TALKING THE WALK

New Location for Blog

2011-04-30T23:38:00.000-07:00

As of today I have moved my blog to a Wordpress format. It is located here.

YouTube - The Archbishop of Canterbury on the Royal Wedding

2011-04-26T22:11:00.000-07:00

The Archbishop of Canterbury on the Royal Wedding

Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury speaks of officiating at the royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. While I disagree with his theology in other areas, I feel very similarly as he does about the privilege & gravity of officiating at every wedding I have done. You can find the video here

How to Write a LinkedIn Recommendation

2011-04-05T18:59:00.001-07:00

Recently I asked several people to write a recommendation for me on my Linked In profile. (If I didn't ask you, don't be hurt--I probably didn't know you were on LinkedIn).

The importance of recommendations is that if someone is considering hiring you and they are waffling, or they are trying to decide between you and someone else, the recommendations on the site from people who know you can make all the difference. (Who would you pick: an unknown person with no recommendations, or an unknown person with quite a few positive recommendations? I thought so.)

Several of them have had problems writing the recommendations. (the process, not the content!! ;-D ) I, therefore, wrote out simple instructions for how to write a LinkedIn recommendation. I thought I would share it with my FB friends as well. If you have a LinkedIn account and want to make a recommendation of someone with whom you have worked, or who you hired, or who you went to school with, it is a pretty easy process: (Because I wrote this for people who were recommending me, I am using me as an example, but the process is the same for everyone).

You go to someone's (like my) LinkedIn profile.

In the right hand column (Under "Send a Message") is " "Recommend this Person" Click that button.

It asks you to identify how you know that person:

Colleague: You’ve worked with __________ at the same company
Service Provider: You’ve hired __________ to provide a service for you or your company
Business Partner: You’ve worked with __________, but not as a client or colleague
Student: You were at school when __________ was there, as a fellow student or teacher.

For ministry it can be a bit hard (depending on your definition of ministry!!) Colleague & Business Partner seem to work. Service Provider would seem to work better for someone who hired me as a coach. Student seems to be self-apparent.

Choose one and click "Go".

You then are taken to a page: "Create Your Recommendation". Depending on the context in which you say you know the person (in my case, Coach, Cal Habig Coaching; Senior Minister, Tigard Christian Church; Senior Minister, Bible Christian Church, etc.), you then answer a few questions

Colleague:

Basis of Recommendation
Your title at the time
____'s title at the time

Service Provider:

Position Your Recommending __________ for
Service category
Year First Hired

Business Partner:

Basis of Recommendation
Your title at the time
____'s title at the time

Student:

Basis of Recommendation
Your title at the time
____'s school at the time

You then write a brief paragraph recommendation. It can be performance or character related.

A page that gives some recommendations on how to write a LinkedIn recommendation is found here:

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/linkedin-recommendation-tips/

It's as easy as that.

People you know on LinkedIn can really be helped by you writing a positive and honest recommendation. If you are on LinkedIn and want to write one for me, I would be truly honored.

The Last Five Minutes of Your Day

2011-03-30T21:02:00.001-07:00

We often talk about the importance of how we START our days…usually in time with the Lord.

But Peter Bregman of the Harvard Business Review reminds me how I ought to spend the LAST five minutes of my workday:

Every day, before leaving the office, save a few minutes to think about what just happened. Look at your calendar and compare what actually happened — the meetings you attended, the work you got done, the conversations you had, the people with whom you interacted, even the breaks you took — with your plan for what you wanted to have happen. Then ask yourself three sets of questions:

How did the day go? What success did I experience? What challenges did I endure?

What did I learn today? About myself? About others? What do I plan to do — differently or the same — tomorrow?

Who did I interact with? Anyone I need to update? Thank? Ask a question? Share feedback?

This last set of questions is invaluable in terms of maintaining and growing relationships. It takes just a few short minutes to shoot off an email — or three — to share your appreciation for a kindness someone extended, to ask someone a question, or to keep someone in the loop on a project.

If we don't pause to think about it, we are apt to overlook these kinds of communications. And we often do. But in a world where we depend on others to achieve anything in life, they are essential.

This comes from a really excellent article. You would benefit from it, I am sure, as I did. You can find it here.

Only Do “Work” on Your Computer?

2011-03-23T21:58:00.001-07:00

Seth Godin recommends ONLY doing work (i.e. creating something) on your computer. NOTHING personal. Then he recommends having a second device (like an iPad) for everything else (i.e. personal). (He says it better than I do here: http://tinyurl.com/45elupp) What do you think? Just an excuse for consumerism? Or a sanity saver?

Monday Criticism

2011-03-21T07:30:00.001-07:00

Have you been criticized yet today? (If not, consider yourself lucky!) Monday is big day for ministers to receive criticism. HOWEVER, it is also a day for them to criticize ("critique") what happened on Sunday.

Tim Sanders has a helpful little article on principles to follow in giving criticism. It is good. Again, find it here.

Position Papers Will Save You From “Numbskulls”

2011-03-16T21:32:00.001-07:00

Dave Jacobs has a great article today on Position Papers. I wrote a number of these through the years, but never thought of them as one unified series.

Dave says:

“Position papers save a lot of time and let you address the individual’s question in a thorough way without taking the time right there and then. When I was pastoring I had position papers on a wide range of controversial subject. Some examples:

Women in the ministry

The gifts of the Holy Spirit

The role of the elder

Church government, i.e. how decisions are made here

Tithing”

Despite his unfortunate derogatory labeling of people who ask questions, I think he has a really good idea.

Check it out here.

March Newsletter

2011-03-10T10:43:00.000-08:00

My CalHabig Coaching newsletter went out this week. If you are not a subscriber, you can find the newsletter here. The main article was on Spirituality in Leaders. You also can subscribe using the button on my blog page.

2011-2012 Spurgeon Fellowship Lectures

2011-03-09T22:36:00.001-08:00

The 2011-12 season of the Spurgeon Fellowship lectures at Western Seminary were announced this week.

The dates & speakers are:

Sept. 6, 2011-Dr. Sidney Greidanus
Nov. 8, 2011-Dr. Art Azurdia
Jan 10.2012-Pastor Alex Strauch
Mar. 6, 2012-Pastor Phil Swann

If you are in the Portland, OR area, you will want to make those dates on your calendar. The Spurgeon Fellowship is consistently good feeding for the preachers soul & craft.

More info can be found at www.thespurgeonfellowship.org.

HBR: Decide What YOU Think First

2011-03-01T22:48:00.000-08:00

Do you sometimes become overwhelmed by the different answers you get when you ask the advice of others?

The Harvard Business Review Tip of the Day column has a great reminder: “Decide What YOU Think First.”

Getting advice is helpful (scripture says “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” [Prov 15:22])

But sometimes that advice can simply confuse us.

The HBR reminds us that it is important for us to determine what WE think. Part of that is simply so that you are not overwhelmed by the voices of others, but also so that you can develop the ability to trust your own voice.

You can find the HBR Tip of the Day “Decide What You Think First” here.

Groups, Tribes & Posses | Steve Scanlon | Reality and Hope

2011-02-28T14:16:00.000-08:00

Groups, Tribes & Posses | Steve Scanlon | Reality and Hope

"The older we get, the easier it is to isolate." An important article, particularly for ministers. We tend (as has been said of me) to "do superficial relationships well."

Check it out here.

Thoughts?

January Newsletter

2011-01-06T08:47:00.001-08:00

My newsletter for Cal Habig Coaching was published this week. If you would like to subscribe, there is a subscribe button at the top of the coaching business webpage.

Again, you can find the article here.

Bringing Focus to Staff Meetings

2011-01-04T14:44:00.001-08:00

Great idea from Rick Warren on staff meetings.

I don't know that I would do this every week, but I certainly think that periodically (like once a month) would be helpful.

I used to do a similar thing in weekly written reports from staff (almost word for word), but I like the idea of bringing it to staff meeting

Again, read the post here, but his four questions are:

"I've made progress in..."
"I'm having difficulty with..."
"I need a decision from you on..."
"I'm thankful for..."

Confused, Not GLEEful at Christmas.

2010-12-12T16:41:00.001-08:00

I enjoy GLEE a lot. Loretta and I have watched every episode.

But for some reason I am torqued about last week's show. Now, don't get me wrong...it was funny & sentimental and some good Christmas music. (But can't Lea Michele come up with ANY new arrangements of her own? Totally mimicking the late Karen Carpenter's version of "Merry Christmas, Darling" note for note was kind of creepy).

And I am used (I thought) to secular TV gutting the meaning out of Christmas.

But while GLEE has been pretty negative about religion, at least they have allowed several of the GLEE members to have and express a sincere Christian faith.

But could you have learned what Christmas was about from last week's episode? What is Christmas according to GLEE?

Mr Schuster: Christmas is all about being grateful for all the things that DID [turn out well this past year].
Finn: It's a time of miracles. (They won't be killed when singing before other students")
Finn: Christmas is supposed to be all about forgiveness.
Rachel: "The Christmas tree is the foundation of Christmas."

And so we are going to celebrate Christmas...why?

"The Christmas tree is the FOUNDATION of Christmas"? Come on.... That one kind of set me off. I know...you can't expect secular TV to celebrate Christ's birth. I get it. But to not even have one character acknowledge Christ's birth or that Christmas has ANYTHING to do with the Christian faith?

I'll still watch GLEE. I enjoy it. And Sue Sylvester is too deliciously evil to stop watching. But come on...GLEE...give Christmas a break.

Just for the Fun (and Conviction) of IT

2010-10-02T16:45:00.001-07:00

From NakedPastor.com

The Church of the Pumping Heart

2010-09-16T21:13:00.001-07:00

One of my huge problems with aspects (or representations) of missional church is its denigration of the local church. I have been in conversation with a church leader in recent days who continually calls the gathered church “a failed model.”

When I responded that “it seems to have worked well for 2000 years, he rejected that notion.

That conversation (several with the same individual actually) were on my mind when I read the following paragraphs by Phillip Fletcher:

A local church is to be the heart of the community in which it resides. The streets are the veins and arteries. We the believers are the blood that carries the oxygen of the Gospel.

