1 Corinthians 8:1–13

The movie New Jack City chronicles the rise of drug kingpin Nino Brown in New York City. ¹ In the movie a stick-up kid named Pookie becomes addicted to crack. After arresting Pookie, Detective Scotty Appleton puts him in rehab. Upon completion of the program, Pookie offers to help bring down the kingpin Nino Brown by acting as a confidential informant in an apartment complex-turned-crack-house called the Carter. Detective Appleton grudgingly agrees. While working in the Carter, Pookie relapses into drug use and consequently demonstrates bizarre behavior that gains the attention of members of Brown’s organization, who then murder Pookie. By agreeing to allow Pookie to act as a confidential informant, thereby placing him within arm’s reach of drugs, Detective Appleton places a stumbling block before the young man. Unintentionally, Appleton contributes to Pookie’s death.

A stumbling block is a hindrance, impediment, or obstacle. In 1 Cor 8, Paul encourages the stronger and more mature members in the Corinthian church to avoid acting as a stumbling block for the weaker members of the church. Unintentionally, they are causing harm to some weaker members of the congregation by eating food offered to idols. Paul quickly discounts the idea that idols even exist, maintaining that there is only “one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist” (8:6). Thus, for Paul and for the “strong” members of the congregation, consuming food that had been offered to powerless idols is not problematic in itself. Nevertheless, Paul is aware that there are some in the Corinthian church who still associate the food with the worship of idols. For this reason, Paul discourages those who know better from eating food offered to idols altogether—not because he sees a connection between food and idol-worship, but so they do not inadvertently become a stumbling block to those who lack this knowledge.

Paul is less concerned with food, in particular, than he is with stumbling blocks in general. His hope is for the more mature believers in the Corinthian church to remove any impediments to other people’s faith in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. To be sure, it’s important for Christians to monitor how we conduct ourselves, because somebody somewhere, perhaps a weaker member in our churches, is reading our lives as the manual for how to lead a Christian life. Our actions often speak louder than words. When I was a child, adults would tell me, “Do as I say, not as I do.” Now that I’m grown, I see clearly how often I did not heed this advice. I did what I saw, rather than what they said.

On a larger scale, I believe that many of our churches today act as stumbling blocks. I dare to say that in some contexts, we have made idols of various practices and styles of worship at the risk of alienating younger generations. As an adjunct professor in preaching at two seminaries (Union Presbyterian Seminary and Virginia Union University’s Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology), each semester I engage in fruitful class discussions about declining church attendance. Students want to know why young adults are leaving their churches. My newsfeed on Facebook is filled with articles about why millennials are dropping out of church.

At the beginning of 2017, I launched New Beginnings Church. As of July 2017, the church has grown to 100 members. This is a multigenerational church, in which fifty of our members are under the age of forty. I attribute this growth to sermons that intentionally seek to engage multiple generations and a worship style that incorporates both traditional and contemporary music. With respect to worship style, I regularly tell the church, “Our goal is for nobody to get all of what they want, but for everybody to get some of what they want.” Put another way, we seek to cook for the whole house. At New Beginnings, there’s a place for hymns and hip hop.

For instance, we recently held a special worship celebration that we called NBC’s Got Talent, patterned after a popular television show, during which we showcased some of the talent in our church. As a surprise, one of our church’s teens and I shared a musical presentation that we had been working on for six weeks. We rewrote the lyrics to the popular collaboration by Jay Z and Alicia Keys called “Empire State of Mind.” I rapped. She sang and played the piano. We called it “Let’s Hear It for Jesus.” In the rap, I shared the story of my call to ministry as well as the backstory of the launch of New Beginnings Church. I was concerned about how this presentation would be received. It’s not all the time that you see the pastor rapping and wearing sunglasses in church! As I expected, the teens and young adults loved it. To my surprise and delight, however, even the seniors were bobbing their heads and waving their hands. And yes, they came back the next Sunday!

Why did we do this? To cook for the whole house! It was an intentional effort to show some of the so-called church dropouts that there is indeed a place for them. If rapping helps people to feel comfortable at New Beginnings, I’ll rap. If preaching in Levis and Air Jordans will help people feel more comfortable, I’ll wear them. But on Communion Sunday, I’m still wearing the traditional black suit, white shirt, black tie, black shoes, and black socks for the more traditional members. I’ll make adjustments, if it means reaching more people, growing the church, and helping more people to grow in their relationship with God.

In the very next chapter of Paul’s letter, he expresses a similar sentiment: “I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means win some” (9:22). The challenge and the goal for our churches, then, is to present the gospel in a way that’s relatable for all generations, so as not to be a stumbling block for any generation.

For Paul, “stronger” believers are able to distinguish between righteousness and unrighteousness, acceptable behavior and unacceptable behavior, appropriate conduct and unacceptable conduct. As my mom would say, stronger, more mature believers “know better,” while weaker ones do not. Our congregations are comprised of constituents of both groups—stronger and weaker members. As ministers, we should keep this reality in mind as we prepare and present our sermons, and thus preach sermons that build up weaker members and discourage stronger members from being too proud, or “puffed up.”