I want to mention my preferred methodology on how to preach. Obviously, I'm a young guy without a ton of wisdom, but everybody has an opinion right? I really enjoy preaching through books of the bible and I thoroughly enjoy listening to preaching through books of the bible. Here's why:
1. It helps me remain true to Scripture and avoid heresy.
2. It gives me confidence to know I have the authority of the text behind me.
3. If someone disagrees, they will have to disagree with either the text or my application because the sermon was not my idea.
4. It teaches people how to study the Bible without having to host a hermeneutics class.
5. It is much easier to follow the grand narrative of the Bible (God's redemptive plan and story).
6. It disciplines me to preach tough passages that I may have skipped otherwise.
7. It helps towards the process of preaching the whole counsel of God.
8. It helps me preach God's mind and not my own.
9. It helps me avoid preaching my personal hobby horses.
10. It eliminates Saturday night fever and worry of what to preach from week to week.
11. It allows the congregation to study ahead and prepare for the weekly gathering.
12. Over the course of a life-long ministry, I believe it will best aid in the spiritual maturity for the church.
Agree? Disagree?
**As a sidenote, Colossians is the only book I've actually preached all the way through in succession. It was awesome!
Friday, July 25, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
terminology
I guess I'm in the mood to expose the fallacies of our contemporary Christianity this week. I have another issue to manifest. However, I'm not some jerk seminary student who thinks he knows it all and wants to demonstrate how his theological perspective is more accurate than everyone else's. Instead, I have found some things in my own life that were harmful to God's glory, harmful to the health of the church, and harmful to my joy, and therefore, I would like to share them.
The terminology I would like to speak of today is "the church." A couple days ago someone asked me where my church was. I responded, "They are located all over Raleigh and Durham and some other places." They replied, "what??" What is the first thing that comes to your mind when I say "the church?" Most of us think of that funny shaped building down the street with the weird glass and the really weird structure that stands way up in the air on top of the building. Colorful carpet, long wooden pews, a manly stout pulpit, a choir loft, and a huge cross on the wall behind the choir loft are all images that fill our memory. It is the place we visit each Sunday, and sometimes if we are really spiritual, we visit Sunday night. However, is this what Jesus meant when he said he would build his church? I think not. Contrary to the popular assumption, the church is not a building, the church is the people that claim to be followers of Jesus. For instance, if a religious riot broke out tomorrow and all the Christian church buildings in America were burnt to the ground, would "the church" still exist? Absolutely yes! You may be thinking, this is a little overboard coming from some "nutjob" Christian who has nothing better to do than sit around and complain about his corrupt upbringing. Well, not actually. I recognize this isn't the greatest issue in American Christianity today, but it is very helpful and revolutionary to the health of the church.
If the church is a building, than Christianity is something we go to once a week, wear weird clothes, say and sing weird things, waiting for Monday so we can be normal again. If the church is a building, than Christianity is a destination and not a way of life. However, if the church is people, than the building is just a place where we can all meet together for corporate singing and hearing the preaching of the Word, and the rest of the week we can be the church, living out the Christian life in our family, work, school, and community environment. Please, don't "go to church," "be the church." This may seem minor to you, but it will greatly influence the way you and the people around you perceive the people of God...followers of Jesus. If you "go to church," then, by definition, you are not the church. Lets rethink our terminology.
The terminology I would like to speak of today is "the church." A couple days ago someone asked me where my church was. I responded, "They are located all over Raleigh and Durham and some other places." They replied, "what??" What is the first thing that comes to your mind when I say "the church?" Most of us think of that funny shaped building down the street with the weird glass and the really weird structure that stands way up in the air on top of the building. Colorful carpet, long wooden pews, a manly stout pulpit, a choir loft, and a huge cross on the wall behind the choir loft are all images that fill our memory. It is the place we visit each Sunday, and sometimes if we are really spiritual, we visit Sunday night. However, is this what Jesus meant when he said he would build his church? I think not. Contrary to the popular assumption, the church is not a building, the church is the people that claim to be followers of Jesus. For instance, if a religious riot broke out tomorrow and all the Christian church buildings in America were burnt to the ground, would "the church" still exist? Absolutely yes! You may be thinking, this is a little overboard coming from some "nutjob" Christian who has nothing better to do than sit around and complain about his corrupt upbringing. Well, not actually. I recognize this isn't the greatest issue in American Christianity today, but it is very helpful and revolutionary to the health of the church.
