praying for preaching

"It is of no use for me to preach to the people, my dear Christian brothers and sisters, unless you pray for them. It is of no use holding special services for the quickening of the spiritually dead unless the Holy Spirit is brought to them by our prayers. It may be that you who pray have more to do with the blessed results than we who preach." (Charles Spurgeon from a sermon in 1868 called Prayer-Meetings)

stay in intellectual shape

Pastor, one way to "stay in shape" intellectually (post-seminary) is to form a theology reading group where you read and process classic and current material with others. This could be done with your Elders/Pastors as a way to hold each other accountable to theological growth and discernment (kind of like spotting partners at the gym) or with a small group of like-minded people in the congregation.

we need to get back to biblical discipleship

"We have programmed everything to death in our Church. We have rallied it, principalized it, best practiced it. We've gotten so confused...Whatever is the latest, greatest thing becomes a surrogate for discipleship. We need to get back to biblical discipleship, getting guys connected with Jesus and staying with Him." Crawford Loritts, Desiring God 2012 Pastors Conference

God accomplishes things through our prayers

2 Corinthians 1:8-11 is an amazing passage that shows the power of prayer. The New American Standard Bible captures the flow accurately because the end of verse 10 is the beginning of one sentence that goes through the end of verse 11.

Crazy that Paul trusts God to deliver him and his ministry partners from persecution (v10) but says that the church participates in that by helping with their prayers (v11)!!!

Sometimes I really do underestimate the effectiveness of prayer. But the Bible is so clear that prayer is a means through which God accomplishes his purposes.

May we be people who wholeheartedly and maybe even illogically believe in the God to whom we pray!

Here is a great sermon answering the question "Why pray if God knows everything and has planned everything?" One of the most clear and concise messages I've heard on the subject.

Be careful. An OVER-reaction to something negative still lands you on the wrong side of positive.

This is always true.

It applies in so many spheres of life (e.g. personal, social, etc.) but I've become increasingly aware of how true this is in theology and church life. Cessationists overreact against charismatic extremes and end up treating the Spirit like something to be managed rather than Someone to be submitted to. Charismatics overreact against stoic intellectualism and often divorce experience from truth (yes, there is a difference). Liberals (like the emergent church movement) overreact against dogmatism and lapse into relativism (among other errors). Fundamentalists overreact against secularism and end up isolating themselves from...well, everybody.

Social activists overreact against the often reductionistic emphasis of many churches on evangelism and end up reducing the gospel to the good news of upcoming service projects. Evangelism people overreact to social justice people and make serving the poor the equivalent of the free weekend you get at a resort as long as you listen to the timeshare presentation (That's not service by the way; that's marketing). Grace people overreact against moralism and minimize (or eliminate) the necessity of hard work inherent in our sanctification. Seeker-friendly churches often overreact against inward-focused churches and end up making customers rather than disciples.

I could keep doing this. And I will keep doing this as I see overreactions in my own life.

Scripture is the weight that brings us into balance. And yes, we often ironically justify our overreactions with Scripture. But that's a problem with us, not the Bible. We have to continually come before God in His Word, with confidence that His Spirit guides us and with humble awareness that our view may in fact reflect more of our particular theological tradition than the text itself.

But hey, maybe this post is an overreaction....Nah.

"is God sovereign or are we free?" and other theological tensions

My daughter Ava is having a really hard time understanding whether this is "a bottle or "water." It's actually pretty hilarious. The answer is obviously "both."

Makes me wonder if God looks on our theological conundrums and says "Awww, poor baby."

who has true faith?

Helpful distinction:

"Because of the invisible nature of saving faith and because of the complications introduced by the human capacity for inconsistency, we have no infallible way of detecting who possesses true faith in the gospel. What we can do, however, is evaluate who professes faith in the true gospel. We cannot judge the truth (reality) of their faith, but we can—and must—judge the truth (veracity) of the gospel they profess." (Dr. Albert Mohler in Four Views on the Spectrum of Evangelicalism)

Note: This is not to diminish the reality of our ability to evaluate whether or not someone's lifestyle is consistent with their professed faith (Titus 1:16; 1 John 2:4-6; 3:6; James 2:17, 24).

"I think sermons suffer greatly for lack of ambiguity." (Eugene Peterson)

He said this in passing during a conference and was referring to the pressure we as preachers feel to constantly tell people what to do. He didn't elaborate much other than to say "we want to tell people to much."

In context, he was talking about application not interpretation proper. His point, I think, is that we try to make our application so precise. We "spoon-feed" people a list of three points to implement in their life rather than leaving room for the Spirit to give them personal application and training them to wrestle with the Lord personally about how they need to respond.

I think suggesting applications for people is helpful, but Peterson's point is an interesting thought.

expedient diversity

Gabe Lyons, in his blog post To Cade and the Eight Percent, offers this stinging indictment on our public efforts at diversity:

"We embrace differences when they fall within our market-driven, politically correct framework but rarely when they disrupt our status quo."

It is no question that diversity/inclusivity is one of the core values of our emerging generation. However, in his post, Lyons is specifically questioning whether or not this "en vogue" diversity has room for inconvenient people, like children with Down Syndrome. It's a great, thought-provoking article and I encourage you to read it.

I don't want to hijack his article because his primary concern that "people with down syndrome have been targeted for extinction" is one that warrants serious consideration. But, his criticism struck me more broadly and made me think about my own commitment to diversity as well as that of the Church.

