Articles like “How to Preach More Authentically” or maybe “How to Achieve Greater Authenticity in Ministry in Three Easy Steps” tend to drive me a little nuts as a behaviorist. I’m sure they’re helpful to some, but all-in-all, I think they unnecessarily shift the focus onto ourselves and away from all that really matters: Â Jesus.
Here’s an idea that could save us all a lot of time reading, self-evaluating and rehearsing:
Don’t try to come across as “authentic – Just BE Authentic! Your life IS your sermon.
Seriously, street cred is not hard to come by when you’re doing it Jesus’ way:
“Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?â€
“Sir,†the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.â€
Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.†At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.” ~ John 5:1-8
Let me tell you – I was EMOTIONALLY, MENTALLY AND RELATIONALLY DISABLED UNTIL JESUS HEALED ME! I was rescued, loved and adopted by the One Who Is Healing and Redemption.
Now, all I’m doing is walking around, showing people my mat… and helping others show theirs. Â It’s just not more complicated than that.