Imagine believers simultaneously gathering to worship and send believers throughout their community. It would be a strange thing, a deadly thing to the body not to have a properly functioning heart.

I for one have not seen the church ever settle for “keeping the message within the four walls”. The church has DONE that at times, but it has always been recognized by healthier members as abnormal and non-biblical. On the other hand, a “sent” church that has no times of contracting into “body time” is not identifiable as the church.

Maybe I am tilting at windmills (not improbable, given my history) and it is only a problem in my head. But the quote, coming on the heels of several conversations with this para-church leader set me off a little. It’s a picture I like and one I will probably use again.

I don’t know anything about Phillip Fletcher, but you can read the entire article that the quote came from here.

Truth Telling

2010-09-09T20:41:00.001-07:00

So much of my work in coaching has strong parallels in located ministry.

I was reading an Australian blog today about “Truth Telling” in coaching. Now, (caveat) the writer does NOT come from a perspective of objective truth. “What is my truth may not be yours,” she says.

But even in that context she makes an important point. She (Bronwyn Bowery-Ireland) is quoting another author when she says:

He said that ‘In coaching telling the truth is used to build up the coachee not to pull them down.” This is a very important statement. When we outline the truth to our client and it pulls them down then we need to ask ourselves what is the motivation for telling this truth. Telling the truth to pull a person down implies that there is judgement in the truth telling, which is the point I raise above. Telling the truth is very much based on the perspective of the truth teller.

The same is true in ministry. We in the church are to be about truth telling. But what is out motivation? Is it to “put them in their place?” Is it to “correct the error of their ways”? Or is it (even when we are correcting) intended to build them up, not tear them down?

I will end this brief post with the same question that bron.bi asks her coaching readers: What role does truth telling play in your inter-personal ministry?

You can find the original coaching post here.

Is Preaching Against Homosexuality a Hate Crime?

2010-08-16T23:11:00.001-07:00

If you are not familiar with it, you should check out Richard Hammer’s article on “Preaching About Homosexuality.” The article is from Your Church magazine and was posted in July.

When Pres. Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Hate Crimes Act as part of the National Defense Authorization Act into law, all sorts of claims were made about how the law would affect churches, particularly preachers who spoke out against homosexual practice.

The article was written by Richard Hammer who “is an attorney, CPA, and best-selling author specializing in legal and tax issues for church and clergy. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he is senior editor of Church Law & Tax Report, a bimonthly newsletter.”

When I was at my last church, we subscribed to the Church Law and Tax Report, and it almost always had helpful information about changes in laws or cases concerning churches and ministers.

Again, you can find the article here.

New York Times on Clergy Burnout

2010-08-02T08:22:00.001-07:00

This is why I coach.

Sunday’s New York Times featured an article on clergy Burnout: “Taking a Break from the Lord’s Work.” It begins:

The findings have surfaced with ominous regularity over the last few years, and with little notice: Members of the clergy now suffer from obesity, hypertension and depression at rates higher than most Americans. In the last decade, their use of antidepressants has risen, while their life expectancy has fallen. Many would change jobs if they could.

Public health experts who have led the studies caution that there is no simple explanation of why so many members of a profession once associated with rosy-cheeked longevity have become so unhealthy and unhappy.

Those who study such things say that such simple things as taking time off work wonders.

But ministers don’t do it.

Having “an outsider” come alongside them and help THEM evaluate their own balance and effectiveness is incredibly helpful.

That’s why I coach.

Find the article here.

Determination…an Asset?

2010-07-31T19:22:00.001-07:00

We as Christians, particularly as Christian leaders are (generally) known as people of conviction.

And that’s good.

But I fear that often we confuse conviction with bull-headedness (see illustration). I”m not talking about obnoxious Christians who make us all shake our heads at the foolishness of their stubbornness over the smallest things.

I’m talking about holy, sanctified, good intentioned stubbornness.

“Changing game plans does not make a quitter. It makes you smart.”

--Dave Buck, Coachville

We need to leverage our successes, but let go of the methods that aren’t working. So we can open up our energy, our eyes, our time to see the things that are right before us, but we can’t see them because we are too busy.

But sometimes we (I) are either to meek (bad meek, not good meek) to stand up to those who are just bullheaded, but are directly standing in the progress of the church. Other times WE are the ones who are bull-headed. We confuse every human design with divine Scipt.

What have you found helpful in deciding when it is time to stand your ground and when it is time to try Plan B?

The Economy: Foxhole Religion or New Tractors?

2010-07-29T01:00:00.000-07:00

Earlier this summer I was talking with my friend Kevin Ingram, the president of Manhattan Christian College (my alma mater).

I was asking how the economy was affecting donor income, particularly among the predominantly rural farming constituency that support the school. He made an interesting comment. (I’m paraphrasing). “You would think that when the economy is good that our income would be good and when the economy is bad, our income would be bad.

“That’s not the case,” Pres. Ingram went on. “When the economy is good, the farmers pay off debts incurred from the bad times and invest in farm equipment.

“When the economy is bad, many of them remember where the true source of their security lies and they increase their giving to the work of the Lord.”

Maybe that is unique to midwest farmers.

An article in this week’s Newsweek by columnist Lisa Miller suggests that it certainly is a much fuzzier picture than that for the rest of us.

The article focuses on a Notre Dame University economist David Hungerman and an (unrelated) Gallup survey on church attendance and economic decline and recovery.

The conventional wisdom is that when the economy tanks, religiosity, prayers and church attendance go up. No one seems to be wanting to gauge prayer, so they are measuring church attendance.

And what they are finding is surprising (at least to me).

While there is some correlation between lack of economic health and church attendance, what the researchers are noting is that when men & women are unemployed, they attend church LESS. There seems to be little “If I pray more, maybe God will give me a job.” (I hate to see that as a good thing or a bad thing—for different reasons—so I’ll just note it.) Depression sets in and the unemployed stay away from church. Embarrassment or fear or ridicule? Who knows. (Ministry opportunity there for some entrepreneurial-type).

And instead of the poor being “more religious” than the wealthy, the poor actually attend church less than the more financially stable. Miller quotes Larry Iannoconne in his “Introduction to the Economics of Religion”: “Religion is not the province of the poor or uninformed.” As individual financial prosperity increases, so does church attendance.

So what correlation is there between the economy and church attendance? While you should really read the article to get the full sense, the article concludes with a good quote from Hungerman:

“Maybe when the economy turns sour, no matter how much money you make, you get nervous and decide to go to church and talk with your buddies and get a sense of what’s going on in your community. Or maybe people’s desire for spiritual guidance is influenced by their perception of how the world’s doing outside of themselves. Church attendance may not reflect our own circumstances but our own idea of how the world is doing beyond us.”

And that’s not an altogether bad thing. Again, you can find the article here.

The Church & Controversy: How One Church is Handling It

2010-07-28T14:42:00.001-07:00

Anytime a church takes a position against the “conventional wisdom” they take heat for it.

With all of the media press over the past few months about laws to "kill gays in Uganda", I found Kevin Odor's explanation of their church’s support for Martin Ssepma helpful. It made me feel better about the Ugandan church & about Canyon Ridge Christian Church.

You can find a video of a statement that Odor made to his congregation here.

When Delay Allows Us to Review Our Priorities

2010-07-26T15:43:00.001-07:00

(If you don’t receive my Cal Habig Coaching newsletter, this was the featured article in the April 2010 issue. If you want to subscribe, go here. My next newsletter will be coming out within a week.)

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?" ~ Robert Browning, 'Andrea del Sarto'

One of the most common frustrations of ministry is our desire for things to happen faster than they usually do. We may think they should go faster (and perhaps according to some standards, they should), but they don’t.

How do we react? Do we redouble our efforts? Do we work to motivate staff to do more? Do we take projects away from volunteers and staff and drive them forward ourselves?

It is hard for us to recognize and cope with the fact that the delays may be of God. “God’s timing” truly “may not be our timing” as much as we hate to hear it.

Ted Engstrom has a good reminder in the old classic “Renewing Your Church Through Vision and Planning” from the Christianity Today “Library of Leadership Development” series.

Engstrom notes that when he became frustrated with “the gap between what we think should be done first and what we can actually do, it usually arises from the pull between priorities and our ability to move the resources needed to attack the priorities.”

He talks about his three foundational priorities in his life.

Bedrock for Engstrom is his relationship with Jesus Christ. (as I hope it is for all of us).
Second is his commitment to the Church.
Third is the work that God has given to him. That work “rises directly from my commitment to Christ and his church.”

Engstrom notes “Usually, if I appear to have a conflict, a clash between what I think I should do first and what I’m actually able to do because of the people involved, I need to examine these levels to see if my priorities are in the right order. This forces me to put people before programs. If I find myself frustrated in driving toward a goal, I need to check and see if I have put level three before level two. Have I put the work of Christ ahead of the body of Christ? That’s very easy for any of us to do, especially in light of the fact that our families are part of the body.” (p. 160)

Here are four red flags Engstrom uses to keep us out of the ditch of misplaced priorities.

1. Are my motives pure? Why do I want to accomplish a particular task or promote a program? Will it make me look good? Will it move me up a rung or give me a little more leverage?

We may frown at the idea that we could be less than sincere, but motivations are complex. We all struggle daily against the desire for recognition and power. The same program, for example, that will comfort the sick may also score points for the pastor. This is where our human reasoning often fails us, and we need to ask the Spirit of God to search our hearts. This is a time to pray as David did, “Search me, O God, and know my heart … and see if there be any hurtful way in me” (Psalm 139:23–24, nasb).

2. Do the goals of the program fit my theology? Time magazine told about a church in Florida that runs a bar in its parish hall. The pastor believes it brings people together in a good setting and contributes to the life of the church. That’s an extreme example, and most of us would fault the practice. But the issues are often more subtle, and while we’ll always have well-meaning people who will think up off-the-wall programs, we must test all proposals through the grid of our theology. If we don’t—and find ourselves stymied along the way to implementation—perhaps we have skipped this important question.

