How to Silence A Preacher, Our Shut Your Mouth

It is now August and the heat has been a real challenge.  In fact we have been creative in order to find ways to cool off.  During hot August summer days; I am reminded of my childhood of great Revival Meetings and Camp Meetings under the big tent.  Folks came from all over to hear some of the greatest men of God, who are now in Heaven with our dear Lord.  The Preaching was just as hot as the August Nights…Men who preached with power and conviction…Over the last 51 years I have seen preachers be silenced from preaching.

HOW TO SILENCE A PREACHER, OR SHUT YOUR MOUTH
(Judges 18:3, 4)

Preaching used to have a place of importance which it no longer enjoys.  John the Baptist came preaching and teaching in the wilderness of Judea.  Mark says that when the Christian movement began, “Jesus came…Preaching” (Mark 1:14).  Peter preached with such Power, that 3,000 souls joined the Church at one time.  Paul established his theology of doctrine of Salvation on the principle of Preaching. (Romans 10:14-15).  God thought Preaching was important.  Did not Paul say, “It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe” (1Corinthinans 1:21).   In fact, God thought Preaching was so important, that He made His only Son a Preacher.
 
I don’t mind telling you that I am disturbed and distressed, for it appears that something has happened to preachers.  It disturbs me that we don’t have any Elijahs who have opened a school for godly preachers.  It is a source of my continued agony that the voices that used to be heard are now hushed on the other side of eternity and there seems so few to take their places.  It unsettles me to know that when men ask Zedekiah’s question, “Is there any word from the Lord?” (Jeremiah 37:17), all we hear is the insulting sound of silence.  And so I want to know Who Silenced The Preachers?  Who told the preachers to hush?  Evidently somewhere, somehow, sometime, somebody said, “Preacher, shut your mouth. “  Quite honestly, I find it hard to handle this “shut your mouth business.”  But as I think about it, there are several elements at work engaged in the business of silencing the preacher.
 
The first thing that seeks to silence the preacher is the social, political and economic climate of America.  The record of history will reveal that the driving force in the achievement of racial justice and social advancement has been the preacher.  We need to understand that preachers have brought about more change in America than all the courts could adjudicate and all the congressmen could legislate.  
 
The reason our society at large wants to silence the preacher may well be because the preacher is under orders to speak a word about morality, to preach on the issues of institutional iniquity, governmental greed, personal perversion and social sins.  Nobody wants to hear the Preacher say, “Righteousness exalteth a Nation:  but sin is a reproach to any people.” Nobody wants to hear the Preacher say, “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life.”  The Culture wants a Preacher that it can Control.  They want a preacher who is unconvicting due to his own compromises.  They want a willy-nilly, foot-pattin, head-scratchin, chicken-eatin Preacher whose ethics will always be in conflict with his appetite, just so they can tell him, “Preacher, shut your mouth.”
 
There is a second reason why they want to silence the Preacher or for him to shut his mouth. I do not mean to be offensive but necessity has laid upon me to tell you that whenever a preacher’s moral life is called into question, he has just lost his voice.  The Church’s position on deviant behavior in general and homosexuality in particular has never been popular.  Biblically and morally the Church has always seen such behavior as abhorrent and unacceptable.  Homosexuality is the only sin that God gave up on. (Romans 1:24, 26-27).
 
And there is a third reason why society wants the preacher to shut his mouth…When it comes to the issue of Women Preachers, the Bible makes it very clear that God ordained men to be leaders in the home and in the Church including the Pastor.  The Women’s Liberation movement goes against scripture and against God.  Women are very important and they have a wonderful and proper role in the home and in the Church as well, but it is not to take a leadership role.
 
The fourth reason why the Preacher is silenced, is because we are not training young men to be used of God.  We have not encouraged, we have not trained, and we have not taught our young men to make themselves available to be used by God.  We are quick to encourage our young people to be lawyers and doctors, but somewhere along the way we have forgotten to tell the about the highest of all callings, which is service to God.  How we need to mentor young men for the ministry today.
 
And last of all the groups that wants to silence the preacher, the ones who really want him to shut up are those who sit in the pews.  They do not come right out and say it to you because they have too much class, too much training and upbringing.  They use subtle ways of saying it to you, What they say is, “Now Pastor we don’t want you to worry about the Church and don’t worry about the money and don’t give a thought about the trustees, you just preach on Sunday and leave the Church to us,” and when you hear that…it means shut your mouth.  It is indisputably true; however, that God put only one person in charge of the Church.  The Bible says, “And I will give you pastors…not board, not committees, but Pastors.”   Not nosy sisters who try to run everything [from the bedroom to the boardroom] in the Church…”And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding” (Jeremiah 3:15).  
 
That same Church group has another not so subtle way of silencing the pastor, when they put a clock on him.  “Now, Brother Pastor you’re a fine man and I just love you so much, but one thing, you just preach so long.”  Church folks will stay out all night long and never look at their watches, but just wait until 12:00pm on Sunday!  The Preacher had better get it straight right early that quantity is not synonymous with quality.  But neither is brevity synonymous with Salvation.  When I preach most folks know that I’m through when I’m through.  You might also know that if they can shut your mouth, that means they intend to open theirs.
 
I cannot in good conscience finish without telling you there is yet another manner Church folks have of silencing the preacher.  If they can’t shut your mouth theologically or socially or ethically, they’ll shut it economically.  Folks get mad at the preacher and they won’t put any money into the Church.  Now, that’ll make you hush in a hurry.  Don’t you know it’s not the preacher’s money?  It’s God’s money.  You can try to hold back the preacher’s cash if you want to, but you’re messin with your blessing! (Malachi 3:10)
 
The Bible says, “Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm” (Psalm 105:15).  Dear Preacher don’t let anybody tell you to shut your mouth.  The world has never wanted a preacher who didn’t mind preaching.  Preachers we ought to obey God rather than man!  We love you and appreciate your ministries so much, now let’s GO PREACH as we are charged to do.