The Problem With Abundant Resources

Several years ago, I co-preached several sermons in a series on the book of Revelation. One Sunday after I’d preached, a couple told me how much they loved the series, particularly because two other well-known pastors were preaching Revelation at the same time.   

Every Sunday morning, before coming to our service, this couple would first listen to these two other pastors preach on the same passage.  That way, they told me, they could compare what these well-known pastors said with what I (or our other pastors) said. 

Whatever their intention in telling me this, I confess, it was quite deflating.  

Was it wrong for them to listen to these skilled expositors tackle the same text? No—and I certainly wouldn’t want anyone to think I have a corner market on faithful biblical exposition. But their comment struck me as exposing something deeper.   

I experienced precisely what Collin Hansen comments on in his contribution to Scrolling Ourselves to Death: 

“...the internet—not the local church—has become the primary place where Christians are formed today. Before their leaders ever speak, many church members already know what they believe. After all, they’ve been reading, listening, and watching their favorite teachers all week. And they expect their leaders to conform—or else. Preaching, then, is expected to confirm the convictions already developed through the internet.” 

It seemed to me that this couple was saying––whether consciously or not––that the ministry of the Word in their local church, received from their pastors, was effectively the same as listening to a sermon from another pastor at another local church. There was nothing special about what they heard in their congregation, and in fact another teacher might preach the same thing better. But in the end it’s the same Bible after all, right? What does it matter where or from whom I hear it preached? 

And the reality is that when that assumption is made, people will tend not to gravitate toward their own pastors, but instead to the famous, skilled, recognized names—a sort of Christian leadership version of “influencers.” 

As a result, pastors—most of whom will never be known outside their congregation—end up discouraged and exhausted. After all, how can they compete with such popular luminaries? They find the flock they have been entrusted to feed largely prefers to get their meals elsewhere, from a more popular chef.  

A member of our church told me that he was recently at a reunion of college friends that had been involved in the same campus ministry, and one of the topics being discussed was the question, “Who has been the greatest influence in your Christian life?”  

How would you answer that question? I wonder how many of us would answer “the pastors and members of my local church.” 

While listening to a sermon from another pastor or church can certainly be beneficial, I would suggest it pales in comparison to the formative work God can and will do in you through your own pastor and congregation.  

Proximity over popularity 

We live in the most well-resourced society in human history. At our fingertips, we have instantaneous access to oceans of information of which previous generations could have only dreamed. Yet, this hyper-connected, hyper-informed society has only moved us further away from real relationships and toward the parasocial pseudo-relationships of the digital space.  

This bleeds into our spiritual lives as well. At the click of a button, we have access to thousands upon thousands of sermons by some of the greatest biblical expositors of our generation, with more coming every week. Nothing prevents us from finding 50 sermons on the same text our pastor is preaching on any given Sunday to compare notes. If we’re not careful, we’ll gravitate to whoever is our favorite.  

But when we begin to think that church is primarily about content that we consume, it is easy to jump from church to church in search of the content we find most satisfying. It’s even easier to forgo the church altogether, because we can get everything we want online, instantly, at a higher “quality,” and with no relational cost. After all, food is food, right? 

The widespread availability and influence of such resources can stir discontent in the heart of a church member. We’ll spend more time “researching” topics on YouTube than actually engaging tough questions with fellow church members. We may become more willing to listen to a voice behind a podcast mic than the pastor to whom God has entrusted us, and indeed to whom we have entrusted ourselves as members of a congregation. 

I’m not suggesting there’s nothing to be gained from using available resources. There certainly is, and I make use of them as well. But I wonder if we have lost an understanding of the importance of locality, proximity and embodiment within our spiritual life. Have we uncritically embraced all that is available to us without consideration for how it might form us in the long run? 

This extends beyond our relationship with pastors and sermons. Who are the most important Christians in your life? Who are the most essential people in helping you to faithfully follow Jesus? Again, I wonder how many people would respond by saying, “The members of my local church.” But isn’t that how God designed it to work?   

If God truly has ordained the times and places in which we live (Acts 17:26), then we can expect that He has placed us when and where He has—and that includes our local church, pastors and teachers—for a purpose, to conform us to the image of His Son.  

Remember your leaders 

Related to this, the author of Hebrews makes two statements that stand out to me:   

First: “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the Word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith” (Heb 13:7). 

