Earlier this week I saw a clip of a sermon preached by an evangelist in an IFB church. What I saw and heard was appalling to me. The preacher was condescending and unbiblical. He was rude to a brother in Christ – horribly rude, as a matter of fact. His remarks were unkind and off-color and were received with laughter and shouts of praise from his audience. My friends, this ought not so to be!
I do not personally know the evangelist who was speaking. I was not able to ascertain exactly where he was preaching. It did appear that it was in an IFB church. He gave no specific name in the clip I saw and heard, but did add some descriptions regarding whoever he was ridiculing and threatening – he was one of the “Recovering Fundamentalists” whose family at one time traveled and sang in the IFB world. From the comments of those who are apparently in the know, it appears that he was actually speaking of Pastor Brian Edwards, one of the hosts of the Recovering Fundamentalist Podcast, who in fact was raised in an evangelist’s home and who did minister and sing in many, many churches within the IFB world. The evangelist even went so far as to say “he better not come here, but if he does, he had better be wearing brown pants because I will beat the c**p out of him.” Say what????
Can I say it again? These things ought not so to be.
Shame on this brother and shame on our movement.
Shame on us for being willing to cheer this kind of speaking. When we cheer man’s opinions and call it preaching, we are failing. When we laugh at a speaker’s carnal rant simply because he is in our camp and wearing our “colors” and entertaining our crowd, we are not right. When we allow and promote speakers who make angry or emotionally charged statements about those who are not with us or like us, we are wrong!
Shame on us that we are not able to show grace and kindness to a brother with whom we will spend eternity. It is entirely ok to disagree with each other. For crying out loud, Paul and Peter had a strong disagreement and we can now enjoy the book of Galatians because of it! It is entirely ok to open our Bibles and to show reasons for our disagreements. It is entirely ok to talk and discuss and challenge others with truth. It is not ok to be publicly or privately disrespectful and rude to a brother in Christ. In fact, we sin against God and His church when we do. “Speak not evil one of another brethren” (James 4:11).
Shame on us that we are beginning to be known more for our “cute” opinions and “rude” humor than for our love for God and truth and the souls of men.
Friends, we can do better, and we should.
- We should preach the Word – not our opinion and not our emotions. Just the Word. The Word works. Although our tongues can certainly be sharp, it is only the Word of God that should be sharp in our preaching. “The Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). It is enough all by itself. Preach the Word. Teach the truth. Let the Word do the work.
- We should learn how to disagree without being rude and without simply “preaching to the choir” to show our “stand!” Making bold statements to people who already agree with our opinion is not courage. It is politics. Threatening to beat the “c**p” out of someone who has a different opinion or position is not strength. It is arrogance. According to Proverbs 6, God hates that! We should be able to discuss our disagreements and differences by teaching the truth with a right spirit. When we do so, it allows our hearers to think, to reason, and to make decisions based on truth alone and not based on our personality or our humor or our so-called boldness or rightness or camp. We can’t have the blessings of God when we are focused more on emotion and opinions rather than truth and reason. That is not His mode of operation. He blesses His Word. He blesses righteousness. He blesses love. After all, wiithout charity, we are nothing (see 1 Corinthians 13).
- We should humble ourselves and apologize. We should demand others do so as well. If they will not, we should distance ourselves from them and make it known that we are not in agreement and will not support their failure to preach the Word and to be a gentlemen! “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up” (James 4:10).
We can do better. Should we not? What do you think?
Thanks for reading.
Your friend,
Dave Young
Evangelist Dave Young 
What a great post! Thank you, Bro. Dave, for speaking truth in love! How much of a greater impact on the world might we have if we apply these truths!
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Thanks Levi. I am praying we will apply these truths.
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I have seen some clips on”bad preacher clips” that really weren’t bad at all, and I think sometimes they are simply clips taken out of context, but I have also seen clips on there that are appalling. I think sometimes people just rag on the page for being nit picky(and in some cases it may be) but it ought to remind us of the seriousness of standing behind a pulpit. We should absolutely be careful with our words behind the pulpit, and be humble enough to admit when we are wrong. The wonderful thing about your example of Paul and Peter is that in 2 Peter 3:15-16 Peter endorses Paul even after there disagreement.
