As we all work to find our footing in what feels like a much different world after the events of the last week, a big question faces churches and their ministers:
Should we address the news from the pulpit?
Is the Sunday sermon an appropriate venue for commenting on the biggest headlines, such as the assassination of Charlie Kirk, or the murder of Iryna Zaruska on a Charlotte train?
Many have expressed that they view it as a sign of a weak church if yesterday’s sermon did not mention Charlie Kirk. Tweets, TikToks, and Facebook posts have been shared far and wide, urging people to find a new church home if their preacher steered clear of these current events.
Others argue that these events do not concern the Gospel, so it has no place in our worship. Some have thrown in that this is a political story, and politics has no place in church.
Among the churches of Christ, we have a bit of a picture of where things stand. After 128 responses, a Jenkins Institute survey for ministers shows 41% did not change their message at all in light of the events of last week, and over 86% say they rarely or never adjust their message due to the news cycle.
So… should the sermon have talked about Charlie Kirk yesterday?
If you’re a regular reader here you already know my answer, but for those who aren’t… of course we should have talked about it.
Don’t get me wrong—the sermon each week does not need to be a rundown of all the week’s biggest headlines. But on occasions like these, the opportunity must be taken. Three reasons in particular come to mind.
People need to know that we have answers for the evil in the world
A friend reminded me of this tweet/meme that’s been going around for a while, and it says it perfectly:
“God may or may not be real, but the other side is so passionate, so committed to worshipping Satan, evil, homosexuality and corrupting children that even if god wasn't real, believing in him to fend these demons off is preferrable (sic).”
People who had no interest in religion are seeing the evil in the world and they want to see it defeated. Then, they look to churches and often find that the churches are pretending the evil doesn’t exist. Many non-Christians have a better grasp of spiritual warfare as it currently stands than a number of our ministers do.
We can preach on the Psalms and see words like wickedness, evil, and iniquity. We can teach Jesus’ proclamations of coming judgment. We can read Paul’s words about how our battle is against spiritual forces of darkness, and how we must tear down strongholds. But if we can’t tie them to real-world events, it’s all abstract.
If a husband and father can be shot for his opinions, or a woman can be stabbed in cold blood by a man arrested and released 14x thanks to a failing criminal justice system, and everyone has seen it, and yet we can’t assure people that they are absolutely right to notice the evil, and God notices it too, what are we doing?
When we’re given obvious examples like the ones we’ve seen in the last week, we must stand up and point to them and say “THAT—that’s what God is talking about. That’s the wickedness we should be praying for Him to bring down.” And when we do, the people who are seeking God will see that they have come to the right place.
(And as an aside, generic “evil is bad, let’s all just come together” sermons aren’t helping either, as I noted last week.)
People need to know when the fields are white unto harvest, and why
Since Kirk’s murder, countless people have posted online that they would be returning to church, or picking up a Bible, or both. Rallies have broken out literally around the world, many including sing-alongs to Amazing Grace and chants of “CHRIST IS KING.”
When Jesus saw the people were desperately seeking and in need, He told His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:37-38).
Again, people are looking for an answer to the evils of this world, and there is enough left of cultural Christianity for them to know that Jesus is that answer. If we aren’t seizing on that opportunity and game planning how to have these discussions when they are as easy as they’ve been in recent memory, what are we doing?
People need to know how their Sunday affects their Monday
I was once in a church men’s meeting that veered away from discussing the building’s upkeep and the congregation’s bank account into brainstorming how we could evangelize better. A brother cut in across the discussion to remind us, “Guys, we’re here to talk about the business of the church. If you want to discuss this stuff, you can do it on your own time.”
As shocking as that was, I feel exactly the same way when somebody responds to “Should we mention this enormous, morally significant story?” with “No, we just preach the Gospel.” What do you even think the Gospel is, if it precludes discussions of how to address sin’s stranglehold on the world?
Christ is Lord over all of life. He died for our sins and the sins of the whole world, and He rose again to take all authority and to sit at the Father’s right hand and rule all that is His. If we can’t connect the dots for people and show them how His Lordship extends into the most pressing matters of our day, we are telling them that their Christianity is a neat little part of their lives they can fold up and put inside a box, separate from every other part.
Conclusion
How we handle it is going to look different from church to church, but we would be remiss if we failed to take such an obvious opportunity to make the Bible come to life for our people, to tell the lost why they have come to the right place, and ultimately to point everyone in the room to the Lordship of Christ.
For more on the recent events…
You can check out my articles from last week, Lessons from the Life and Death of Charlie Kirk and The America of 9/12
Last week’s Think Deeper Podcast covered the situation and the church’s response
And, my colleague Dr. Brad Harrub wrote a great post giving practical steps for those turning to religion right now - Come Back Home
Sometimes I think the church forgets that we have to live in the world. In many instances, our brethren and churches are rife with examples of the infiltration of the world. Since this is the case, what's wrong with equipping the saints with a biblical worldview? That would further equip the saints as they do battle against the god of this world.
I've seen comments to the effect that we should preach Jesus and not preach Charlie Kirk. And that's absolutely true. But to preach Jesus includes His warnings to His disciples that they were going to face opposition, persecution, and even death, but to follow Him anyway because the reward was worth it. What happened to Charlie Kirk is one of the clearest examples we have seen in our society of what that kind of persecution looks like. This assassination was not just meant to silence him, it was also to intimidate all of us into being silent and not confront the evil against us. Unfortunately, for many it's working.