Here the author calls his readers to a particular focus on “your leaders.”  

The possessive pronoun is important. These leaders are “your leaders.” They are not all Christian leaders everywhere, nor are they pastors and teachers that we just happen to especially like or enjoy.   

“Your leaders” are specifically “those who spoke to you the Word of God.” Of course, in the context such speaking could not have been via any other means than personal presence. “Your leaders, those who spoke to you the Word of God,” were those who were with you. And the idea here is not “who spoke the word of God to you once” or “who spoke the Word of God to you on occasion,” but those who did so regularly. 

It is to them, the author says, that you are to pay close attention, as you are to “consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.” Obedience to those commands would require some level of familiarity with that leader’s way of life and faith. These Christians necessarily needed to be in personal proximity to their leaders.  

The second text comes in Hebrews 13:17: “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.” 

Again, the focus is on “your leaders.” We are instructed to obey and submit to these leaders in particular because of their God-ordained work to “keep watch over your souls, as those who will give an account.” We are accountable to them because they are accountable to God for us.  The only way this works is if there is some presence or possibility of relationship between leader and member.  

The author of Hebrews is certainly not saying that his readers can’t learn from anyone else. After all, he is not among their “leaders,” and he has just written them a lengthy exhortation that he expects them to heed. Clearly, he thinks there are others to whom his readers can and should listen.  But he makes a point of saying there is a special place that “your leaders” have in your spiritual life that others do not and cannot occupy. We could easily extend this to the other members of your local church as well.  

Your resources don’t love you 

However you may benefit from the myriad of available resources, those pastors, teachers and authors don’t know you and probably never will. They have no spiritual authority in your life, nor do you have spiritual obligation to them.   

Practically speaking, they can’t love you, pray for you, encourage you, hold you accountable or speak into your life except in a hyper-general sense. Neither are you truly able to “consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.” 

When a widely recognized pastor prepares his address for the next conference, he isn’t thinking about you, in particular. He isn’t praying for you, specifically. He isn’t considering how this application intersects uniquely in your life.   

It’s quite possible, however, that your pastor is. He is the one that God has providentially placed in your life to keep watch over your soul, to feed you the Word of God.  

The same is true of the members of your local church. God has placed you in this particular congregation, in this time and place, so they can help you follow Jesus, and so you can do the same for them.  

So, consider: has the easy availability of Christian resources inadvertently undercut the centrality of relationships in your local church for your discipleship? Have they become your primary means of discipleship, rather than your local church? Have these resources––rather than supplementing your spiritual growth––actually served to dilute the discipling influence of your leaders? Are you more disposed to trust someone with a large platform and following rather than your pastor, who has no platform but loves the Lord, and His Word, and you by name? Is your spiritual growth more indebted to an online community of likeminded avatars who you will never meet, more than the people in your church who you can and should know, and who can and should know you?What might change look like? It begins with an internal shift of attitude, a strengthened conviction that the resources God has given you in the pastors and people of your local church are the primary means by which the Spirit of God intends to bring the Word of God to bear in your life. That might mean drawing back on the number of resources (books, blogs, sermons, podcasts, etc...) you consume, particularly if you find yourself drawn to them more than the ministry of your church.  

It also means prioritizing relationships with fellow members of your church more than the consumption of information from various sources. When utilizing the abundance of resources at your disposal, consider learning alongside others in church, rather than alone. Perhaps it means that hour that you might spend listening to a podcast, or a YouTube video might be better spent meeting with another member of your church, to encourage one another and build one another up.  

No matter how much good content is placed at our fingertips, it can never replace God’s church-centered design for Christian discipleship. It is the ministry of the Word, both public and private, through people who know you and love you, through the Holy Spirit, that will transform you to be more like Jesus.  

And it’s beautiful when we see it in action. I mentioned earlier the member at our church who had been discussing with old friends the most important influences on their Christian lives. Many responded with answers like C.S. Lewis or John Piper. But after reflecting on the question, this brother realized that the most important influences in his Christian life were not popular authors or speakers, but the men and women in his local church. He knew them, and they knew him and loved him in a way that C.S. Lewis and John Piper–– helpful as their teaching is––would never do.  

 And I think that’s how God designed it to be.