Highlight: Building the pro-life pulpit
More often than not the topic of abortion is untouched in churches or by pastors.
Pastor Michael Sherrard believes that there is a growing need in the Church for pastors to speak on abortion,,
“It’s my desire to help encourage pastors on how to address the topic of abortion from the pulpit in a loving, gracious, persuasive, and gospel-centered way. ”
“There’s a lot of reason why pastors don’t engage on social issues in general particularly abortion. I understand that I’m not one to condemn, yell, and scream at pastors that don’t use the pulpit to address abortion, because I do understand the burden of a pastor. I understand the weekly trauma that fills churches.”
Sherrard came to the conclusion that preaching on the pro-life stance was the right thing to do for those who’d been affected by it after consulting with his staff. The post-sermon response was overwhelmingly positive.
“We were in one accord in doing it and so we preached on equipping gospel centered message. The response was over the top. I had never had such a response to a sermon and it wasn’t because of my amazing ability to preach. It was simply because the church was confronted with an issue in a very simple, direct way. There are people in my church that are struggling with it. When I preached on it, it gave them the permission to share their stories to talk about it.”
He encourages other pastors to preach on the issue as well, so that other congregations can find peace on the issue regardless if they’ve been personally impacted by abortion.
“We had so many people wanting to share their stories of redemption and grace and the things that God has done in their life. I’ve experienced rather what has come on the other side of engaging this issue and I just want to help encourage other pastors to know the fruit that follows being faithful and speaking on this issue.”
Michael Sherrard is the pastor at Crosspoint Community Church in Peachtree City, GA, and founder of the Pro-Life Pastor’s Initiative. He is the author of .
