"Theology incarnate"

Please make sure to have a look at this two-sentence idea on what the Lord's Supper says about our theology.

Another ten worth remembering

Exiled Preacher gives ten points of advice on the fundamentals of preaching (HT: The Christian Mind).

Learning from Bible teaching

I highly recommend Stephen Webster's list of 10 things he's learned in 10 years of Bible teaching. Here's one:

Humility
I am fond of telling my students that, regarding certain issues, if we lined up 12 leading evangelical Bible scholars and asked them to give an opinion, four would say “yes”, four would say, “no” and the remaining four would say, “I don’t know.” This can only prompt us to be gracious when it comes to matters of conscience or areas of ecclesiastical disagreement.

Amen.

HT: Terry Pruitt

Vision of the Cross

"We need a fully orbed, widely applied vision of the cross. Pastoral care that is worth doing, walks people back to the foot of the cross where they can see clearly. The story of the cross is the one we need to be telling."

— Dave Bish

Following the storyline

Steve Mathewson is blogging about preaching that connects to the Bible's storyline: Part 1, Part 2 (HT: Theocentric Preaching).

No transformation required

Dave Johnson shares an experience from his past about a church elder who showed no signs of spiritual transformation:

So here’s my question: “What’s up with that?” In all his years in church and in “the Word”, Ray never became a different kind of person. He never changed. He never became more loving, gentle, peaceful, or patient. Indeed, he only seemed to become more angry and rigid as time went on. He became harder to be around. What’s more, no one seemed to be bothered by that, as though something were out of the ordinary. No one wondered if maybe Ray had somehow missed the point.

Good question. This is a topic, by the way, I recently addressed at Milton's Daily Dose. The evidence of our discipleship is that we are changing more and more into the image of Jesus Christ in actions and attitudes. When the leaders of a congregation show no signs of spiritual transformation, that church is in serious trouble.

Sermon preparation by John MacArthur

Whatever you may think about his doctrinal flavor, you have to admit that John McArthur is a powerful preacher. Unashamed Workman gives us a clue as to why: 32 hours preparation for each message.

Of pastors, prophets, and Dúnedain

If, like me, your worldview has been shaped by Middle Earth, the Fellowship, and the War of the Ring, then you should enjoy the powerhouse posts Mike Russell has been writing at The Lord of the Kingdom.

In or out?

John Frye has written a dynamite treatment of Mark 3:21-35 and "who's in and who's out":

For me, Mark 3:34 is a case study in centered-set thinking. Mark writes that Jesus looked around . . . This is a deliberate 360 degree gaze. How do we know? Because Mark adds that the crowd was "in a circle" . . . around him. This detail is important.

Who is in the center? Bingo. Those on the "outside" were natural family--"your mothers and your your brothers." Jesus takes the opportunity to redefine family as those inside who are accepting of and attentive to him and his word. Being accepting of Jesus and attentive to his word are those "who do the will of God" (verse 35). Did you hear the grenade explode? This is radical, scandalous talk!

Yes it is. I recommend reading John's whole article.

One dose at a time

If you like what I link to here, you ought to enjoy what I write on my new weblog, Milton's Daily Dose. Each dose is one to three paragraphs, in concentrated form, on Christian discipleship. I started the blog as part of my job search to show churches what I believe and how I teach. Even if you're not looking for a preacher, you ought to enjoy the treatment. Please come visit.

Sound advice on biblical preaching

If you'd like some solid advice on good expository preaching, have a look at this interview with John Koessler. Here's the conclusion:

Yes, my confidence as a preacher is in the power of God's Word. That's one of the most exciting things about preaching. It's not because we like to lecture. It's not because people are staring at us and waiting for us to say something. It's because we are driven by the conviction that God's truth, that those truths recorded in human language, have the potential to transform people's lives. And that's the most exciting thing, isn't it? When you proclaim that and you see God work through it? That's what gets you hooked. And once you're hooked, you never go back.

Amen. (Hat tip: Preaching Now).

Preaching book reviews

I seldom link to book reviews, but A Steward of the Secret Things is loaded with reviews of contemporary books on preaching.

Dying to live

Doug Floyd writes: "The world we cling to kills the soul and the body stumbles forward in numbed chaos. Jesus came so that we could finally…die."

