I absolutely cringe when my pastor uses it. My sister always shoots me a glance whenever he uses it because she knows she'll see my head in my hands. It is bad enough that we have the ESV in the pews, but the Message should be banned in Mo Synod churches. Fortunately he only uses it for his text. But the beautiful phrasing of loved Scripture gets lost in the execrable 'street' paraphrase. I hate it.
Given decades of memory work in KJV, I don’t lack for such language.
THE MESSAGE bringing the earthy flavor of the original Hebrew and Greek to life in modern English has really brought me closer to the heart of God The Father whom I know and have learned to Love and feel closer to thereby.
It enlivened an inner sense that SUCH WAS THE FATHER’S NATURE AND LOVE all along. It helped flesh it out for me in modern unstilted language that was closer to my heart and realities.