3. Will the program enhance the lives of the participants? A ministry to the medical complex might change the lives of many patients, but it may also jeopardize the workers. We have to ask whether this or that program will put novice Christians in leadership roles, tempt the weak with celebrity status, or pull mothers and fathers away from their children one more night of the week.

These are tough questions, but they provide the checks we need to avoid putting level three before level two.

4. Have we been seduced by our culture? Do we have a numbers orientation? Are we prone to think bigger is automatically better? Has society’s worship of size, success, speed, production, promotion, and glamour crept into our evaluation of church programs?

I don’t like to think along such lines. I LIKE to think that my priorities are always upfront and known to me. But, they’re not. Sometimes God has to slow me down IN ORDER to make me reevaluate. Or simply to have think time.

Or simply to be reminded that He is God…and I am not.

What do you think? Drop me a line & let me know.

The Internal Judge

2010-07-21T14:12:00.001-07:00

This week I was coaching with a ministry leader who highlighted a problem that many of us have. I had asked him to list 101 goals for his life (one of my early exercises I use with most of my clients.) The goal is not perfection. The goal is not even that you will actually accomplish all of them. (Although by listing them out, you will almost certainly accomplish more of them than if you hadn’t listed them out!)

My client suffered from what lots of us suffer from: an over active editor. He wants to do right. It has been inbred spiritually in him to do right. Our culture is incredibly performance based. And so every word has to be exactly right. Every word means something (which IS true. But it doesn’t have the eternal consequences that many of us feel that it does).

He wanted to put down “Climb Mt. Everest” on his list of 101 goals. “Great!” But he wouldn’t do it. “I’ll never accomplish that.” he said. “I don’t know why I want to put it down…it’s not something I really even want to do!”

“What were you thinking when you thought of it?” I asked.

“I wanted to do one big adventure before I die. That’s what I really want.”

“OK, you could put that down on your list, “I want to have a really big adventure.” That would be OK. But I think you should leave it as “Climb Mt. Everest.” THAT is what came to mind when you thought of a big adventure. Even if you realize you don’t want to do it, now is not the time to make that decision. That’s not the purpose of this exercise. This is to brainstorm. It is to write down what comes to mind.

And I liked leaving it at “Climb Mt. Everest” because it was bold, rash and outlandish! When it came time to edit that one, he wouldn’t already be hindered by “Do one big adventure before I die.” (That is a little more ho-hum than “Climb Mt. Everest”. And if you begin with ho-hum, it will only go down from there.

We will go back later and do the “editor’s job”. We will look at the list and ask, “Which ones do I immediately want/need to jump into.” Which ones need to be adjusted. Which ones are really an expression of wanting to do something else? (Like Mt. Everest)

Which ones does something else have to happen first before you can do it. On my personal 101 goal list was to pay off the debt of my alma mater, Manhattan Christian College. (I think it is like $2-3 million). Is it realistic? Well, no, not now. I’m not even sure how we will; be able to afford health insurance this fall. But it is a goal, that I WANT to accomplish if some other situations come into place (i.e. I get rich).

But my friend (and me, if I can admit it) is plagued with the overactive editor. It is a spirit of judging ideas as soon as they come out.

That’s too expensive!
What would other people think?
That’s irresponsible!

What happened with my friend in his 101 goal list happens way too often in church. “I have an idea,” someone says.

That’s too expensive!
What would other people think?
That’s irresponsible!

come the replies.

In what ways have you found to combat “over-active editor?”

Methodists and Healthy Churches

2010-07-19T22:03:00.001-07:00

The United Methodist Church has released a study for which they paid “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to find out what makes vital churches.

Beliefnet reports:

The church recently concluded a study of more than 32,000 Methodist congregations across North America, seeking the "key factors impacting vital congregations." The study surveyed everybody from bishops to district superintendents to people in the pews.

They identified four factors that “fuel vitality”:

Small groups and programs;
Worship services that mix traditional and contemporary styles with an emphasis on relevant sermons;
Pastors who work hard on mentorship and cultivation of the laity;
An emphasis on effective lay leadership.

I find it interesting that they discovered four of the eight characteristics that Christian Schwartz identified in his monumental Natural Church Development study of a few years back:

Empowering leadership
Gift-oriented ministry
Passionate spirituality
Functional structures
Inspiring worship service
Holistic small groups
Need-oriented evangelism
Loving relationships

While there is a not a direct correlation between “Pastors who work hard on mentorship and cultivation of the laity” and NCD, that characteristic could manifest itself under either Gift oriented ministry and/or loving relationships.

Whatever you think of the survey, the article is at least worth being aware of. Find it here.

Quote on Open Doors

2010-07-05T19:30:00.001-07:00

When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.

--Alexander Graham Bell

June Newsletter Going Out

2010-06-22T00:16:00.001-07:00

The June issue of my newsletter The Ministry Encourager is going out tomorrow morning. It contains material that I don’t put here on my blog.

If you are interested in subscribing, click here.

Survey on Summer Preaching Plans

2010-05-26T17:16:00.001-07:00

With the coming of summer, how do you plan your preaching topics during the next three months?

Please go to this link and share your plans:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TWYFXK3

I’ll share the results after it seems like enough time has gone by for people to answer the question.

Thanks!

Tell Them What You Want!

2010-05-24T15:52:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, Pastor Adam McMurray (the associate minister at River West Church, where Loretta and I attend) preached and he reminded me of a principle that is often used in evangelistic preaching, but is useful in all sorts of preaching where you have a specific action you want people to take at the end of the service.

Guy (and Adam) are preaching through Galatians. Adam preached on Paul’s confrontation of Peter as recorded in Gal. 2:11-21. (Not what I would think of when I think of a rich evangelistic text!!) And evangelism was not the main purpose of either the text or the sermon. But Adam worked the sermon into a strong evangelistic ending. But about 1/3 of the way through the sermon he “pre-warmed” people (at an appropriate place) that he was going to give them an opportunity to make a statement of commitment to Christ toward the end of the sermon.

Twenty years ago I remember hearing Billy Graham say that he mentioned several times in each crusade sermon that he was going to ask people to get out of their seats and come down to the front. And in the sermons I listened to specifically for that part, he did. Two or three times he would pre-warm them (yes I chose that word over pre-warn) that he was going to ask them to come forward.

Why did he do that?

To get people used to the idea. You might think that one would NOT want to do that because people would be able to begin to throw up objections to why they should NOT come forward (or whatever) since they know that is what you are going to ask. That is generally not the case. Those who do that probably won’t come forward anyway, pre-warmed or not.

In fact people are actually able to think through what would happen if they DID go forward. (I could take my purse. Grandpa could stay here with the kids).

When it comes time for the preacher to ask them to do that, it’s not a surprise. “Oh, here it is!” is more the response. “It’s time.”

I have used this technique in several ways. I have used it numerous times in evangelistic sermons. I have often used it in financial commitment sermons when I was going to ask people to fill out a financial commitment card at the end of the sermon. I have asked them when I was going to move them into prayer groups at the end of the sermon.

I know that lots of us can have problems with “techniques.” It smacks of manipulation. In this case, I don’t think that is the case. It is honoring people by not taking them by surprise or relying only on a rousing call or a tear jerking story. You have placed the seed of what you want them to do in their minds for both they (and the Holy Spirit) to work on as the sermon progresses.

Mobbing

2010-05-19T19:52:00.001-07:00

I had a great conversation today with Steve Vensel the executive director of PastorServe-South Florida. (Find it here.)

But in the conversation he introduced me to the concept of “mobbing”. That is not something that happens at a Jonas Brothers concert or the “Battle in Seattle” at the 1999 WTO meeting.

It happens in churches.

Here is how Steve defines “mobbing” in a post on his website “Pooped Pastors”:

Mobbing is related to workplace bullying, organizational power factions, forced resignations, and forced terminations. Mobbing is defined as the prolonged malicious harassment of a coworker by a group of other members of an organization to secure the removal from the organization of the one who is targeted. Mobbing involves a small group of people and results in the humiliation, devaluation, discrediting, degradation, loss of reputation and the removal of the target through termination, extended medical leave or quitting. It is a traumatizing experience that often results in significant financial, career, health, emotional and social loss. Mobbing is unjust, unfair and undeserved. In a church setting the organization includes staff members, elders, deacons, and congregation members.

I would suggest checking out his full essay on it. You’ll find it here.

Sage from Leadership Network

2010-05-12T19:22:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I learned of a new online conference entitled Sage. Leadership Network has gathered 40 experience leaders & asked them, “What Would You do Differently?”

It seems worth checking out. Find more info at http://sage.leadnet.org/

Discipleship Bibliography pt. 2

2010-05-10T08:26:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I gave the first part of a discipleship bibliography that I had compiled for a Presbyterian brother here in Portland. Here is the rest of the list.

As I said yesterday, if you have recommendations from this list or ones to add to it, please put them in the comments section. I will forward them on to him.

Krallmann, Günter Mentoring for Mission: A Handbook on Leadership Principles Exemplified by Jesus Christ, ( Waynesboro, GA: Authentic Media, 2002)

Kuhne, Gary W., The Dynamics of Discipleship Training, “Being and Producing Spiritual Leaders.” Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI. 1978.

Longenecker, Richard. Patterns of Discipleship in the New Testament. (Grand Rapids, MI, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996)

Malloy, Rocky J., G-12 Groups of Twelve, Impact Productions, Texas City, TX, 2002.

Moore, Waylon B. Multiplying Disciples: The New Testament Method for Church Growth. Tampa: Missions Unlimited, 1981.

Neighbor, Ralph. Where Do We Go From Here? Houston, TX: Touch Publications, 1990.

Nysewander, Mark. No More Spectators: The 8 Life-Changing Values of Disciple Makers. Kent, England: Sovereign World Ltd., 2005

Ogden, Greg, Discipleship Essentials, A Gude to Buildling Your Life in Christ. Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. , 1998, 2007.

Ogden, Greg, Transforming Discipleship, Making Disciples a Few at a Time, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. 2003.

