and you have to speak. But there's a difference between addressing a moment and chasing one. Here's the difference. Addressing the moment means this is in the room and we name it as we walk through it together. Chasing it, on the other hand, means this is in the news, so I'm going to build my sermon around it. The first is very pastoral when you address things. The second, when you chase things, can be a tad bit performative. The harder thing is usually the right thing. Alright, here's the truth. The thing to say from the pulpit this week is probably less than what you think. It could be a line in a pastoral prayer, it could be a sentence in the welcome, an acknowledgement that your people are carrying something, and then the gospel. That's it. One of the people that I think does this exceptionally well is Andy Stanley. Now I know. There are some Andy Stanley fans. I'm I like Andy. There's some Andy Fanley Stanley Andy, if I can say it. Andy Stanley fans that listen to the podcast. Maybe you're one of them. Maybe you're not. Maybe you don't like Andy Stanley, but regardless of how you feel, here's one thing that I think Andy does really well. He keeps it about the gospel. I know some of you are going to say no, we don't go there. All right. He keeps it about the gospel, and but he acknowledges what people are feeling and carrying with them. Whenever there's a big news event, whether it's something like what happened on Saturday night in America, maybe it is something that's in Andy's case, something that's happening in the city of Atlanta. He mentions it. He prays about it and he moves on. He doesn't make the whole service about it. So you acknowledge what your people are going through, you acknowledge what they're caring. Tie that in with your gospel message. That's it. The temptation, though, is to do more. The discipline is to do less. And the discipline is harder. The bottom line for today: your job from the pulpit is not to be timely, it's to be true. Truth has a much longer shelf life than relevance. So maybe you've got the temptation because this story is not going to go away. At least this week. You're going to hear it. You're going to hear it on every you're going to see it in social media, which is where a lot of your congregation lives. You're going to see it on the news channels, which is where a lot of your congregation lives. They're watching the news channels a lot more than they're reading their Bible. This story is not going to go away. And if you're not disciplined, you're going to want to mention this more on Sunday than probably what you should. Look at your sermon for this Sunday and ask yourself, am I addressing the moment or am I chasing it? And if you can't really tell, ask a staff member you trust to read it. Write one sentence, just one. That you'll add maybe your pastoral prayer this week, make it about your country, about leaders, about the church being a refuge. And that's probably enough. Now, tomorrow we're going to talk a little bit more. We're going to unpack this even a little bit more. We're going to talk about safety. What does it mean to make your church a safe place? And why being a safe place doesn't mean that it's a soft place? So hang with me. We've got two more to tomorrow and Friday that we're going to be talking about this. So don't judge me too much. I would love to hear how you're working through events like this, because as I said on Monday, these type of things, these shootings at the that are taking on national attention and political overtones that we saw on Saturday night, you know, things like the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a lot of these things. It seems like this type of thing is happening more and more. It's dividing more and more people, and more and more of those people that are divided on both sides, on all sides, are coming to your church. So that's what we're trying to talk about. Love to hear your stories. If you want to push back, do so nicely. Don't write me anything really mean. That's what I'm trying to get away from during this series. But reach reach out to me, podcast at chemistry staffing.com. And if there's any way that we can help you with your church, particularly when it comes to healthy church staff, reach out to me at podcast at chemistry staffing.com or just go ahead and visit us. We've got a lot of people ready and able to assist you in any of those areas. And if you'd like to hear more uh from what I'm reading, I read like 50 different sources every day. I've just put together a new daily email newsletter, absolutely free. You can get that by just heading over to Church Leadership Radar, churchleadershipradar.com. All right, that's it for today. Thanks so much for joining. Tomorrow, come on back and we're gonna continue to tackle this topic. It's a fun one, right? It's fun. There we go. All right, have a great day.