If the church is a building, than Christianity is something we go to once a week, wear weird clothes, say and sing weird things, waiting for Monday so we can be normal again. If the church is a building, than Christianity is a destination and not a way of life. However, if the church is people, than the building is just a place where we can all meet together for corporate singing and hearing the preaching of the Word, and the rest of the week we can be the church, living out the Christian life in our family, work, school, and community environment. Please, don't "go to church," "be the church." This may seem minor to you, but it will greatly influence the way you and the people around you perceive the people of God...followers of Jesus. If you "go to church," then, by definition, you are not the church. Lets rethink our terminology.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
the sinner's prayer
Most of you who are reading this blog are familiar with the phrase "the sinner's prayer." For those of you who aren't, the phrase is used by many evangelical pastors and evangelists; it refers to what a sinner should pray to God in order to have his sins forgiven and be able to go to heaven one day. When I was a child, I was led to pray the sinner's prayer and I did. Therefore, you could say I'm pretty familiar with the prayer. However, I'm determining where the concept originated and how biblical it is.
This past week I read through book of "Acts" (in the Bible) exploring what the apostles said to people in order to be forgiven of sin and reconciled to God. The only phrases I found that came from an apostle's mouth instructing people to "be saved" were things such as, "repent and be baptized" (2:38), "repent and turn again" (3:19), "repent of your wickedness and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven" (8:22), "everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins" (10:43), "everyone who believes is freed" (13:38), "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved" (16:31), "repent because God will judge the world through Christ" (17:30), and "believe in Jesus" (19:4). I could not find the "sinner's prayer." The only time prayer is mentioned for salvation is chapter eight verse twenty-two, but even there the apostle is not asking someone to recite something after him. (I realize that I'm only covering one New Testament book of several that would be helpful to the conversation)
Am I completely against the sinner's prayer?? No. However, I believe we should be cautioned because it has done much harm to the church and the world. This prayer many times is used as a magical formula that if said in the right manner will get you a "go to Heaven free" ticket. Many times I believe children and teenagers have been deceived and lured into thinking they have become regenerated believers when in all actuality, they just recited some words while they were emotionally scared of going to Hell.
So, what should we do? We need to be biblical and develop our understanding of salvation and the gospel from the Bible. Do I have it all figured out? Do I completely understand how salvation works? No. My hope is that you and I will become more glorifying to God by becoming more biblical. In the meantime, lets show people they need to repent of their deep, unsatisfying wickedness, and believe in the gospel, and turn to Jesus in order to be clean, reconciled to God, and fulfilled through knowing and pleasing Him. (Let me know if you think I'm right on or if I'm missing a few steps in my thinking.)
This past week I read through book of "Acts" (in the Bible) exploring what the apostles said to people in order to be forgiven of sin and reconciled to God. The only phrases I found that came from an apostle's mouth instructing people to "be saved" were things such as, "repent and be baptized" (2:38), "repent and turn again" (3:19), "repent of your wickedness and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven" (8:22), "everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins" (10:43), "everyone who believes is freed" (13:38), "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved" (16:31), "repent because God will judge the world through Christ" (17:30), and "believe in Jesus" (19:4). I could not find the "sinner's prayer." The only time prayer is mentioned for salvation is chapter eight verse twenty-two, but even there the apostle is not asking someone to recite something after him. (I realize that I'm only covering one New Testament book of several that would be helpful to the conversation)
Am I completely against the sinner's prayer?? No. However, I believe we should be cautioned because it has done much harm to the church and the world. This prayer many times is used as a magical formula that if said in the right manner will get you a "go to Heaven free" ticket. Many times I believe children and teenagers have been deceived and lured into thinking they have become regenerated believers when in all actuality, they just recited some words while they were emotionally scared of going to Hell.
So, what should we do? We need to be biblical and develop our understanding of salvation and the gospel from the Bible. Do I have it all figured out? Do I completely understand how salvation works? No. My hope is that you and I will become more glorifying to God by becoming more biblical. In the meantime, lets show people they need to repent of their deep, unsatisfying wickedness, and believe in the gospel, and turn to Jesus in order to be clean, reconciled to God, and fulfilled through knowing and pleasing Him. (Let me know if you think I'm right on or if I'm missing a few steps in my thinking.)
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