Perkins, Hal. If Jesus Were a Parent. “Coaching Your Child to Follow Jesus”, Hal Perkins, Grandview, Oregon, 2006

Perkins, Hal. Leadership Multiplication. Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 1983.

Perkins, Hal. Meeting with Jesus. Kansas City:Beacon Hill Press of Kanss City, 1978.

Peterson, Eugene. Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: A Conversation in Spiritual Theology. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005.

**Peterson, Eugene. A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1980.

Petersen, Jim. Lifestyle Discipleship: The Challenge of Following Jesus in Today's World. Colorado Springs: Navpress, 1993. \

Platt, David Radical (Colorado Spgs: Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing Group, 2010).

Rabey, Lois and Steve. Side by Side: A Handbook. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2000.

Rainer, Thom S., and Eric Geiger. Simple Church : Returning to God’s Process for Making Disciples. New York: B&H Group, 2006.

Robinson, Martin, and Dwight Smith. Invading Secular Space: Strategies for Tomorrow's Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Monarch Books, 2003.

Sanders, Oswald J. Spiritual Discipleship. Chicago: The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, 1990.

Schwanz, Floyd L. Growing Small Groups, ‘Everything You Need to Start and Lead a Small Ministry that Makes a Big Difference”. Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 1995

Shaver, Charles “Chic”, Basic Bible Studies in Everyday English. Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, Kansas City, MO. 2003.

Shaver, Charles, ‘Chic”, Conserve the Converts. Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, Kansas City, MO, 1976, 1998.

Simon, Wolfgang, Houses that Change the World, OM Publishing, Waynesboro, GA, 2001.

Slamp, David, Care Rings, Sunday School and Small Groups, Side by Side., Vessel Press, Medford, OR., 2007.

Stanley, Andy, and Bill Willits. Creating Community : Five Keys to Building a Small Group Culture. Sisters: Multnomah, 2004.

**Stanley, Paul D. and J. Robert Clinton. Connecting: The Mentoring Relationships You Need to Succeed in Life. Colorado Springs: Navpress, 1992.

Stewart, Teena M., Successful Small Groups- from concept to practice, Beacon Hill Press, 2007.

Stevens, Woodie, Beyond Sunday, Everyday Conversations in Disciple Making, Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 2008.

Stevens, Woodie, Pursuing The Mission, “Making Christlike Disciples”, Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 2008

Toler, Stan, & Bustle, Louie E. Each One Disciple One, “A complete strategy for effective discipleship”. Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 2008.

Toler, Stan, Casey, Dan, Walters, Dan, Growing Disciples, Equipping Christians for Worship, Fellowship, and Ministry Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, Kansas City, MO. 2000.

Transforming Life Series. 4 vol. (Identity, Community, Integrity, Ministry). Colorado Springs, NavPress, 2004.

Vaughan Roberts, God’s Big Picture: Tracing the Storyline of the Bible. Grand Rapids, InterVarsity, 2002.

**Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002.

Watson, David. Covenant Discipleship: Christian Formation Through Mutual Accountability, Wipf & Stock Publishers 2002.

Wellman, W. Donald. Today’s Disciple, Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, ed. Felter, David, 4^th edition, Kansas City, MO. 1996.

Wilkins, Michael J. Following The Master, Discipleship in the steps of Jesus. Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1992.

Willard, Dallas, The Great Omission, “Reclaiming Jesus’s essential teachings on Discipleship. HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY. 2006.

Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2002.

**Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1998.

Wright, N. T. Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995.

Discipleship Bibliography, pt. 1

2010-05-07T09:52:00.001-07:00

Yesterday at our Tigard Pastors Prayer Group one of our members ask for suggestions on the best book(s) on discipleship and disciplemaking.

I sent him a bibliography and also sent it to the group asking for their additions or recommendations from the list.

Here is the first part of the list. I will conclude the list tomorrow. (The ones marked in bold are the ones I have read. The ones marked with asterisks are ones I would recommend that he start with).

This comes from a particularly American evangelical perspective because that is who I am and what my background has been. None of them are perfect & none of them are complete.

You can help with this…are there ones you would highlight for Bob on this list, or ones you would add? Put them in the comments section

Adsit, Christopher. Personal Disciple Making: A Step by Step Guide for Leading a Christian from New Birth to Maturity. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1988.

**Arn, Win & Arn, Charles, The Master’s Plan for Making Disciples, Church Growth Press, 1982, Nazarene Version, printed by Nazarene Publishing House, 1984.

Barna, George. Growing True Disciples. WaterBrook Press, Colorado Springs, Co. 2001.

Craig G. Barthlomew and Michael Goheen, Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002.

Bly, Stephen A. Radical Discipleship: Tough Standards for Spiritual Greatness. Chicago: Moody Press, 1981.

**Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, The Cost of Discipleship, Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. New York, Eberhard Bethge, editor. 11^th Printing, 1965.

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, Spiritual Care. Minneapolis: Fortress Press: 1985

Briscoe, Stuart. Discipleship for Ordinary People. Wheaton, Ill. Harold Shaw Publishers, 1988.

Bruce, A.B. The Training of the Twelve,

Camp, Lee C. Mere Discipleship, Radical Christianity in a Rebellious World, Brazos Press, Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, MI 2^nd Ed., 2008

Joan Chittister, Wisdom Distilled From the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1990.

Cole, Neil. Organic Church, Growing Faith Where Life Happens, Jossey-Boss, San Francisco, 2005.

Cole, Neil. Search & Rescue, Becoming a Disciple Who Makes A Difference Baker Books, Grand Rapdis, Michigan, 2008.

Coleman, Robert E., The Great Commission Lifestyle. Fleming H. Revell, Grand Rapids, 1992.

**Coleman, Robert E., The Master Plan of Discipleship. Fleming H. Revell, Grand Rapids, 12^th, printing, Jan. 2005.

**Coleman, Robert E., The Master Plan of Evangelism. Fleming H. Revell, Grand Rapids, 91^st printing, Dec. 2004.

Coleman, Robert E. Nothing to Do but to Save Souls” Francis Asbury Press, Grand Rapids, 1990

Comiskey, Joel. Home Cell Group Explosion: How Your Small Group Can Grow and Multiply.

Comiskey, Joel. Cell Church Solutions: Transforming the Church in North America. Morneo Valley, CA: CCS Publishing, 2005.

Coppedge, Allan. The Biblical Principles of Discipleship. Grand Rapids: Francis Asbury Press, 1989.

Donahue, Bill and Robinson, Russ. Building A Church of Small Groups, Willow Creek Association, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 2001.

Donahue, Bill. Leading Life-Changing Small Groups, Willow Creek Association, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 2002.

**Eims, LeRoy, The Lost Art of Disciple Making. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978.

Easum, Bill. Go Big with Small Groups, Abingdon Press, Nashville, 2007.

Forman, Rowland, Jeff Jones, and Bruce Miller. The Leadership Baton: An Intentional Strategy For Developing Leaders In Your Church. Grand Rapids, MI.: Zondervan, 2004.

**Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth: A Guide to Understanding the Bible. 2^nd Ed. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993.

**Frazee, Randy. The Connecting Church, beyond small groups to authentic community, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2001.

Foss, Michael W. Power Surge: 6 Marks of Discipleship for a Changing Church. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000.

**Foster, Richard. The Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1978.

Fryling, Alice, ed. Disciplemakers' Handbook: Helping People Grow in Christ. Downers Grove Ill: InterVarsity Press, 1989.

Galloway, Dale E. 20/20 Vision: How to Create a Successful Church. Portland, OR: Scott Publishing Co., 1986.

Goodwin, Debbie Salter, Raising Kids to Extraordinary Faith, helping parents & teachers disciple the next generation. Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 2008.

Gorman, Julie A., Community That is Christian, 2d. Ed., Baker Books, Grand Rapids, Mi., 2002.

Gospel Transformation. 2^nd Ed. Jenkintown, PA: World Harvest Mission, 2006.

Hanks, Billie Jr. and William A. Shell. Discipleship: The Best Writings from the Most Experienced Disciple Makers. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1981.

Hartman, Doug & Sutherland, Doug. Guidebook to Discipleship. Harvest House Publishers, Irvine, CA,1976.

Hadidian, Allen, Successful Discipling. Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, 1979.

Henderson, D. Michael, A Model for Making Disciples: John Wesley’s Class Meeting Evangel Publishing House, Nappanee, Indiana, 2005.

Henderson, D. Michael, One Conversation at a Time, Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 2007.

Hendrichsen, Walter A. How to Disciple Your Children. Wheaton: Victor Books, a division of SP Publications, Inc., 1981.

Hull, Bill, Choose The Life, “Exploring a Faith that Embraces Discipleship”, Baker Books, Grand Rapids, MI., 2004.

Hull, Bill, The Complete Book of Discipleship, “On Being and Making Followers of Christ”. Navpress, Colorado Springs, 2006.

Hull, Bill, The Disciple-Making Church Fleming H. Revell, Grand Rapids, MI., 7^th printing, 2005.

**Hull, Bill, and Robert E. Coleman. The Disciple-Making Pastor : Leading Others on the Journey of Faith. New York: Baker Books, 2007.

** Hull, Bill. Jesus Christ Disciplemaker. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1984, 2004 (20th Anniversary Edition).

Hunt, Gladys. You Can Start a Bible Study Group, Waterbrook Press, Random House Inc, Colorado Springs, Co., 1994.

The Wearisomeness of Easter

2010-04-03T22:20:00.001-07:00

This past Thursday I met with a group of pastor friends that I meet with regularly for encouragement, planning of mutual activities and prayer. They are good men (and one woman). It is a loose group of about a dozen, although there is a core that has been a part of the group for several (some for many) years.

We often don’t meet the Thursday before Easter. But we have grown closer over the past year because of a series of events and this year not only was there no talk of not meeting the week before Easter, but almost everyone was there.

And it was good. In fact they planned to go together as a group to a Good Friday “Stations of the Cross” put on by Ethnos Church in Beaverton in order to water their own spiritual lives.