Hard and soft

The Constructive Curmudgeon reflects on John MacArthur's assertion that "Soft preaching makes hard hearts. Hard preaching makes soft hearts."

Psalms resources

At Expository Thoughts Randy McKinion suggests some resources for preaching the Psalms. He also offers some good interpretational advice of his own.

New site for Christian leaders

It's not often that someone sends a press release to this blog, but I got one the other day about The Brook, a resource site for preachers and church leaders. The site is heavy on video materials, but also has some articles to read.

Beyond self-protection

Jim Martin, reflecting on the writing of David Hansen, considers pastoral ministry as an exercise of love. It's a challenge to live and minister that way without building protective fences around our hearts:

I understand the temptation to be ambivalent. After all, loving people is to set yourself up to be hurt. Yes, loving people can be joyful, satisfying, rewarding, etc. Yes, there are people who will love you in return and whose love will bring great encouragement to your life. There are also people who can and will hurt you. To love is to put yourself "out there" where your heart will be trampled on by some.

True. It's a tough way to minister and live. It also happens to be the way Jesus went.

Through koinonia

In a short, elegant post, thebluefish shows how some of the perennial questions about God's goodness and power can be answered through the communion of saints.

Fragile truth, slippery world

At don't call me veronica, Tony Myles shares his struggles with preaching faithfully:

Here's the tension...

• Because I love God I desire to put out the perfect message every week and hope the final product pleases Him.
• Because God loves me I recognize I will put out an imperfect message every week and He will be pleased simply by my faithfulness.

How do we deal with the tension? Simply put, we can't wait till our service is perfect before serving the Lord. Sometimes we have to be willing to fall--and trust that our God will catch us when we do.

"Be careful out there"

Jeff Weddle reminds Christians that "There are major ramifications of getting your Trinitarian views messed up."

Where's the Spirit?

Dan Edelen has a few questions onwhy we hear so little of the Holy Spirit in U.S. churches these days:

1. Why is it that you can surf a hundred Christian blogs and not find a single mention of the Holy Spirit?

2. How is it possible that you can go to your average Christian bookstore and buy a dozen Christian books and find virtually no mention of the Holy Spirit?

3. Why is it that the institutional churches have either turned the Holy Spirit into a “fairy godmother” or gutted His power to do anything more than help us remember a few Bible verses?

4. In fact, how is it that some Christians routinely allow the Bible to replace the Holy Spirit in the Trinity?

5. How can it be that we can talk about eschatology, soteriology, epistemology, and a hundred other Christian -ologies, but someone casually asks to define pneumatology and entire swaths of mature Christians will scratch their heads?

Dan does more than ask questions. He tells why we ought to be hearing more about the Spirit.

More working tools

As always, there's good stuff in the latest Workman's Toolbox.

Hungry for the story

At In the Clearing, my friend Bob calls for preachers to tell the Great Story of the Scriptures:

Show me Jesus, Pastor. Don't assume I need a talking to about getting involved at church. Don't rifle the Scriptures for items that help you make your point. Take me through the Word, re-introduce me to the Great Story. Tell me about Abraham and how he fits into the grand plan, and Moses and how he does, and all the wild and visionary prophets; show me Jesus in the ancient Jewish texts, and show me the Roman world in which Paul traveled, and who it was that set him to journeying, and tell me what he meant when he said, "Not I who live, but Christ lives in me."

At a recent job interview, I was asked to summarize the whole scope of the Bible in twenty minutes. I tried to do it in three and so left out a great deal of very important truth. But the very effort of looking over and proclaiming the whole sweep of God's interaction with mankind was surprisingly energizing. I think Bob is on to something here.

"Rooted in the gospel"

Kirk Wellum reminds Christians that conversion is more than change.

Preaching and children

Iconoblog has run a three-part series on children and preaching. Here's a sample:

If we love our children as God would require from us as Christian parents, we must teach them to love bible centred preaching. I believe that God expects even our young children to be able to benefit from preaching.

The study does well in taking into account social, developmental, and biblical considerations: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 (HT: Unashamed Workman).

Non-Christian blogs the Bible

If you haven't seen this blog yet, it's worth a look: David Plotz, a self-described "non-observant Jew", is reading through the Bible and blogging about it. Preachers, this is a rare oppurtunity to see how an intelligent, secular writer views the Scriptures when he actually sits down and reads them. You might also want to pray for the light to shine into Mr. Plotz's heart.

