1 Corinthians 2:14 –
But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.
I personally love this chapter because it goes into detail on how one should speak to others about God. Have you ever been around others, me included, when they get into a theological discussion that quickly sounds like mumbo-jumbo? It becomes difficult to follow and becomes very complex into describing the nature of God. Many times we do this to bring glory on our knowledge and ourselves and not to God. That needs to be checked often to ensure your not being driven by pride.
Now the preacher has a huge problem leading their “flock”. The pews are filled with a range of knowledge and they must model their sermon to keep the attention of the long-term believer while ensuring the unsaved understand the path to salvation. So their job is very difficult because a church full of people with the knowledge of a new believer and never growing is not what a pastor wants, but at the same time they do not want to miss speaking over the head of a unbeliever.
Last week our church did a “healing” service. I was concerned that it was going to end up being a circus, like many TV evangelists have. I am not saying true healings don’t happen there, but there have been many undercover stories proving fraud at many of these events. So I went in with concern that a new believer was going to walk away thinking our church was psycho. It was done tastefully and with reverence, no public spectacle but a private time praying for our problems. It was an awesome end to a series where the supernatural invades the natural.
In the engineering world we learn a philosophy called K.I.S.S or Keep It Simple Stupid. That is the key for someone who is just being introduced to the Gospel. Salvation is simple, it becomes complex as we dig deep to learn God and understand Him. Although that can become a bunch of techno speak, it too is very simple once you understand. They key is do you approach the Holy Spirit with “child like faith” or with a “questioning spirit”? If you haven’t noticed I come at God with questions out the wazoo, but have yet to come away with anything but a simple answer. It just may take some complex reasoning to get there! They key is to know your audience and speak to their needs, not to your knowledge.