I noticed, however, one over-riding emotion: weariness. For some of the pastors the Lenten season is a hubub of activities. Regular Lenten services, and then during “Holy Week” the activity kicks into high gear. For others, who are perhaps not so liturgically oriented spring break has ended and there have been special projects and missions trips over spring break. And now…here comes Easter.

Wherever they had come from, my pastor friends were tired. One beloved brother brought an article on “The Benefits of Rest and Relaxation” by Brian Rice of the Leadership ConneXtions Intl. And while the article was excellent, I could sense an irony in the eyes of many around the circle: “there’ll be no rest or relaxation for this group today.”

And that affected their conversations about Easter. While I have learned to separate the “dumping” that happens at ministers gatherings from how those same ministers feel when they get away from those collegial times, there was not just a wearisomeness, but a wariness about this coming Sunday.

There may be extra services
The Sunday may begin with a pre-dawn Easter Sunrise service.
There will likely be parking nightmares
There will be people who expect you to know their name and their children’s names even though they only come once a year (if they don’t have anything better to do).
There is pressure on the preacher to do “extra well” today since there are (usually) so many guests.
Offerings will almost certainly be down (a universal phenomenon of churches –on special high attendance Sundays, the offerings plummet)
Special programs like special musical presentations, dramas, videos all come with the ever-present threat of glitches and temperamental participants.
Or there may be unmet expectations: attendance may NOT be up, the service may NOT be all that great, there will NOT be special baptisms. And people will begin to wonder silently, if not out loud, “What is wrong with OUR church? What is wrong with OUR pastor?”

I don’t know if I would say that they dreaded Easter, but the sense around the room was definitely “We’ll sure be glad when THIS is over.”

And I’ve been there enough years to be able to identify with that.

I suspect that many who read these words either are in the thick of last minute Easter prep or have just completed Easter activities and Easter Sunday.

You do not minimize the incredible importance and agony endured on our behalf by Christ on the cross. You deeply value the great mysteries of atonement and forgiveness that happened there on Calvary. You do not misunderstand the incredible power demonstrated by God in raising Jesus up from the dead and the ability of that same power to transform our lives into something far different and far more alive that anything which we can imagine.

But there is still a weariness that can come with the hubub of institutional activities (whether that institution is a megachurch or a house church).

There are those ever present voices of condemnation that would tell us that we OUGHT NOT feel like that: how dare we be weary on what is the churches “high day” of the year (or as my own pastor—Pastor Guy-- put it last night in his wrap up of our Good Friday service, the “power day of the church.”) They are the voices (sometimes internal voices) that judge us as inadequate and not quite holy enough for feeling that way.

And yet, I think those early players on that first Easter were more like us than they were like the hollow heralds of hyper-happiness.

Soldiers attentively, but cynically guarding the tomb of a dead man, not fearing that anyone would come out of the tomb, but making sure that no one could get in to steal the body and upset the status quo…their superiors.
Women who came bleary-eyed in the wee hours of the morning to anoint the body of the dead friend they loved.
Mary forlornly weeping in the garden after discovering that the body of her beloved Jesus was gone from the tomb.
Disciples who hid in the upper room, fearful that the soldiers who had come and dragged Jesus away, were now out looking for them.
Two men, giving up on the dream of “what might have been” and heading home (like sensible people) back to their lives in Emmaus.

But Jesus interrupted each of those lives. He surprised them. Even in the face of their apathy, weariness, cynicism, grief, and fear He stepped in and brought transformation. When it was least expected, suddenly Jesus was there and everything was changed.

I don’t worry for my dear brothers and sister. They are good leaders. They are committed men and women. They are people of noble souls. But my prayer for them (and for you) is that you will see God interrupting you this Easter. In the midst of the preparation and the execution of services, and the demands and high expectations, that you will be able to see the risen Lord.

A Lord who is not judging you for how you feel today; but not leaving you where you feel today. Bringing to you, as He did that first Easter, fear for the cynical, wonder for the weary, light for those caught in the dark of grief, joy for the fearful, hope for the hopeless.

May you see the Christ…the risen Christ…today and in the days to come. And may it bring you joy.

Using a Sermon Translator?

2010-03-30T20:34:00.001-07:00

Top 25 Preaching Books of the Past 25 Years

2010-03-09T08:00:00.001-08:00

In its March issue, Preaching Journal has listed the top 25 Preaching books of the past 25 years.

Which of these have you read (I have heard of most of them, own less of them (10) and have read even less of them! (7).

25. Concise Encyclopedia of Preaching (ed: William Willamon & Richard Lischer)
24. Doctrine That Dance (William Smith)
23. The Art of Preaching Old Testament Narratives (Steven Matthewson)
22. Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition (Calvin Miller)
21. The Art & Craft of Biblical Preaching (Haddon Robinson)
20. Scripture Sculpture (Ramesh Richard)
19. Preaching & Teaching with Imagination(Warren Wiersbe)
18. 360 Degree Preaching (Michael Quicke)
17. In the Company of Preachers (David L. Larsen)
16. The Burdensome Joy of Preaching (James Earl Massey)
15. Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture (Graeme Goldsworthy)
14. The Preaching Life (Barbara Brown Taylor)
13. Communicating for a Change (Andy Stanley)
12. Preaching & Preachers (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)
11. Handbook of Contemporary Preaching (Michael Diduit)
10. Rediscovering Expository Preaching (MacArthur)
9. The Witness of Preaching (Thomas G. Long)
8. The Supremacy of God in Preaching (John Piper)
7. The Homiletical Plot--The Sermon as Narrative Art Form (Eugene L. Lowry)
6. Christ-Centered Preaching (Bryan Chappel)
5. The Modern Preacher and the Ancient Text (Sidney Greidanus)
4. Preaching (Fred Craddock)
3. Between Two World (John R.W. Stott)
2. Homiletic: Moves and Structures (David Buttrick)
1. Biblical Preaching (Haddon Robinson)

Are there ones that you would add to this list? Put them in the comments section.

Alternatives to Spiritual Leadership

2010-03-08T08:21:00.001-08:00

Many times the heads of churches, synagogues, etc. are called the “spiritual leadership” of a community. And yet most of us know that there is a huge difference between leading a church and spiritual leadership.

In what ways can leaders of churches (I am not totally sure how to label this for this particular discussion) lead instead of leading spiritually?

Instead of leading spiritually, we can easily lead:

1. Intellectually-most pastors love to study. If we are going to preach regularly, it is vital that we spend time in study, particularly of God’s Word. We are looked to as one of (if not the) Bible & theological expert in our congregation.

But because of that, it is possible to be a Bible scholar extraordinaire, but not lead spiritually. We know the Bible and theology incredibly well, we do not know how to lead spiritually.

2. Religiously-not everyone agrees that there is a difference between spiritual leadership and religious leadership, but I believe that it is vital to know the difference. Religious leadership (in my definition at least) is focused on rules and traditions and institutions. We are charged with keeping “religion” before people.

There can be a very fine line between spiritual leadership and religious leadership. It may be more attitude than anything else, but it comes down to are we keeping and leading people to keep religious rules and being defenders of the institution of the visible church on earth? Or does my leadership encourage others to pursue God and be more in tune with God?

3. Functionally-Again, this can be a fine line that is differentiated mostly by attitude. I believe that this can be the bane and blessing of multiple staff churches. There are functional things that need to be done: children’s work needs to be organized and supervised; administrative work needs to be done effectively and using “best practices”, small group leaders need to be trained and a structure put in place for growth and accountability of small Bible study groups. While I may raise the ire of some staff people by saying this, most of these jobs CAN be done without much spiritual emphasis at all. (They SHOULDN’T be, but they can be). They are functional tasks, or have as a part of their job description largely functional tasks. That is not the same as spiritual leadership. The same thing can be said, of course, of preaching ministers or senior pastors. They can speak well in public, organize the church very well, lead the church to phenomenal growth, administer the day-by-day activities and yet provide little or no SPIRITUAL leadership.

4. Organizationally-I may have slopped this category into the previous two. But in an age where growth is king is my primary emphasis the growth and promotion of an institution or of the spiritual conversion and growth of men and women. THE TWO DO NOT HAVE TO BE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE. But we must be clear that organizational leadership is not the same as spiritual leadership. This statement is obviously too general, but I wonder if the emphasis on organizational success at the expense of an emphasis on spiritual leadership is the reason so many ministers have fallen into immorality. They have nurtured the skills necessary for organizational leadership, but have not guarded their souls.

5. Logically-We need to lead churches in line with “best practices.” Our Christian faith is logical and does not generally run counter to reason. But if that is all our leadership is, it is not spiritual leadership. God is so much bigger than our ability to reason. And at times he asks us to do things that don’t make sense. Like feed 5,000 people with two loaves of bread and five small fishes. Or wash the feet of those whom you lead. There have been many instances where the leadership of a church was swayed to make a decision because “it made sense” or was “the rational thing to do” when in fact, it was the wrong thing to do spiritually.

6. Positionally-this is kind of where I began in my introduction. Simply because a man or woman bears the title of minister, pastor, priest, rabbi, whatever, does not mean that they are spiritually oriented. Ministers can be like the Pharisees of Jesus’ time who loved “the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to have people call them ‘Rabbi.’” (Matt 23:6-7) Jesus warned, “Do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.” (Matt 23:3b)

Our world is positionally oriented. We want to know who is up and who is down. And so our world believes it should honor those who have positions of religious leadership in our communities. They confuse positional leadership with spiritual leadership. Whether or not the world confuses them is not as important as whether or not WE confuse the two.

But to describe what something IS NOT is not really to fully describe something. (A giraffe is not a horse even though it has four legs and is a herbivore; a giraffe is not a snake although it has a long thin neck, a giraffe is not a leopard, although it can be reticulated.) Next time I want to ask the question, then, “What IS spiritual leadership?”

The Seven Deadly Siphons

2010-03-03T08:10:00.001-08:00

I was working on creating a worksheet for one of my coaching clients on evaluating the breadth & depth of one’s spiritual life and I came across a great list on the loss of spiritual passion.

It appeared first in Leadership Journal (Winter 1998) and is by Gordon MacDonald.