Influence of the gospel

Timothy Satryan shows how much difference one person can make with the Word of life (HT: Preaching Now).

Anchors for the soul

Ray Van Neste shares a voice from the pew to say that Christians do indeed want stubstantive sermons:

Preachers are often told that people really are not interested in substantive content in sermons. I know of pastors who have been severely criticized for dealing with texts that people did not find easily digestible, or useful enough in drawing crowds. Shallow, generic “life-thoughts” will appeal to some, but there is an increasing number of people who are crying out for substantive teaching as they yearn to know God and to have something weighty enough to serve as an anchor for their souls.

Amen. And at GospelDrivenLife, Mark Lauterbach shares one of those soul anchors from 1 Peter: the sufferings of Jesus.

Hopelessness and heaven

"Genuine evangelism occurs not when someone comes to church because of some self-help motivation. No, genuine evangelism occurs when someone is so hopeless that the only hope left is Christ. Anything less is form without substance."

-- John Schroeder

"Asleep in the light"

Dan Edelen has written a scathing essay on how the church in the United States is awash in Christian conferences. These conferences draw big-name speakers, thousands or participants, and cost millions upon millions of dollars. Yet somehow they don't seem to translate to revival. In China, on the other hand, the church holds no conferences, yet revival is burning brightly:

What if each of us took the money we had allocated to yet another conference on our calendars and instead used that money to pay for medical care for the uninsured single mother with four kids who lives down the street? What if we took the weekend we would have spent with our posteriors planted in some padded theater seat soaking up a message we already know from yet another “gifted” speaker we’ve heard a bazillion times already and instead spent that time fixing up the house of one of the elderly in our congregation? What if we actually took all the things we’ve already learned about Jesus and put them to use telling others about Him and doing good works in His name so that when we have to stand before Him we look like sheep, not goats?

Good questions. Dan is on to something here. My fellow Christian countrymen, are we listening?

Snack-culture preaching

At this week's Preaching Now, Michael Duduit offers practical ideas to reinforce preaching in a "snack culture."

Beyond "mind-game Christianity"

John Frye has written a smack-on study of the idea that intellectual assent equals saving faith:

We like to think that forgiveness is a neat, clean transaction just between our mental agreement and God's Word (promise). Other people are actually peripheral or unnecessary. Not so, according to Jesus. There are very real social, relational connections between us and others and God and us. Nothing is private about forgiveness.

Amen. John's article is worth reading.

Dwindling attention spans

Preachers, as much as possible we ought to understand the minds of those listening to our preaching. For that reason I highly recommend the essay "Short Attention Span Theatre" at Between Two Worlds. It's full of useful links and insights. How about taking a little time and reading it?

The reality of demonic influence

Kirk Wellum has written a brief, clear, spot-on essay about Eph. 6:12 and spiritual warfare:

When we think of demonic powers we tend to think of them corrupting us in strange and mysterious ways. But in fact, their approach is often more basic and less spooky than we expect. While we are looking for the paranormal, they work by stirring up sin. More harm is done by walking in sins that Paul tells us are incompatible with the Christian life, than anything else Satan might hurl our way. This is why the armor of the Lord that we are to wear involves things like truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation and the word of God.

Amen.

United in Mind and Judgment

My latest sermon text posted at To the Word may be decent, but it's certainly not in order.

Toolbox treasures

As always, the latest Workman's Toolbox is full of good things. And I'm honored to see Colin quoted me in this post.

Beyond the Sinner's Prayer

David P. Gushee has written an outstanding article re-examining the "easy believism" inherent in "Sinner's Prayer" Christianity. Mr. Gushee comes from a tradition that stresses "Believe in Jesus, and you will be saved." He finds something else, however when he actually looks at the NT:

But Jesus never taught easy believism. Whether he was telling the rich young ruler to sell all and follow him or telling a miracle-hungry crowd near Capernaum that to do the work of God was, yes, to believe on him (John 6:28-29), he called people to abandon their own agenda and trust him radically. Radical trust calls for both belief and action.

I suggest that we tend to confuse the beginning of the faith journey with its entirety. Yes, believe in Jesus—that's the first step. Yes, invite Jesus into your heart as your personal Savior. Then, empowered by God's grace, embark on the journey of discipleship, in which you seek to love God with every fiber of your being, to love your neighbor as yourself, to live out

Please read the whole thing (HT: DashHouse.com).

