The Church Isn't Supposed to Be Inspirational

America's Got Talent should be renamed to "America's Got Inspirational Stories."

Our family watches every summer, living and dying with the performances of our favorites. As the show progresses, the talent takes a backseat to the stories:

• The deaf woman who sings. 
• The violinist who's losing feeling in his fingers. 
• The comic who's stuttering issues make a 90-second set a challenge. 

As this year's show was just starting, auditions were already being pushed for next year.
Because theses inspiring stories will fade.
Many Twitter and Instagram followers will eventually "unfollow."

Inspiration is really just a feeling, and feelings are fleeting.

(OK...this one is pretty good)

Pre-marital counseling with a starry-eyed couple starts as I ask them to define the word love. After allowing them to ramble a while, I finally help them out: "Love is not a feeling. It's a commitment."

Inspiration isn't a commitment. It's a feeling.
Churches and pastors cannot be ok with simply making worshippers feel something.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness 2 Timothy 3:16

Notice scripture is not meant to inspire, but to convict.
Inspiration is fleeting.
Conviction is forceful.

A memorable turn of phrase or inspirational quote can support a lesson, but the church cannot allow those to be the lesson. To do so elevates human wisdom and turns the Bible into nothing more than proof texts to be cherry picked in support of whatever we want to say. 

God did not leave the church behind to inspire. He left it behind to make disciples. That's a hard work and undoubtably it is also an emotional work. But we cannot allow ourselves to be driven by the mental sugar rush of emotions or we will find that when the real trials come, we have no solid truth to stand on.

The church must declare the truth of Scripture. 
The truth of Scripture is what changes our thoughts, words, and actions. 
As a Bible teacher, allow the scripture to speak louder than your own notions. 
As a Christian, don't merely look for inspiration. Accept the conviction of scripture knowing it is the very Word of God that prepares and upholds you for every situation life can throw at us.