By Timothy S. Warren
If, however, we, as aliens and strangers in this world, commit ourselves to the work of identifying with those we hope to influence, speaking to their longings, needs, and dreams, we just might experience a meeting of minds, and a meeting of hearts and wills.
For years American radio commentator, Paul Harvey, told "The Story of the Birds" to help his listeners understand the significance of Christ's incarnation. A man, who did not believe, sent his family off to church for the Christmas Eve service. As he sat alone by the fire, a blizzard raging outside the house, he heard a pounding, a thudding at the window. He pulled back the curtain to discover a flock of birds, disoriented by the storm, flying desperately toward the light within the house.
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The man raced outside to the barn, flinging wide the doors and turning on the lights in an effort to provide shelter. To no avail.
He retreated to the house for bread, tore it into pieces, and laid a path to the open barn. The birds didn't follow.
He could think of no other way to communicate with these feathered creatures. If only he could become one of them. If only he could fly up into the storm and take the lead and bring them into the safety of the barn!
Just then, the church bells rang. And for the first time, he understood why Jesus had left heaven to take on human flesh and identify with us.
We, too, must move into our missionary age with good arguments, vivid images, and genuine identification because Preaching is Communicational.
Second, Preaching is Biblical.
If we could characterize our anti-modern culture in a single term, it might well be "anti-authority" (Veith, 1994, 16-20; Sims, 1995, 324-43). This isn't news. Mankind has, from the beginning, been anti-authority, always opposed to God and His supremacy.
Adam and Eve resisted God's authority. That got us started. In Jesus' day the question was, "By what authority do you do (and say) these things?" (Matthew 21:23). When Christ passed authority on to His disciples, He warned them that powerful, spiritual enemies would challenge their authority in speaking the Words of God (John 17:14).
Today, Satan's challenge to God's authority, especially as revealed in His Word, has reached a new intensity. Biblical preaching, preaching that communicates the Bible as God's inspired Word, is being attacked by philosophical deconstructionists, professional deniers, and even practical devotionalists.
The deconstructionists insist that the Bible is merely a fabrication of power-hoarding male chauvinists who invoked the name of God to solidify their own superiority and force their will upon their inferiors (Jones, 2001, 160-6). These unbelieving, intellectual elitists tear the Bible from heaven and make it the worst work of abusive, all too human, males.