hard hitting preaching

I have been leading a young adult ministry for about 2 and 1/2 years now. There has been one consistent thing I hear people say about the kind of preaching and teaching they want. And that is that they want "hard hitting" messages. "We want meat, we want deeper teaching, we want you to slap us in the face with the truth, we don't want sugar coated messages, we want someone to tell us like it is."

My friend Jessica and I were talking about this the other day. Our parents generation like the very "seeker sensitive" kind of teaching, light, simple messages, nothing too overly challenging, so that when people come to church for the first time they don't get scared off. And now our generation is kind of retaliating against that style of church. At least that is what it seems like... or they are wanting something different.

So I have been trying to figure out what exactly "hard hitting teaching" means. Here are some of my theories:

They want passionate preaching. They want someone to preach to them with passion, excitement, boldness and seriousness.

They want to be called to a higher standard. But they aren't sure what that standard is.. or maybe they know deep down but they want to hear it, they want to hear it from someone who is living that standard and can model it, but also say it in a blunt, honest, "I'm telling you like it is" kind of way.

They want extreme challenge. They want to know what do I need to stop doing completely? What do I need to start doing? What can I and what should I strive for? It's almost as if they are saying, "just tell me how to live this out and tell me bluntly."

They want to know how. They want to know how the Bible applies to real life and how to actually live it out.

They want to be uncomfortable. Kind of like a child who hates being disciplined but deep down really wants it and needs it. The discomfort of hearing the challenge and feeling the need to change somethings about their lives.

I don't know, this is just what I am picking up on. And maybe I'm wrong, I could just be listening to too few voices. But if it is true or somewhat true, part of me says to all that, "the deepest most challenging message is the fact that you can't do anything to save yourself and earn God's love." Some of that to me seems like tell me the rules to be good enough, but the truth is you never will earn it, you have to admit you're too weak, too broken, and too disobedient to do it on your own. And you just simply have to trust the saving work of Christ and accept and trust his grace and forgiveness.

But on the other hand, Jesus is very challenging, he says you have to give up everything to be his disciple. And on the other hand, I find myself loving bold preaching too. I listen to sermons from Steven Furtick every day, who in my opinion preaches boldly and holds nothing back. He preaches with a contagious passion and energy for the Gospel. I love it. So here is a short clip from one of his sermons, an example of what I think a challenging message is.

http://vimeo.com/32915458