Loss of spiritual passion seems to be the inevitable result of:

Words without action. Speaking/teaching/preaching (whatever you want to call it) is a huge part of what we do as pastors. But there is the danger of thinking that speaking is doing or diagnosing is solving. MacDonald says “We have a momentary feeling of spirituality when we talk about wanting to pray more or "have more time in the Word."
Busyness without purpose. Behind my house is a river called the Tualatin River. It is a Native-American name meaning “slow or lazy”. There is a good deal of water in the Tualatin. But it is a slow and meandering river. That means several things: it gets stagnant, scum & moss develop on it easily and pollution that was dumped there decades ago doesn’t get washed away. (Want to go jump in for a swim with me, yet?) In ministry, we can have a lot of activities , programs and conversations. We can be DOING a great deal. But unless it is going somewhere; unless it is focused; or in MacDonald’s words “if our choices of time-use are not disciplined by call and purpose” we dissipate our energy and can become as stagnant and as filled with spiritual PCBs as the Tualatin.
Calendars without a Sabbath. I am not talking simply about rest here. A Sabbath is not simply plopping in front of the TV to watch the Olympics or football. MacDonald says: “A datebook filled with appointments but absent of significant hours (days) of quiet and reflection—written in first—is an abomination (an old and harsh word) to the God of the Bible.” We emphasize the “rest” aspects of Sabbath, but we forget that “rest” was not the only purpose. God declared: Six days you shall labor…but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. (Exod. 20:9-10a) It is not just rest. It is rest with a purpose.
Relationships without mutual nourishment. Most of us are familiar with the stat from a 1991 study: 70% of pastors have no close friendships. They know and are friendly with a LOT of people. But as for close friendships: they are few and far between. I once followed a pastor in ministry where everyone in the church felt like they were close to the pastor. But when I delved into what they knew about him: they knew next to nothing about him personally other than the bare facts (family members, ministry history, favorite jokes, etc.) He is no longer in ministry. MacDonald: “The spiritual masters have told us for centuries that without soul-friends, we won't gain spiritual momentum.”
Pastoral personality without self-examination. MacDonald says it better than I can: “Too much ministry is built on unresolved anger, unhealthy needs for approval, and the instinct to control. Failing to explore our soul for unwholeness ultimately takes its toll.”
Natural giftedness without spiritual power. After 30 years in ministry, I can say unequivocally: some of the most talented and gifted people I have known have been in ministry. But human giftedness and human effort can only get what humans can do. Spiritual power only comes from a “filled-up soul.”
An enormous theology without an adequate spirituality. Many, many young pastors I meet are very equipped theologically. While I am not Reformed in theology, I seem to run into a good deal of New Calvinists in ministry. And many of them are theologically very well grounded. But it is possible to have a well developed theology and a “spiritual-exercise regimen that is pea-size in contrast. A great theology demands a great spirituality.”

I appreciated MacDonald’s words. While the spiritual life evaluation instrument for my client will take a bit of a different slant, it will be informed by this challenging information from MacDonald. Again, you can find it here.

The Amen Corner

2010-03-02T08:51:00.001-08:00

Last week when I was listening to Jim Wallis of Sojourners speak, he told a wonderful story. In the 80s when Martin Luther King Day was first celebrated as a holiday, Wallis was asked to come speak at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

Wallis tells of getting into the pulpit there on that January morning and being overwhelmed that he was standing in the same pulpit that Martin Luther King, Jr. and “Daddy” King has preached. Wallis began to preach, but he stuttered and stammered, repeating himself over and over.

Suddenly from the front pew on the left came a strong voice, “Help him, Lord!”

Wallis later learned that it was Deacon Jones. Deacon Jones was the church’s unofficial “Amen Corner.”

“Tell us the way it is!”

“Halleluiah!”

“He…..ep him, Jesus!”

“Preach it.”

“Amen!”

It was the traditional cadence and “dialogue” of an African American preacher and his/her congregation. Wallis says “With Deacon Jones help, I was dancing before I was done.”

After the service, Wallis went over to Deacon Jones to thank him for his help and encouragement.

Deacon Jones simply smiled and replied, “I’ve helped make a good preacher out of many a preacher in that pulpit.” He included in that group, Martin Luther King, Jr.

It is fairly unusual for any of the congregations I serve to “talk back” to me, but when they do, oh the encouragement it gives. I don’t think that the average Caucasian congregation understands the huge help it can be to a preacher when he gets positive verbal feedback from the pews.

In my last church, there was one man, a former elder (who has since moved to Salt Lake City) who was occasionally verbal. While Dave’s “talkback” was mostly limited to “Amen”s it was always a big help. I truly believe that I preached better when I got that verbal feedback.

For what it’s worth, the word “Amen” is one of those words that the bible doesn’t translate, but just transliterates from the Hebrew & has made it into most languages. It comes from the Hebrew root “aman” which means to be firm or solid in the sense of permanency. Thus by implication, it means to be sure, true or faithful. So whenever we see this word Amen used in scripture, it is affirming truth, or illustrating something is said that is of absolute certainty.

The word is found throughout the Bible, all the way to the very last word of the Bible (Rev. 22:21)

In the Old Testament the people were even commanded to respond with “Amen”, although in a bit of a different context.

On the same day Moses commanded the people:

When you have crossed the Jordan, these tribes shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin. And these tribes shall stand on Mount Ebal to pronounce curses: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali.

The Levites shall recite to all the people of Israel in a loud voice:

“Cursed is anyone who makes an idol—a thing detestable to the Lord, the work of skilled hands—and sets it up in secret.”

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

“Cursed is anyone who dishonors their father or mother.”

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

“Cursed is anyone who moves their neighbor’s boundary stone.”

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

“Cursed is anyone who leads the blind astray on the road.”

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

“Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.”

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

“Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his father’s wife, for he dishonors his father’s bed.”

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

“Cursed is anyone who has sexual relations with any animal.”

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

“Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.”

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

“Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his mother-in-law.”

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

“Cursed is anyone who kills their neighbor secretly.”

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

“Cursed is anyone who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person.”

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

“Cursed is anyone who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out.”

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!” (Deut 27:11-26)

HOWEVER…having sat in the pew for a year now, I can understand how intimidating that can be.

Loretta and I love to sing. And so during the praise time, we sing & both harmonize & really may get swept away. I would bet that more than once a month, the people in front of us turn after service & say how much they enjoyed sitting in front of us and listening to us sing. I am humiliated when they do that. I don’t want do be a distraction to anyone else’s worship. (But it doesn’t stop me from singly sincerely & in harmony!!)

There have been several Sundays when I wanted to shout out a solid “Amen!” to Pastor Guy. His preaching is really solid. But I attend a solidly white church in a fairly affluent community. It is a place where “people know their place.” And that place includes being quiet while Pastor Guy is preaching. You don’t draw attention to yourself.

But one of these days, the Spirit is just going to make me do it. Guy is going to hit one of his great points and it’s just going to come out.

If you are not a preacher, but appreciate what your preacher is saying, I hope you will do the same!!

Peter Mead>Movie Illustrations: A Risky Business

2010-02-27T08:40:00.001-08:00

I have for many years used movie illustrations as a part of my pool of illustrations from which I can draw. I have usually (not always) had good luck with them.

I recognize that there are two extremes: I have been in services where a movie clip is required somewhere in the service every Sunday.

The other extreme is John Piper who forbids them:

"I think the use of video and drama largely is a token of unbelief in the power of preaching. And I think that, to the degree that pastors begin to supplement their preaching with this entertaining spice to help people stay with them and be moved and get helped, it's going to backfire.... It's going to communicate that preaching is weak, preaching doesn't save, preaching doesn't hold, but entertainment does." (here).

Somewhere in the middle, I believe is Peter Mead, over at his blog, Biblical Preaching. Peter uses them and recommends using them, but only judiciously. You can find his post here. You really should check it out, but in short, he gives four caveats to keep in mind when deciding whether or not to use a specific movie clip:

Not everyone will have seen it.
Not everything in it [the rest of the movie] may be appropriate.
Will it take too much explaining
Will it overwhelm the text and the message?

It has been interesting for me to sit under the preaching of Pastor Guy Gray for the past nine months. One the one hand, Guy is about as anti-tech as it gets. He almost using nothing visual in his sermons. He has the scriptures put upon on the screen (white text on black background) as he reads them. That is all. But either because of that, or in spite of that or irrelevant to that, his preaching is very deep and powerful. It has made me think through a number of things about visual supplements.

Again, Peter's explanations of each of these points is really worth checking out.

The Cross is All We Have

2010-02-25T12:00:00.001-08:00

Quote of the Day:

"The cross is and will forever be the sign of the church. This is the symbol that we have together, the symbol of what we have together, the symbol of what the churches have to give to the world. From the beginning to the end.”

--Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit, (pictured) in his installation as new general secretary of the World Council of Churches. (Christian Post)

Jim Wallis>Rediscovering Values

2010-02-24T22:17:00.001-08:00

Tonight I went to Powell’s Books here in Portland (actually it at was the Beaverton store) to hear Jim Wallis talk about his new book “Rediscovering Values on Wall Street, Main Street and Your Street (A Moral Compass for the New Economy)”

I have heard Wallis before and knew that I was in for a treat. I first heard him at an intimate pastors gathering at a bookstore in Wichita, KS and then heard him again in May 2007 at the Festival of Homiletics (the same event that launched this blog).

Wallis is always riveting, challenging..and funny. He is, of course, the founder and president of Sojourners community in Washington D.C.: an organization that also publishes Sojourners magazine.

Wallis is known for his hard hitting critiques of both right wing and left wing politics and his biblical calls for a return of the church as a voice for social justice and the poor. He describes himself as an evangelical Christian who is pro-life in all the dimensions that that entails: against abortion, but also FOR justice and mercy.

He dropped names like Rona Barrett, but it is obvious that he is who world leaders look to when they want a Christian perspective on values. He spoke at both of the past two World Economic Forums in Davos, Switzerland and teaches occasionally at Harvard. This past Monday night before speaking at Portland, he had been featured at Stanford Univ.

