Chuck Norris doesn’t read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.
Chuck has written a book (well, some people say Chuck Norris doesn’t actually write books, the words assemble themselves out of fear). Regardless of how this book came to be, I’ve not read it, and my first thought was, “What makes Chuck Norris qualified to write a book?” Well, that continues to be my thought, but I have changed my perspective on it a bit. I realize that Chuck Norris will probably sell more copies of his book than Bruce Ware will sell. Does that mean that Chuck Norris has more to say to the Christian world than Bruce Ware? Absolutely not. What it does mean is that most of the people in our pews are going to read Chuck Norris before they are going to read Bruce Ware.
Pastors, we should always call our people to higher standards of holiness and of learning, but we need also to be realistic. While we sit in our studies and our TV rooms reading writers like Mohler, Spurgeon, Carson, Ware, Coleman, Grudem, and Calvin, our people are sitting in their TV rooms watching TV. If they are going to peruse a book, it is most likely to be a book that they learn about from that TV, and Chuck Norris will get more interviews (from TBN as well as secular media) than any serious scholar. What that means is that we as pastors and preachers should seek to meet them where they are and take them to where they need to be.
Chuck Norris may become the most influential theologian in some of our churches in the coming months, that is not a good thing. However, it is a good thing that your people are reading Christian literature. Use this as a starting point. Commend them on their reading and then suggest something a little more challenging. Eventually, they may just pick up Chuck Colson instead of Chuck Norris, but until then, labor on in love.
Of course, you are responsible to read and to study deeply. Chuck Norris should not be the deepest book you read this year. Your people need you to plumb the depths of the Word of God and that can only happen as you study intensely. But also remember, your people do not really care how many books you’ve read. As the old addage goes, they do not care how much you know until they know how much you care. Show them you care by connecting with them at Chuck Norris, and then show them you care even more by not leaving them with Chuck as their only spiritual guide.
And, at the risk that Chuck may read this post and because some research suggest that the theory of evolution is actually an attempt to explain the number of creatures that Chuck allows to live, this is not meant as an insult.
