There has been a trend towards sticking to “positive preaching” and trying to avoid ever saying something that might upset the sons of this present age. Robert Schuller and Norman Vincent Peale pioneered this approach years ago, and the accolades they received from both the world and the church probably encouraged a lot of other preachers to adopt a similar strategy.

One prominent preacher today who sticks to “positive preaching” would be Joel Osteen, the smiling pastor of the largest church in America, and author of “Your Best Life Now”, a book which encourages saint and sinner alike to get richer through having a better attitude. Joel preaches sweet encouraging things to people who have been bruised by life, and of course this is very appreciated by many. Things like “if your wife leaves you the Lord can get you a better one” - I heard something very close to this on one of his TV programs I happened to be watching in passing. People have been flocking to hear Joel's messages, and buy his books, and his large church budget definitely enables him to take his message to the world through satellite and cable TV. Joel seems like a really sweet guy. And if the goal of a minister is to have influence and make people feel happy then Joel has been doing really well. His listeners can be pretty sure that they will go away feeling better about themselves, and more upbeat about their prospects than they did before. At times this may be helpful to people. I am not saying we can learn nothing from this man. But I am going to say that a diet of this kind of preaching alone is about as healthy for your spiritual life as a diet of marshmellows and coca-cola would be to your physical body. It picks you up in the short term but leaves you malnourished over time. This sort of stuff is not really the preaching of the Word of God, but rather the preaching of self-help psychology using isolated texts from the Bible as supporting evidence. If you wish, you can read one rather insightful review of "Your Best Life Now" here.

I want you to get a clearer picture of Jesus Christ. Our Lord and Savior was not a motivational preacher in the modern sense of the word. His preaching undoubtedly did motivate some people towards righteousness and a forsaking of their own life, but it infuriated others who were unwilling to do so. Jesus said to his brothers who were urging him at the time to make a big name for himself, “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil. “ (John 7:7) This is what we too must do (under the leading of the Holy Spirit of course) if we are to follow Jesus fully today in this wicked and adulterous generation in which WE live. We are not simply called to tell the people of the world how they can have "THEIR best life NOW" - meaning a life of health, wealth and comfort in the present age. We are to preach REPENTANCE from sIn. And the word "I" was and always will be right in the centre of "sIn".

Think about it. Even the title "Your best life now" suggests a focus on what you can get here and now rather than what you can get in eternity by patiently enduring with Christ. The title also suggests that your life is somehow your own ("YOUR best life now"), whereas for a true Christian "you are not your own, you are bought with a price". Does this sound too negative to you? I think it would sound very negative to someone who loves his own life more than Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. But for someone who loves Jesus and recognises who He is, the idea that we now belong to Him is very exciting, even romantic.

Yes, there are principles and attitudes you can take on which will make you feel more upbeat in life, help you to achieve some temporal ambitions and get on better with people, and make more money too, but you can find these things in many books written by non-Christian motivational speakers such as Napoleon Hill also. And probably Napoleon Hill does a better job in teaching these things, too. You can glean a lot from non-Christian authors, and no doubt many of today's preachers have done this and adapted their ideas in their public messages. Its just that when you do, you have to be careful that you are not taking on the philosophy and values of these authors, which is often intermixed with the teachings they are giving. And such values ARE often intermixed with the teaching of many of today's popular Christian leaders. This kind of thing cannot rightly be regarded as the faithful preaching of God's Word.

The apostle Paul gave a parting message to the Ephesian elders, who were the leaders of congregations of churches in the city of Ephesus - at that time the term "senior pastor" did not exist. But every "senior pastor" should take note of what Paul said here if he wants to be in harmony with the heartbeat of true apostolic Christianity as Paul knew it. The whole passage is very instructive here, but I want to draw your attention particularly to Acts 20:26,27:

"Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God."

The implication here is that as a preacher, Paul WOULD have been guilty of the blood of some people had he held back certain important pieces of information from his hearers, information that form part of the whole counsel of G

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