His book is really a reaction to the economic crisis we have been in for the past 2-3 years. He spoke of the roots of the crisis and its lasting legacy. The “tagline” for his presentation (and for his book) is:

While most of us wonder, "When will the financial crisis be over?," Wallis will present the more challenging question, "How will the financial crisis change us?"

We are really at a point where America chooses whether we will return to the pre-1980 values of economics, morality and the concept of common good or continue to allow the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. Even more so, will we return to the concepts that our parents and grandparents learned from the Great Depression?

(One side note: I sat on the second row and there were a couple of older ladies sitting right in front of me who were almost comical. They were overly dramatic in their reaction to every statistic that Wallis presented or suggestion he made. They gasped loudly at his stats and clucked their tongues like old schoolmarms and used stage whispers to say such things as “That’s terrible!” or “How can they?” Although from my conversations with them beforehand I know that they were big Wallis supporters, they almost came across as mocking him by their exaggerated reactions to his every statement. It takes all kinds to make a world….)

Some misc. notes:

CEO’s need to (and some are beginning to) recognize that they have a responsibility not just to shareholders, but rather to STAKEholders (including shareholders, workers, consumers, the environment and future generations).
Wallis has said for several years that a budget is a moral document (whether it be a family budget, a state’s budget, or a nations budget) but in recent years as a father (he has two sons, aged 11 & 6) he has come to realize that a calendar is a moral document as well. Both express what is and what isn’t important to us, who is and who isn’t important to us and what we really think about the things we talk about.
Thirty years ago high level executives were (on average) paid 30x what the average worker in their company was paid. Today that average is 450:1.
Even though the “poverty line” in America is outdated & is unrealistically low, still 1 out of every 4 children in America lives under the “poverty line.”
The poor in our world are the “canaries in the mine” for our world economy. When the poor begin to become even more profoundly affected it spells deep trouble for the rest of us.
Majorities never change anything. Change only comes when you have a critical mass among the minority. Many people say they voted for change in the 2008 election, but change hasn’t happened because there has not been a critical mass among the minority.
Both Obama and his supports misunderstood the forces against significant change present in Washington D.C. [You may see that as a bad thing or a good thing depending on your views of Obama, but it still is never good for the country over the long haul.-cph].
Wallis spoke of bonuses paid to executives of investment companies: While Wallis spoke to fast with figures, he said that investment companies paid something like $50 billion in bonuses to their executives last year. (This after the taxpayers bailed them out for their misdeeds). That seemed a bit high to me and so I did a quick Google search. I never found that specific number, but found that investment companies located in New York City alone paid $20 billion in bonuses to their executives last year. Wallis went through a long list of how that money could be used to make our country a stronger and more healthy place if it were applied to such things as health care, helping homeowners with mortgages in foreclosure (no foreclosures through the end of 2012), the fact that just a PORTION of that could pay off the debt of all of the individual states in the nation combined.
45% of Harvard students said that they wanted to be investment bankers.
As Paul Harvey used to say: “Wash your mind out with this”: At the same time a teaching organization that trains teachers to go into the inner city and teach in the worst of the worst schools (I think it is Teach for America) has so many people applying that their application criteria are more strict than those to be admitted to Harvard University.

In all of this, Wallis had a consistent Christian testimony. He spoke several times of his Christian faith…not in a way that belittled or minimized the faith (or non-faith) of others, but he made it clear that his commitment to these things arose out of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Skimming for the Vision?

2010-02-23T21:49:00.001-08:00

As I continue to read on coaching and the opportunities it provides, I found an intriguing concept in a book entitled, “Coaching for Christian Leaders” by Linda J. Miller and Chad W. Hall (Chalice Press, 2007).

I have mentioned here before that coming up with “the big vision” was always hard for me. For me, it reeked too much of egoism and presumption. And yet, I recognized that a vision for a body of believers has an important place. Additionally, people had the expectation that there needed to be a vision for a church. “What is the vision for your (or “our”) church?” was a phrase that I heard over and over through the years. In my last church there was a continuing battle over who was to provide that vision: the pastor or the board of elders. But the presumption either way was that the official leadership of the church was to be the source of that vision.

Miller and Hall introduce an intriguing concept: “skimming for vision”. Let me quote a couple of paragraphs and then comment on it:

Where is vision and how does the leader get it? Three common responses are that God gives vision to the leader, or that the leader “goes to the mountain” and sees the vision in isolation, or that the vision comes to the leader in a dream. Certainly each of these options is a possibility. But the vision caster who takes a coach approach has one more option: the vision may reside with the followers.

Ministry leaders, especially those in faith families who value the priesthood of all believers, possess a theological impetus for believing that vision resides with the community. In such cases, the vision caster is charged, not with coming up with the vision in solitude, but with discerning the vision from amidst the community. This could be termed “skimming for the vision.” The picture is that various members of a church (or any organization) have a piece of the vision. Through experience, intellect, relationships and capability, each of these members carries God-given hopes, dreams, concerns, and suggestions for the church. The vision caster who dialogues with members uses the skills of a coach to draw out the vision from each person. The vision caster asks question, listens intently, suspends judgment, and even encourages forward movement in an effort to support the “persons being coached” while simultaneously picking up one more aspect of God’s intent for the church.

Skimming for the vision is not an abdication of the leaders duty to discern vision. This is not “vision by committee.” Instead, skimming for the vision is a way to discern. The leader must have eyes to see and ears to hear the vision as it is revealed piece by piece. Talk about active listening! The leader must distinguish what is and what is not a piece of the vision, hold onto each piece as it is revealed, prayerfully recognize patterns and themes that emerge, and then put these pieces together with God’s help. Skimming for the vision is not a shortcut to discerning the vision for a church, but it is a way of tapping into the genius of the community. A leader’s decision to take an initiative or recommend an action comes from that leader’s intuition, experience, and intelligence. A coach approach enables the leader to tap into the intuition, experience and intelligence of many people.” (p. 88)

I am not ready to buy into the concept that this is the only way in which vision should be determined for a congregation. Even Miller and Hall don’t state it that way. But they add it as one more way in which God may bring his vision to a congregation.

I think that in my church in Garden City, KS that concept really worked well. We had “Listening Posts” on two difference occasions where the people shared their hopes and dreams for that church and what they believed that God was saying to our church. And then a very small group (with me at the helm) sorted through that and came up with a plan of action that we believe came from God. It wasn’t perfectly executed, but I still believe it came from God and he richly blessed it. And I could buy into it because I knew it wasn’t me imposing my hopes and dreams onto a congregation.

Now, in the church I served after that, the same concept didn’t work and that was partly due to the emphasis of the local elder board on doing everything by committee and de-emphasizing the role of the senior pastor. That, combined with lobbying by a very vocal group pushing their one agenda really destroyed the process.

As Miller and Hall say, this is not an easier way to do vision creation. It is (IMHO) much harder. It takes wisdom and strength on the part of the leader to set boundaries and to be able to see patterns. It also takes a group of people who are willing, even after their hopes and dreams are shared, are willing for those not to be adopted.

But I think the concept has enough merit to consider. What do you think? Have you heard of this concept elsewhere. What was your reaction to it then? Share you feedback with all of us….

Expository Thoughts: How to Recognize Symbolic Language

2010-02-22T11:27:00.001-08:00

Matt Waymeyer has a basic, but helpful reminder on how to differentiate between literal language and figurative language in the Bible. Basic Bible interpretation, but something that seems to trip up a number of people. Find it here.

A Quick Schedule/Time Management Tip

2010-02-21T00:56:00.001-08:00

Maybe what I am about to say is known to every minister on the planet except me. But it adversely affected my last ministry and continues to catch my attention.

We as ministers want to be of assistance to people and we want to be available/accessible. Both of those are good traits as long as we have strong boundaries.

I haven’t always had good boundaries but I am continuing to define and strengthen them. My online university teaching as well as trying to get my coaching business up and running has highlighted the need for this trait.

Part of issue is in the fact that ministers don’t punch a clock and much of what they do is not time-determined. For example. I need to go to the hospital to visit. It doesn’t really matter (unless the hospital has policies or something is going on with the patient) if I go at 11:00 a.m. or at 3:30 p.m. Likewise, we have administrative tasks that must be done. But whether I do them this morning or this afternoon (or tomorrow) is not (usually) of vital consequence.

I always told people: “I have a lot to do, but most of it is flexible in terms of when it has to be done.”

And so, when someone would call wanting to schedule a meeting or a counseling appointment, or whatever, I would be more than willing to bend MY schedule around theirs. And if I already had two meetings today and someone wanted to meet today, I kind of made a face but went ahead and scheduled them today.

The sermon prep or the administrative task, or the pastoral phone call could wait until tomorrow. Or the next day.

“I have a lot to do, but most of it is flexible in terms of when it has to be done.” meant that the things that were high priorities usually got pushed into whatever time (if any) remained.

And that lack of boundaries resulted in two consequences:

A lack of productivity on my part; or at least peak productivity, because when I did those things they were usually at times when I was tired or rushed;
Heightened stress, because I knew those things still needed to be but were not getting done.

So who paid the price? I and my family did. I did in terms of my physical and mental health and my family did in terms of quality time with me.

In the past year I have been teaching for four different online universities, and at times up to seven different classes at the same time. And I really enjoy it—most of the time. HOWEVER…each of the schools has very strict rules about what has to be done on which days. There are time limits on returning e-mails and minimum number of discussion posts (and requirements of what has to be IN the discussion posts) for each day. There are guidelines about how long I have to grade and return students’ assignments. On an average, my online classes take me, oh 6 hours per day. (My educated guesstimate).

But I am still in community groups. I am seeking to network. I am seeking to make appointments with ministers about coaching. I am still taking my coaching training. I have practicum coaching sessions that have to be done each week. Plus I am learning an entirely new skill set in terms of setting up and running a business. Our financial picture demands that I get my coaching business up and make it profitable ASAP. I am presenting two workshops this weekend for a group of churches in southern Oregon. I am in a Men’s Bible Study and meeting with another guy about starting a second one.

