Heckler at The Gospel Coalition

Yesterday as Tim Savage, Senior Pastor of Camelback Bible Church, delivered a talk on “Power in Weakness: The Heart of Gospel Ministry” a young man from the back of the room yelled, “Preach Christ!” Savage kept advancing his argument with grave confidence. I thought to myself, “That was an interesting creative element.” It certainly caught my attention and helped me focus. A few ticks of the second hand later, the man again yelled, “Preach Christ!” He said it again, and again. The dark-haired stranger beside me and I caught eyes and shook our heads in disbelief: there was a heckler in the crowd.

I didn’t turn around to see who was making the fuss, but I did see someone out of the corner of my eye get up and approach the back of the room. They must have stuck a sock in the man’s mouth because he shut-up. Maybe they carried him out of the room, I’m not sure. Regardless, Savage handled the situation well. He addressed the passionate young man with love, “I’ll get there brother,” and he kept preaching. That response was possibly more powerful than the planned message, assuming the heckler was not planted, which I don’t think was the case.

Since I’ve mentioned Savage’s message, it would be good to say something about it. His text was 2 Corinthians 3-4. My takeaways were: 1) Preach Christ & Christ crucified, 2) Don’t fight suffering, learn from it. (Contact Savage if you’d like a manuscript.)