Expository Preaching Blog #29 – “Church Hopping”

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I don’t believe in being a church hopper. I really don’t. But for the past 11+ years I have been a church hopper. I have not been in one church for more than one year at a time. I don’t like it. I don’t like doing it. I want to settle down and be in one place for the rest of my life. But here is why I have been a church hopper.

I heard about Pentecost in I John chapter 5. It’s not there. I have heard how II Timothy 5 when it is talking about widows is also referring to missionaries. How missionaries are to be taken care of by their families when they retire not the churches based on this passage.

I have heard about re imaging Jesus. That if you put God in a copy machine Jesus will come out the other side. Yes I heard that from a man with 2 earned doctorates. I believe he should ask for his money back from that seminary.

I have heard how Jesus was restrained by God the Father from going and healing Lazarus in John 11. I have heard how Jesus would have fallen through the water in John 6 if He didn’t have the Father’s “permission” to walk on the water. I heard how King Darius became a “Christian” in the Book of Daniel after Daniel was thrown in the lion’s den. I heard how when Jesus spoke a parable He was doing a comedy routine. Yes I actually heard that in a SBC church!

I could go on and on for hours about the things I have hear from pulpits in multiple states in multiple years. But I think you get the point.

Preachers are not preaching the Bible straight up. Preachers are preaching their own ideas, their own thoughts and their own opinions. As a teenager I was at Heritage Baptist Church in Clarks Summit for 12 years. I would have stayed their longer if I hadn’t left to take my first pastorate. My pastors at Heritage were Pastor Charles Benedict, Pastor Wilbur Rooke and Pastor Milo Thompson. They were all distinctly different men but they were all the same and they were all consistent in faithfully preaching the Bible in an expository fashion week after week and year after year. They never wavered. I learned much and still remember a number of their sermons. I remember Dr. John Benson, Dr. Earnest Pickering, Dr Ken and Dr Carl Elgena (twins), and dozens of others who preached the Bible verse by verse and thought by thought. Again I can speak of dozens of others who would fit into that category. I never thought it would ever be so hard to find consistent true Bible preaching. But I have.

I thirst for sound preaching of the Word of God. When you are in a desert like I am, you keep moving trying to find a spring of water to quench your thirst. Thus in my search for the water of the Word I have become a church hopper. I don’t like it. I never imagined myself as much. Right now I have found a church and a pastor who faithful preaches the Word verse by verse. I hope and pray that it continues. If it does I will reveal my source in a few months. I have been disappointed so many times I don’t want to get ahead of myself. Oh that God would raise up a host of faithful true Bible preachers in these last days. People need the Word. I do too!

Rev. David Johnson

Former Pastor

First Baptist Church of Austin, MN

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