The next key to being a faithful and fruitful missionary is the unity of doctrine and life.

The Non-Doctrinal Trap

Pastors are typically good at doctrine or life, but not both. Some of us spoon-feed our sheep lots of practical how-to's, exhorting them to live like Christians but never teaching them to think like Christians. This leaves them vulnerable to being blown by the wind, tossed by waves, and gutted by wolves. Of course, wolves never dress as wolves. They wear the jacket of a reputable Christian publishing house and speak with the voice of a winsome, half-true preacher. When wolves tickle their ears, gullible sheep roll over and let them scratch their bellies. The few who do fight don't have muscles because they've been eating Cheetos and Twinkies. So pastors, we must add meaty, vitamin-rich doctrine to our preaching. Our sheep shouldn't have to migrate to seminary to learn theology; they should learn it from our sermons. We must also use the pulpit to proactively deflate popular false doctrines. Just as your son shouldn't first hear about sex when his buddy slips him a Playboy, neither should your sheep first hear about the Trinity when their friend slips them a bad Christian book.

The Heady, Abstract Trap

In our zeal for sound doctrine, we must not become heady and abstract. Intellectually acute pastorsóespecially of the Reformed persuasionócan project a rational, philosophical faith, but not equip people for real life. This was my temptation when I left seminary, gun loaded with new vocabulary words. After boring my fledgling church plant one Sunday with the high Christology of Colossians, a friend told me, "Your boots aren't touching the ground." Ironically, sterile, theoretical sermons are one of the biggest reasons other pastors are reluctant to preach doctrine. They've never heard interesting and helpful doctrinal preaching. They hear my sermon on the high Christology of Colossians and conclude that doctrine induces sleep. In reality, doctrine is very compelling; I'm just a bad preacher! I need to put down my books and go hang out with people.