Go and read the text ( Acts 17:16-34) and see how many times Paul references the Old Testament Scriptures when preaching to the intellectuals at Mars Hill. Look at Acts 17 when Paul preached to the unbelievers at Mars Hill. It’s one of the first rules of preaching, yet it’s the one that those of us accusing Andy of heresy have forgotten. But since most of us (including the ones accusing Andy of heresy) don’t preach to a sizable group of non-believers on a regular basis, his words seem foreign to us. So Andy tailors his message to his audience. They’re interested in whether or not Jesus truly did rise from the dead and whether or not he’s the Son of God. Many of the skeptics don’t believe the Scriptures. His audience isn’t yearning for the deeper truths of Scripture on a Sunday morning. Andy is preaching to an audience with a higher percentage of skeptics and non-believers than most churches will ever see. He’s not preaching to young eager pastors wanting to know the deeper truths of Scripture. Yet Andy isn’t preaching within the context of a seminary. When a seminary president accuses Andy Stanley of sliding down the slippery slope of liberalism, it’s because he sees a sermon that would never fly within the safe and antiseptic confines of a seminary campus. The same goes for the vast majority of preachers, including the ones accusing Andy Stanley of all sorts of heresy. I’m a preacher, and although my heart is very much for the lost, my primary audience on Sunday’s is believers. You have to factor in the context of Andy’s audience before you start shooting him from behind with friendly fire. So why are Andy’s sermons being so quickly misunderstood? Because he’s speaking to an audience that most preachers never speak to. So, we’re already beginning to break the rules of context when declaring Andy Stanley a heretic. Most of the attackers have taken a few excerpts from a portion of one of his messages and pounced on them. Now, it’s important to note: all of the calls of heresy are coming from people who weren’t there, who aren’t a part of his church, and most of whom don’t have any type of personal relationship with Andy. In a December Christmas series, Andy once again fired up the peanut gallery and reignited questions about his orthodoxy. How differently would we interpret Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech if it was given at a psychic’s convention? How differently would we interpret Lou Gehrig’s famous speech “I consider myself the luckiest man in the world” if it was given before a group of starving children in Somalia? Once again, context is key.Īndy Stanley, successful pastor and author from the Atlanta area has been in hot water lately, with the blogosphere calling for his head over some statements he’s made in recent sermons (you can read about the first round of controversy here). If you lift even the most famous speeches and put them in a different context, you get a much different meaning.
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