This has happened to me again and again. I’m sitting in some huge meeting with hundreds of the Lord’s people representing churches across our state or country. A large number of preachers are in the audience. The speaker is sounding forth on some subject of importance to us all.
Suddenly, the speaker comes out with a statement that gets a hearty “amen,” something that sounds profound and undergirds the point he is making. He goes on in the message and everyone in the room but one person stays with him. Me, I’m stuck at that statement. Where did he get that, I wonder. Is it true? How can we know?
If Facebook, that wonderful and exasperating social networking machine, has taught us anything, it’s to distrust percentages and question quotations.
A friend’s profile contained a quote from President Kennedy. I’m acquainted with the quote and while I cannot prove JFK never uttered those words–how could we prove that about anything–I know how the line got attached to the Kennedys. It’s a quotation from a George Bernard Shaw play.
Some see things as they are and ask ‘Why?’ I see things that never were and ask ‘Why not?’
In 1968, at the funeral of his brother Robert F. Kennedy, Senator Ted Kennedy applied that line to him. It’s a terrific statement of vision. I expect for most of us, that was our first time to hear the quote. In the oration, Senator Kennedy did not give the source, which may have led some to believe he made it up.
One thing we know, however, is President John F. Kennedy is not its source. Nor is any Kennedy. And yet, keep your eye out for that quotation. Half the time, it will be attributed to one of the Kennedys.
Accuracy is important for everyone, but particularly those of us called to preach the Truth that gets people to Heaven.
Unfortunately, because we speak so often–many pastors deliver three or more sermons per week, fifty weeks of the year–our sermon machines go through a lot of material. It figures that sometimes we are going to get our stories wrong.
That’s why a statement from a preacher hit me so hard and drove me to do a little research.
Billy Graham has said that 70 percent of the members of our churches are unsaved.
A preacher on Facebook said that. I contacted him to ask for his source.
“It’s on his website,” he said. “It’s common knowledge.”
A few minutes later, I messaged him. “Friend, I’ve gone to his website and there’s a ton of great stuff there. But if you can locate that quote, you’re a far better man than I am.”
He promised to look into it.
That was the last I heard from him. (My conclusion is that accuracy is not important to him. Which worries me about his ministry, frankly.)
In the meantime, I began searching the internet for what Billy Graham “was said to have said” on the subject of how many church members are lost.
Eventually, I came up with two pertinent quotations.
–A preacher in Los Angeles said, “Billy Graham says 85 percent of the members of our churches are lost.”
–A consultant with our Southern Baptist North American Mission Board said the number was 50 percent.
Unable to find more, I put out the call to my Facebook network for “research geniuses” among us to help me find what Billy Graham had actually said on that subject.
An hour later, Damon Olson, a pastor from Sand Mountain, Alabama (at the time), came back with this response which he received from the Graham organization:
“We appreciate your inquiry concerning a quote attributed to Mr. Graham. Unfortunately, though we hear this question from time to time, we do not have any further information confirming that Mr. Graham ever claimed that a high percentage of church members (as much as 85%) are not saved.”
“We would suppose that some denominations which stress the need for the new birth would have a much higher percentage of born again believers. A poll by the Barna Research Group several years ago may shed some light on this subject. They indicate that ‘Protestant church attenders are two and a half times more likely than are Catholic attenders to be born-again Christians (60% to 23% respectively.’”
So, apparently, Billy Graham never even mentioned it.
Snopes alive! What are we preachers thinking! Why would we utter such harsh statements when we do not know what we are talking about!
We. Do. Not. Know. What. We. Are. Talking. About.
Does that concern you? It does me.
No wonder some of the more inquiring minds in the congregation turn us off. We are feeding them hearsay and innuendo and gossip, while expecting them to treat it as God’s Truth.
As the Lord said to the sham preachers of Jeremiah’s day in a not-too-dissimilar context, What does straw (man’s ponderings) have in common with grain (God’s Word)? (Jeremiah 23:28)
The pastor is dealing with two precious commodities when he stands in the pulpit: the precious Word of God and the fine China of people’s lives.
Handle with care, faithful servant of God.