Status & health care

Yes, it's satire, but more real than most of us would like to admit: "I Don't Want Health Care If Just Anyone Can Have It."

But all I really want . . .

Consumerism may have polluted Generation Y even more deeply than it has their parents.

Dash on over to Darryl's blog

This month Darryl Dash has been slamming one line drive after another through the gap at DashHouse.com. Here are a few posts worth your time:

• More than a ticket to heaven
• No more canned speeches
• What I'm still learning after 35 years of preaching
• The large, immense world of God's creation

Good stuff.

Don't be a Macarena preacher

Ben Brammer writes on the advantage of consistency in preaching.

Systems and Kingdom

Dan Edelen has written a must-read essay on sin that transcends individuals and resides in demonically influenced systems. Here's a sample:

Our society today runs entirely on systems in a way that it did not just forty years ago. Even our churches have become systemized. Some paleoconservatives have deemed this shift “The Managerial Society,” and it’s a form of socialism like the kind we Americans used to routinely mock in the old Soviet Union. Nearly every encounter we have in daily life within the US today has a system lurking behind it. Those systems explain why we have no great men in government now, only systems. Great men and women stand up against political injustice, but systems toe the system line, even if it’s bad for the whole the system operates within.

Young people today are bitter and cynical because they’ve grown up within these systems and they can’t see any way to transcend them.

Sadly, the one group designed to beat the system, the Church, can’t seem to get off its duff and do what Christ charged it with: tear down strongholds. The glaring error I see within the Church, even in those churches that understand strongholds, is the failure to acknowledge that they go far beyond individuals. We may talk about strongholds in a person’s life, but do we ever talk about strongholds in the entire culture? Not very often!

Dan is right that the battle is more than each individual Christian fighting against his or her own sin. It's a war between the Kingdom of God and the realm of darkness in the world order. He and I are most familiar with the systems in the United States, but every culture is dealing with this issue in some form. Dan doesn't believe Christians should merely sit back and let these systems have their way:

Too many of us fail to see that systems that break people’s spirits get their power from demonic sources, and we Christians must wrestle against them. . . .

Throughout history, Christians have been at the root of bringing down unholy systems and kingdoms–and not just because they forgave, but because they understood that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.

Amen.

Partners in proclamation

Here's more from Paul Lamey on preachers having someone to help us evaluate our sermons (before we preach them).

Daring to see Jesus

Kent Brandenburg writes a toe-stepping article about the real Jesus. I found this part challenging:

I believe that most people don’t know who Jesus is. That is sad. He’s Wonderful. He is King of Kings, Mighty God, the Great I Am, and the Jehovah of the Old Testament. He is my Great Intercessor, my Lord, my Savior, the Good Shepherd, and the Great Physician. Every single day I pray for Him to set up His kingdom on this earth. I do yearn for His kingdom to come. And yet people do not know Him. I want to go one step further. I don’t think most Christians know Who He is.

Our culture has dumbed Jesus down so much that He is hardly recognizable. People in churches are a lot more comfortable with their idea of Jesus than the One in the Bible. When the real One gets presented, they’re often miffed or offended. Churches and their leaders have figured this out, so they water Jesus down for easier consumption. The One in the Bible is worthy of my life and love, but not this placebo.

I don't know about the rest of the world, but I've often thought that if Jesus were to preach at most churches in the United States today, he wouldn't be invited back.

New sermon texts at To the Word

It's taken a while, but I've posted three more sermon texts at To the Word. The latest are on 1 Cor. 13, 1 Cor. 14:1-25, and 1 Cor. 26-40.

Can you believe this?

No matter how much Christian education you may have received, I recommend you read Royce Ogle's Faith 101.

More on measuring spiritual growth

You might want to have a look at Out of Ur's interview with Veggie Tales co-creator Phil Vischer. Here's a sample:

Near the end we were selling a gazillion [Veggie Tales] videos and I was getting four hundred fan letters a day, but one day I was reading my Bible and I came across the verse that lists the fruit of the Spirit. It occurred to me that none of those things were present in my life. It didn’t say the fruit of the Spirit is impact, large numbers, or selling lots of videos. I realized something was not right.

