The worst religious advice I was ever given came when I was a student at Memphis Theological Seminary.  A professor in a preaching class said:  “You need to spend one hour of study for every minute you preach.”

Since then I’ve heard this repeated several times.  Unfortunately many preachers believe it and do it.  They sit in their office and read religious academics for hours per week while the moral foundations of our society implode around us.

Unfortunately, studying and lecturing about religious academics have little power to change human lives.  People need spiritual transformation, much more than religious information.  A heady message prepared in a mind may sometimes reach a mind, but a message burning in the heart will consistently ignite other hearts.  Changed lives come from a shared spiritual spark, not from an academic art.

Western civilization needs a contemporary Jesus epidemic (a Christdemic).  We’ve had numerous Christdemics in our history (check out this link:  http://www.thewarcry.org/2013/01/02/when-will-revival-come/), and we desperately need one again.

Life transforming intimacy with the living, resurrected Jesus Christ (Christimacy) is caught, not taught.  It’s not spread by intellectual sermons, but through direct exposure to the fire of God burning in human hearts.  Like the flu, you don’t catch spiritual awakening by hearing talks about it, but by being around it.

Catch hope!  People are catching fire for Christ at The Salvation Army Berry Street in Nashville.  Rather than passive listening to sermons, everyday people are excitedly showing and telling what God has done.  Come catch the spark — Sundays at 10:45 am., 225 Berry Street, Nashville, Tennessee, 37207.