Pastor Larson’s Corner: Passion for the message

I recently served on a committee at our church with the task of procuring a new Sanctuary sound system. The salesman who met with us showed so much enthusiasm and had so much passion for our project that we were both amazed and excited about what could be done. He said that there has been a virtual revolution in the whole field of public address systems during the past 10 years. A sound system costing a hundred thousand dollars just 10 years ago now costs ten thousand dollars. In addition, these modern systems have many more features, including wireless control and unlimited inputs and outputs. His enthusiasm was contagious and he convinced us that we should go ahead and install a modern “state of the art” system in our Sanctuary.

The whole experience made me wonder what would happen if people had as much enthusiasm for the Gospel as this man had for sound systems. I know that if we did, we would be much more successful in convincing the world of the enduring value of the Gospel good news of God’s love and grace in Jesus Christ.

It must have been this kind of enthusiasm and passion that drove the early followers of Jesus to proclaim the Gospel with such boldness in the world. They believed that a new day had dawned in God’s relationship to the world and they went out and preached the Good News with both passion and great effectiveness. Their preaching resulted in the spread of Christianity to every corner of the known world. Perhaps it’s time for us to follow in the footsteps of Christ’s earliest disciples and once again proclaim the good news of the Gospel with passion. Our message certainly warrants all the enthusiasm we can muster.

Pastor Larson’s Corner is written by Jerry Larson and appears weekly in the Norwegian American Weekly.

Pastor Jerry Larson retired to his cabin in Zimmerman, Minn., after 39 years in parish ministry for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In 2011 he published a book entitled “Speaking the Word Freely: Writing with purpose, preaching with power.” Contact him at jerlarson@visi.com

This article originally appeared in the Jan. 30, 2015, issue of the Norwegian American Weekly. To subscribe, visit SUBSCRIBE or call us at (206) 784-4617.