That makes sense: fruit of the Spirit as indicator of spiritual health.

Something for preachers to consider

Paul Lamey writes on the place of fellowship in exegesis.

Cheap grace and church shopping

John Frye, now visiting Ukraine, shares a local preacher's thoughts on cheap grace and its manifestations in the United States:

Sasha is stunned by another USAmerican church feature. We have the luxury of church-hopping. We are so used to this feature that it is hard to understand the spiritual horror that this feature generates in our Ukrainian brothers and sisters. With our franchizing everything in the USA, including church, we cater to the consumer mentality, to the shopper spirit, to the hopper syndrome.

I report this to Sasha and he sucks in his breath like I am lying to him. I'm not. Sasha shakes his head and looks so bewildered.

"Oh, John, that does not happen here. When we unite to the church, it is a covenant decision. It is serious. We would be horrified to see Christians in Lutsk shifting around from church to church. We pastors would not allow it."

Wow.

Measuring spiritual growth

I'm leery of methods that try to quantify spiritual growth, but Chris Gallagher's self-questionnaire looks to be of some value in the effort.

Update: Brian Colmery shares some cautionary thoughts at Sycamore, while Between Two Worlds offers links to X-ray questions.

Willimon on worship

William Willimon asks, "What's the point of worship?" His answer is bang-on:

Love is not love if it is simply a matter of obeying rules, running errands, and performing duties. Some things we do just because we enjoy being in the presence of our loved one. So we sing songs, write poetry, dance, clap our hands, share food, or simply prop up our feet and do nothing but enjoy being with one another. In these purposeless moments of sheer enjoyment, we come very close to what love is all about.

If someone asked a Christian, “What’s the purpose of your worship? Why do you gather on Sunday and sing songs, dress up, kneel, march in processions, clap your hands, shed tears, speak, eat, and listen?” We could only say, “Because we are in love.”

Amen. And if you think Dr. Willimon's ideas are sappy or sentimental, I suggest you read his whole essay.

Are you a Christian thief?

Mark Loughridge reminds Christians that ripping .mp3s we didn't pay for is stealing: "So if you need to, repent and clean out your hard-drives."

The Old Testament & cannibalism in Tennessee

Claude Mariottini has written a fine article about cannibalism in my native state.

Exactly!

I highly recommend David Wayne's essay on giving our worst to Jesus.

Remembering our allegiance in the battle

Today at Milton's Daily Dose I wrote about salvation as more corporate than individual. At Spiritual Conversations, Larry Chouinard shares related thoughts on identity and community:

Contrary to popular opinion, Paul's letters are much more concerned with cultivating an ecclesial vision of identity and mission, than the personal salvation issues that often dominate Christian discussions. His letters are addressed to Kingdom outposts scattered throughout the Mediterranian world. His instructions and advice are not of the Ann Landers variety, but speak to specific concerns about community cohesiveness and their social identity in the broader culture.

. . . . These embedded colonies of heaven incarnate a new public order in the midst of Imperial structures, and embrace values and prorities that often run counter to the prevailing propaganda. The identity and integrity of the community demand resisting the tendency of the [dominant] culture to control and reshape [its] mission in terms that further and promote nationalistic causes or secular agendas. Kingdom loyalties and commitments transcend all institutional and national allegiances.

Mr. Chouinard goes on to describe three themes Paul directs towards shaping these communities' life and mission. It's well worth reading the whole thing.

Intergenerational gap

Nearly every book I've read on church growth calls for targeting a specific age and socio-economic group for evangelism. That approach is perfect except for one thing: it bears no resemblance to the church as established by Jesus and the apostles. With that in mind, it was encourageing to find that Chad Hall, writing in Leadership Journal, has similar ideas:

As a church planter and ministry coach, I've worked with churches who are primarily young and others who are obviously older. What these churches have in common is a voiced desire for community. Yet that "community" is often a veiled form of group narcissism. Young or old, they want to do church with people who are like us and who, in turn, are easy to like.

We want relationships in service to Christ's mission to be smooth and tension-free. We don't want to get bogged down in the messy problems raised by how differently older and younger people see the world.

As tempting as it may be to do church with friends only, there are at least three good reasons to resist age gentrification of church.

I recommend reading Mr. Hall's full article and finding out what those three things are.