"All the self-help advice in the world won't help if God's not in it."

Chuck Huckaby, pastor of St. Andrew's Church in Lawrenceburg, TN, joined the Pastor's Circle to talk about his recent article on how the Church does ministry. Below are the "CliffsNotes" of his interview.

You compare "kerygmatic" and "therapeutic" ministry. What are the two?

"Kerygmatic" is a greek word, and it's used to describe the preaching in the book of Acts. It's about how this blessing that was meant for Israel is calling the nations to repentance and renewal at the foot of Christ.

I'm using "therapeutic" in the dumbed-down way. When it comes to the pastor as a "therapist", it's like someone in a cardigan and a goatee, some smooth-worded preacher who's there to work you through whatever problems you have, without bringing up the Cross.

The surface things we do, the self-help advice that pastors are trained to give people, that doesn't reconcile people to Jesus Christ. Like when the hospital visit we give is just chit-chat about the football game, never getting around to the ultimate purpose of the

All the self-help advice in the world won't help if God's not in it.

What has this "therapeutic culture" done to us as the Church?

A lot of times it just makes fools of us. Maybe you have the best advice in the world about a certain problem, and either people don't listen to it or it didn't apply to the situation, and then you're the idiot pastor guy who thinks he knows everything.

What did that have to do with our calling? Our calling is to help people reconcile with Jesus Christ. We're not auditioning to be the next Oprah. We confess that there's no true help in this world, there's no true path that doesn't take God at His word.

What would happen if we kept our focus on kerygmatic ministry?

When you go to that hospital room, and you point them into union with Christ, you don't know what that's going to mean.

What it would do in the Church is that pastors at least would be taken more seriously.

[What we want] is a kerygmatic ministry that leads to true therapy. When everyone else gives up hope because their tools are exhausted, it's the Christian visitor who can point to the Christ who rose from the dead.