I am passionate about allowing the Spirit, through the gospel, to expose, evaluate, and exterminate the idolatrous allegiances we have to "our people" that seem to so often trump unity in Christ. I am passionate about seeing the Church embody the kind of diversity that characterized the first century church and in some ways legitimized their witness to the supernatural power of the gospel (See John 13:35; 17:20-21 in the context of what would on a global and in some cases local level become an incredibly diverse church of slaves, freeman, Jews, Gentiles, Samaritans, men, women, Italians, Africans, etc).

And yet, have I...have we...limited our categories of diversity to what in the end amounts to be "cool", convenient, and pretty superficial?

Ethnic diversity yet economic/educational homogeneity? Aggressively making room for different races yet indifferent toward, at best tolerant of, those with mental and physical limitations?

Don't have an answer. Just reflecting. None of the above is easy and every sincere effort in any above category is at least good start. But it's definitely making me think.

how to preach a one-time message

When invited somewhere as a guest preacher, Ed Stetzer says, "deciding what to preach or how to preach can be a challenge, especially if the pastor is young and doesn't have a handy sermon stashed away in his back pocket..."

Here is a helpful article he wrote to aid preachers in preparing one-time messages.

a glimpse into my bible study

exultation

"Teachers and parents who do not exult over God in their teaching will not bring about exultation in God. Dry, unemotional, indifferent teaching about God - whether at home or at church - is a half-truth, at best. It says one thing about God and portrays another thing. It is inconsistent. It says that God is great, but teaches as if God is not great."

John Piper in a sermon entitled One Generation Shall Praise Your Works to Another

major doctrines vs. minor doctrines

Elders/Pastors have the responsibility of delineating which doctrines are clear and necessary to believe for church membership/leadership and which doctrines are less clear and less critical.

Wayne Grudem offers a helpful guideline for making those distinctions:

"A major doctrine is one that has significant impact on our thinking about other doctrines, or that has a significant impact on how we live the Christian life. A minor doctrine is one that has very little impact on how we think about other doctrines, and very little impact on how we live the Christian life" (Systematic Theology, p.29).

Obviously, that is is still subjective--we have to decide how to measure "significant" versus "little" impact--but I think it's a helpful start in trying to sort through it all.

VIDEO: dr. gardner taylor advice to young preachers

note to worship leaders

"Far better than the sweet harmonies of a few trained singers is the rough and hale sound of pardoned criminals, delighting with one voice in their Savior. The most beautiful instrument in any Christian service is the sound of the congregation singing." (Jonathan Leeman in Reverberation)

Empathy is one of the first steps toward humility.

When we see someone respond to a set of circumstances in a way that we disagree with, it often fills us with self-righteousness and impatience. Rather than get so indignant about what we can't identify with, we should start with what we can identify with.

Empathize with how they feel even if you can't identify with how they respond.

For example, a husband may get irritated with his wife because she cries and gets paralyzed when she's stressed. Instead, he should empathize with what it feels like to be stressed. He may not identify with crying (maybe stress causes him to be a workaholic) but identifying with how she feels will humble him and temper his irritation. The same dynamic applies to how a faithful believer views a flagrant sinner. You may not be able to identify with the particular sin, but you can most likely empathize with the temptation. That first step of empathy may not change your view of that sin but prayerfully it will change your approach to that person.

Ultimately, every Christian should continually empathize with the universal need for the grace of God in Christ. That should always make us humble people.

preachers, you have enough to give an account for

Charles Spurgeon was once addressed by a young preacher who complained to Spurgeon that he did not have as big a church as he deserved. Spurgeon replied with a question: "How many do you preach to?" to which the young preacher replied "Oh, about a hundred". Solemnly, Spurgeon said "That will be enough to give account for on the day of judgment."

a 19th century description of the 21st century church

“I confess that I lay down my pen with feelings of sorrow and anxiety. There is much in the attitude of professing Christians in this day which fills me with concern, and makes me full of fear for the future. There is an amazing ignorance of Scripture among many, and a consequent want of established, solid religion. In no other way can I account for the ease with which people are, like children, "tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind of doctrine." (Eph. iv. 14.) There is an Athenian love of novelty abroad, and a morbid distaste for anything old and regular, and in the beaten path of our forefathers. Thousands will crowd to hear a new voice and a new doctrine, without considering for a moment whether what they hear is true.--There is an incessant craving after any teaching which is sensational, and exciting, and rousing to the feelings.--There is an unhealthy appetite for a sort of spasmodic and hysterical Christianity. The religious life of many is little better than spiritual dram-drinking, and the "meek and quiet spirit" which St. Peter commends is clean forgotten, (1 Peter iii. 4.) Crowds, and crying, and hot rooms, and high-flown singing, and an incessant rousing of the emotions, are the only things which many care for.--Inability to distinguish differences in doctrine is spreading far and wide, and so long as the preacher is "clever" and "earnest," hundreds seem to think it must be all right, and call you dreadfully "narrow and uncharitable" if you hint that he is unsound.” JC Ryle from his book, Holiness, 1877

An apt description as well for 21st century Christianity; although there seems to be a growing hunger for old, tried, rugged, plain, confrontational, deep truth

the prime way of honoring God

"This is the prime way of honoring God. We do not so glorify God by elevated admirations, or eloquent expressions, or pompous services for Him as when we aspire to a conversing with Him with unstained spirits, and to live to Him in living like Him." (Stephen Charnock)

In other words, our personal integrity honors God more than our public acts of service.

"We do not study the Bible just to get to know the Bible. We study the Bible that we might get to know God better."

"We do not study the Bible just to get to know the Bible. We study the Bible that we might get to know God better. Too many earnest Bible students are content with outlines and explanations, and do not really get to know God. It is good to know the Word of God, but this should help us better know the God of the Word." Warren Wiersbe