Every sincere Christian desires a “Christ-centered” ministry. But, what constitutes a “Christ-centered” ministry? Frequently, preachers or churches which address the subjects of sin, repentance, obedience, Christ’s commands, duty, or self-denial are criticized as being not “Christ-centered”, even though Christ’s own Word overflows with teaching on these topics.
Is a sermon “Christ-centered” only if it is an evangelistic sermon which is primarily directed at the unconverted? Jesus preached and taught regarding many other subjects, often directing his words to those who were already his disciples and not to the unconverted. The same is true of the epistles of the New Testament. Certainly the teaching and preaching of Jesus and the apostles were properly “Christ-centered”. If we preach nothing but so-called “salvation” messages, we cannot fulfill Jesus’ mandate to teach those who have already been baptized to “observe all things that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20), and we will fail to produce stable, well-instructed Christians and mature churches.
It seems that in our day, “Christ-centered” is used by some to mean “positive” or encouraging rather than “negative” or convicting. This raises the question, Could it be that “Christ-centered” is often simply used as a synonym for “comfortable”? As the religion editor of a large city’s newspaper once wrote, “Church is the one place people ought to be able to go and be assured that their emotional eggshell won’t be cracked.” It seems that Jesus did not know this. The response of many who heard Him was to become angry or to go away sad (Matthew 19:22). Paul had a different opinion as well. He believed that the result of the Holy Spirit’s working in a church service would not be that an unbeliever would go away with a warm glow, but that he would be “convinced by all” and “judged by all. And thus the secrets of his heart are revealed; and so falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is truly among you” (1Co 14.23-5). May God the Holy Spirit so bless and attend our worship services today.
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