The Missing Piece is Jesus

I posted a quote from Ed Stetzer's interview with Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola (found here) on my facebook.  The quote reads, "We've reduced pastors to social workers, preachers to motivational speakers, & evangelism to marketing."  I got a response within minutes from somebody close to me, saying that's exactly what they are - pastors ARE social workers, preachers ARE motivational speakers, and evangelists ARE marketers.  This was my response to that:

"...as lofty and even necessary as these positions are in our society, the missing piece is Jesus. When a pastor neglects the ministry of Jesus, he no longer IS a pastor but a social worker. When a preacher doesn't preach the Gospel of Jesus, he no longer preaches but gives motivational talks. When an evangelist overlooks Jesus, he is simply manipulating people emotionally through well placed marketing strategy.
Not that those positions aren't valuable. For example, I enjoy giving/hearing a good motivational speech. But if/when I preach, I need to know the difference."

The missing piece IS Jesus.  In so much of our preaching, Jesus is missing.  I was sitting in on a 'worship service' at a large, well-known Canadian church a few months ago, and the preacher had us looking at David and Goliath.  He took us through the story, picked up a few key themes, extrapolated on how brave and courageous David was, and convinced us that we should do the same.  Not one mention of how Jesus is the greater David, who defeated not only the giant of Death but all of his friends as well, and because of that victory we can charge ahead like the Israelites did after the Philistines, as unafraid conquerors.

Many pastors that I know, and especially those involved in youth or young adult ministry, don't like the term 'preaching'.  They'd much rather have a 'sharing time' or a discussion or 'give a talk'. Jesus isn't mentioned - most of the time its moral goodism or sin management, and so these men who may say they're called to preach have now become motivational speakers, or worse, religious statesmen.  Preaching the Gospel has become a lost art.  This blog will strive to redress that wrong and to put preaching Jesus back in its proper place in Church and society.