Is it the pastor? Or is it my ears?

One call-in radio program had a pastor answering questions. A woman asked him why she was having trouble “getting anything” from the sermons she heard each Sunday in her church. The answer was a surprise.

The pastor told her that in his experience, when it seemed as if God was not saying anything new it was because the listener was not obeying what he or she already knew. The problem wasn’t that God had nothing to say, but that disobedience blocks our hearing.

Since then, I’ve been in many churches and had a variety of pastors, each with their own set of gifts and style of ministry. I’ve heard the same lament, no matter who was preaching; some people don’t “get anything” from the sermons.

Of course they assume that this is the pastor’s fault and start grumbling about changing churches, or kicking the man out of the pulpit. Granted, it could be the pastor’s fault; I’ve heard a few that were terribly out of touch with God. However, even then, those words from the radio show ring in my own ears. God spoke through Balaam’s donkey (see Numbers 22) so He doesn’t need a “perfect” pastor to speak to me. He just needs my willingness to pay attention.

Our own church recently lost a pastor. He started as youth pastor and even though his ministry expanded beyond that, his work was generally with our young people. He is a man of great integrity and follows Jesus with all his heart. Our youth, and their parents and all the church, loved him. After ten years with us, he decided to go back to school for more education. His loss has been an emotional trauma for many. As the search committee looks for his replacement, my biggest fear is that no matter who they look at, there will be an unconscious (or even conscious) comparison with the pastor who has left, and no one will measure up.

This can lead to another reason for “not getting anything” at church. The previous pastor, whether in the same church or from one attended in the past, never measures up.

My husband and I have lived in many places. In California we had the privilege of being members at Grace Community Church where John MacArthur preaches. We knew when we left that place and moved back to Canada that we would not hear the same kind of preaching, nor experience the quality of teaching that we did at Grace. How would we cope with that?

God kept bringing that radio talk show to my mind. Obey what you know and God will continue to teach you and give you something, not only Sunday morning but each time you seek His face.

I’ve learned from years of experience that I don’t’ need a “perfect pastor,” as if there were such a thing, to get something from God. I have also learned not to blame anyone else but me if I’m not “getting anything” from the Lord. It is my ears that He speaks to, and He can use anything or anyone to make Himself heard—as long as I’m willing to listen.

Centuries before Christ, Job cried out, “Oh that I knew where I might find him!” (Job 23:3). But God is not lost. He promised “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). Whenever I’m “not getting anything” and start wondering where God is, I’ve learned that He has not left, but there is something wrong with my hearing.

The reading in God is Enough has this to say, and it is profound:

Because we cannot see the hand of God in our affairs, we rush to the conclusion that He has lost sight of them and of us. . . . and because God is unseen He must necessarily be absent. This is especially the case if we are conscious of having wandered away from Him and forgotten Him. We judge Him by ourselves and think that He must have forgotten and forsaken us.

It adds how foolish to make our feelings the test of God’s actions, as if He comes and goes in response to the continual changes in our emotions.

And I add that we can do the same thing with our pastors. If we are not hearing from God, we then make “what I get out of it” the measure of their ministry. We might even assume that they are not listening to God either.

When I don’t “get something” on Sunday morning, it could be that the preacher is not doing his job, but it is far more likely that I am not doing mine.