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That is an awesome point. Thanks for sharing!
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This post is refreshing. Thank you for sharing your heart Bro. Young, and for still loving those brethren who may not fully agree with you. I pray God continues to bless your ministry for His sake, and that He continues to use you to minister and to challenge those who may not agree, with the grace you show in this post. 🙂
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Blessing my friend. Always working to be right in these areas!
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Thank you, Brother Dave. We have wonderful and godly people in the IFB movement, but we are not the only movement with wonderful and godly people. I was convicted that the Fundamentals (by which we get the “F” in IFB) were written mostly by non Baptist brothers. This should give us pause. Thank God for the Word which works in the hearts of many from different backgrounds.
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Brother! That is a good point to remember.
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Love you brother! Well said!
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Love you too my friend.
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Amen brother! Thanks for the thoughts. Would be great for all of us to remember that if we are saved we are on the same team. We should do our best to encourage each other rather than to be so critical.
Keep up the good work.
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Blessings my friend!
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Having grown up in the IFB church under Hyles and Schaap my biggest grievance was that sin was often covered up or accepted based upon who you were, but preferences were forced on followers. If not followed those individuals were exposed and publicly ridiculed. I sat under Hyles when he said “women who wore mini skirts should be in the jail cell next to the man who rapped them.”
I appreciate that you’re not accepting of the bad behavior mentioned above but rather give a call to do better. I agree we should all do better when engaging and disagreeing with other believers to let the Word of God do the speaking, but I would challenge that systematically the IFB movement is flawed and build on a foundation of this sort of behavior.
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Thanks for the comment. I understand your sentiments. However, I am very aware of many many men who are Independent Baptist who do not approve of nor engage in this behavior. The one who lead me to Christ. By Gods grace, me! My late father in law. My pastor (and yours 😉). And hundreds of others whom I have had the privilege of serving alongside for the past 30 years. Were it not for that host of men, I would have moved to a different group. And to be very fair, I didn’t grow up in the Hyles movement where you did so I have a vastly different experience. I hope that makes sense! Again, thanks for commenting.
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I agree that the above mentioned behavior is in appropriate. I however, think those who constantly seek to publish this type of thing over and over along with mocking and scorning many Godly men (who are nonetheless men) are not in any way justified in their wickedness. There is a Godly way to address poor preaching but using it to broad brush those who hold similar doctrinal beliefs is not only wrong it’s insulting to the thousands of Godly IFB people.
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You may be right. However, as an Independent Baptist myself, I hope to attain a much higher standard when it comes to preaching the word of God and modeling appropriate behavior. While it is true that no one should mock and scorn, would to God there was nothing to mock and scorn. Another way of saying that is this: we should never be more upset at the one who points out the error as opposed to the one who committed the error.
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Finally. I so appreciate this post. Aj and I have had extensive conversations about the use of the pulpit and how it should NEVER be used for the above mentioned things. Pastors get a very short time weekly in that pulpit FOR THE LORD and His Word, and to use that time to slander, cuss, preach opinions, mock, ridicule (you get the idea) is a travesty. Especially when God calls them to “preach the WORD”. I’ve seen that behavior spill out onto social media as well. It’s disheartening. Anyways, I know MANY godly men, like my husband who do just that, preach the Word. I’m so thankful for those men of the faith. Thankful for you and Bethlie. Many prayers.
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Thanks for reading and commenting. Bethlie and I both appreciate your kind words. Kudos to your husband as well.
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I completely agree with you. I think that sometimes we confuse love, grace, and kindness with weakness and compromise. Nothing could be further from the truth. The GREATEST of these is love. We are too busy attacking each other, while the world watches. As you said, this does not mean that we endorse everything. But even a grievance can be addressed in love and seasoned with salt.
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Thank you. Good words!!
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brother Dave, i greatly appreciate your post.
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Thanks my friend.
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