I have friends who want to have coffee (and with whom I want to have coffee). And Jim Wallis is coming to town this week and I really would like to go hear him speak at Powells City of Books.

What does that mean? It means that I HAVE to say no when people want to meet quickly. Twice this week guys have called & wanted to have coffee. They were not high priority meetings, but would be good to do and potentially have some business advantages. In the old days I would have let them set a time & worked my schedule around it. In both cases, I asked for a couple of times they could meet in two weeks. I didn’t say “No, I won’t meet.” But I did fit it into MY schedule. And I am also aware that those weeks I may have to do the same with others who call.

I simply CANNOT fill my schedule with meetings that other people want to have on their schedules. Emergencies happen. But a small percentage of the calls I got as a minister were the absolute “drop everything and run” type of emergencies.

God has given us all the same amount of time. Some of us just do more with it than others do. I want, and need, to do more with it.

“Ministry is Not for Sissies”

2010-02-20T13:02:00.001-08:00

A couple of weeks ago the Christian Standard magazine had what was (to me) a helpful article entitled, “Enduring a Painful Ministry.” It was written by Brian Giese, a retired minister after 45 years of active ministry.

He notes:

“More than fifty percent of church leaders who spend most of their adult lives in ministry will have at least one painful “season” in serving God’s people. So, for most of us, the question is not, “Will I get hit?” but, “Will I bounce back?”

He makes makes many helpful suggestions like Maintain an Upbeat Attitude, Get Some Support (I, of course, would suggest coaching!), Continue to Serve, and Encourage Others.

But the one section that I thought was most helpful to me was his suggestion to Analyze the Cause. He says:

The needs of the ministry and your gifts do not match up well.
The goals and/or personalities of other leaders clash with yours, and these conflicts cannot be resolved.
You and/or your family’s personal needs are not being met, and your resources are running dry (emotionally, financially, etc.).
Due to a moral lapse and/or severe marriage or family problems, you lose your credibility.
Health problems (physical or mental) prevent you from fulfilling ministry demands.
You and/or the congregation have unrealistic expectations.
Because of poor judgment or other leadership mistakes, you alienate too many people to be effective.
You experience burnout (this is listed last but it certainly is not least). Many scenarios in ministry can lead to emotional/spiritual depletion.

When facing adversity, we should look first for some opportunity in the problem. If that isn’t possible, we can at least try to learn from the experience.

I won’t really editorialize on the article, other than to say that it struck close to home and I would suggest all ministers, young AND experienced listen to Bro. Giese’s words.

He ends the article with the words of Wayne Smith, the long-time minister of the Southland Christian Church in Lexington, KY in a message entitled “Playing Hurt”:

Wayne Smith shared some sports anecdotes about famous athletes who played while hurt. Then Wayne spoke about some of God’s servants in the Bible who labored for the Lord in spite of apathy and rejection. Wayne concluded by saying, “Ministry is not for sissies. If you don’t learn to play hurt in the church, you won’t play at all.”

Again, you can find the article here.

Pastors and Porn

2010-02-18T22:26:00.001-08:00

This afternoon my coaching instructor sent an e-mail newsletter from Gary Collins [author of Christian Counseling:A Comprehensive Guide (2007) and Christian Coaching (2009)] on pornography. (Find it here.)

I was reminded of various statistic regarding pastors and porn that have come across my desk:

In March of 2002 Rick Warren’s (author of the Purpose Driven life) Pastors.com website conducted a survey on porn use of 1351 pastors: 54% of the pastors had viewed Internet pornography within the last year, and 30% of these had visited within the last 30 days.
In his book, "Men's Secret Wars", Patrick Means reveals a confidential survey of evangelical pastors and church lay leaders. Sixty-four percent of these Christian leaders confirm that they are struggling with sexual addiction or sexual compulsion including, but not limited to use of pornography, compulsive masturbation, or other secret sexual activity. http://www.blazinggrace.org/cms/bg/pornstats
98% [or pastors surveyed] had been exposed to porn; 43% intentionally accessed a sexually explicit website. National Coalition survey of pastors. Seattle. April 2000.
One in seven calls to Focus on the Family’s Pastoral Care Hotline is related to internet pornography. http://www.worldmag.com/articles/10555
Almost forty percent [of pastors] polled said they have had an extra-marital affair since beginning their ministry. (“Death by Ministry”, Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle).

I asked Carl (my certification instructor) if he thought it would be helpful to develop a workshop on how to coach men (and women) addicted to porn. But even more than that for me is the need to DO good coaching for pastors in this area.

An Interesting Development in Pastor-Board Relations—”If You Ain’t Willing to Back it Up…”

2010-02-09T14:13:00.001-08:00

In today’s Oregonian there was a story that at least bears noting. It told the story of a pastor (Tim Tubra) who had been fired from the Vernonia (OR) Foursquare Church back in 2003. The board of that church wrote a letter to the congregation stating that he was a thief.

Tubra sued, claiming defamation of character and recently, the Oregon Court of Appeals upheld the claim. (Tubra had also won at the lower level before a jury, but the judge at that level threw the case out after the jury ruled in favor of the pastor). The defendants [the church] have already said that they will take the case to the Oregon Supreme Court.

OK, so a law-case was in the news? So what? And other than the fact that it involves a church and a pastor, why are you taking time to write about it in your blog, Cal?

Here’s why.

Calling the ruling “game changing”, the Oregonian stated:

"The First Amendment protects a church's right to speak to church members about a church pastor's conduct without interference by secular courts," [John T. Kaempf, the defense attorney] said in an e-mail. "Until the Oregon Court of Appeals' decision, this was the holding of every court in the country addressing similar facts."

Professor Steven K. Green from Willamette University's College of Law said historically there has been a "zone of protection" surrounding what happens in a church, but that this perception is changing dramatically.

"The decision puts Oregon on the vanguard in this area," said Green, who is the director of the Center for Religion, Law & Democracy at the school. "Traditionally, employment disputes internal to a church have been off limits to courts because of the difficulty of determining what is theological."

President and founder of conservative legal organization The Rutherford Institute, attorney John W. Whitehead, said the key to a court's involvement in church matters is whether the issue at hand is ecclesiastical in nature. He said he had not seen a case quite like this.

"They're not above the law, and they shouldn't argue that they are," said Whitehead, whose group deals in large part with religious issues.

The precipitating event (at least as explained in the Oregonian) is that when Tubra was hired, the church did not have enough money to pay him a living wage. Therefore, the senior minister and another member of the board promised to pay Tubra $1,100 extra per month for the first three months in addition to his regular salary of $1,500. At the end of the four months employment at the church, Tubra withdrew $3,000 from the church’s bank account, claiming that he was taking the money that had been donated for this special extra salary or gift.

(As an aside, let me say, I have no idea how a minister, let alone an associate minister would even have the ability to withdraw $3,000 from the church’s bank account. It would appear that the proper checks & balances were not in place that would preclude such a thing from happening.)

The response of the senior minister and the board member was to fire Tubra and then read a letter to the congregation saying he had been fired because he was a thief. ("there has been, to some extent, a financial misappropriation by former pastor [Tubra].")

No charges were ever filed against Tubra.

Upon discovering the contents of the letter that had been read to the congregation, Tubra asked for a copy of the letter. In an e-mail exchange with a secretary who was asked to provide the letter, one official of the church told said that Tubra "has already demonstrated a willingness to lie and steal."

After being unable to find another place of ministry two years later, (even with 20 years of church ministry experience) Tubra filed a defamation suit against the International Church of the Foursquare in Sept 2005 and was awarded $355,000 by the jury.

The crux comes down (in my view) is whether or not church boards are able to act however they want regardless of the law? Is the board truly free to say whatever they want to their congregation, with no evidence to back it up except their word? No one has argued (to my knowledge) that Tubra was not promised the money. And if he withdrew it after already having been paid the money, then the church should have filed charges.

(In their defense, the Oregonian reports “The attorney for the Foursquare Church said no charges were filed against the former pastor because officials wanted to resolve the issue within the church community.”) Two years seems like more than adequate time, however, to show that one is indeed trying “to resolve the issue within the church community.”

It took the Oregon Court of Appeals almost 18 months after hearing the case to issue a judgment. They seem to recognize the precedent setting nature of such a judgment and the First Amendment issues involved:

How far can the government step into the internal affairs of a congregation by stating that an issue is legal & not ecclesiastical in nature?
How far can church leaders & church members go beyond the bounds of legal and moral actions and still claim that they are immune from legal ramifications.

Most of us appreciate the boundaries that the First Amendment established. (Although we may not appreciate the abuses that have been visited on the church by her opponents in the name of the First Amendment).

What makes it difficult (IMHO) is when church members and leaders do not behave by the own morality that they preach and therefore the state is obligated to step in. It besmirches the name of Christ and complicates life for the rest of us.

You can find the Oreogonian’s story on the ruling here.

A Pure Heart Before God

2010-02-08T07:52:00.001-08:00

It is an inward struggle for most preachers to stand before a congregation and declare the Word of the Lord, while at the same time recognizing how unworthy they (we) are. Preaching with integrity requires us to be “confessed up.”

One person (who was a whole lot better at giving judgment and shame rather than giving grace) stated, “If God put on a screen behind you all the sins you committed this last week for people to see as you preached, you would be ashamed and unable to speak.” Which is true, except for God’s grace and God’s command to “Preach the Word.”

For many years I had a sheet in my sermon prep notebook simply labeled: “Confess & Repent of Unconfessed Sin in Your Life”. The list has no author listed on the paper, but the list looks like came from the late 1980’s (It is printed on my first computer printer: an old daisy-wheel.

If anyone knows the author, I will gladly credit it (Dick Eastman, perhaps?), but I offer it up not only for preachers, but for all believers. We all need to live lives that are “confessed up” whether or not we preach from a pulpit. We preach with our lives.

God requires a clean heart. Sin short-circuits your relationship with God: “If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear.” (Ps. 66:18)

Some hindrances of prayer to consider:

Selfishness and wrong motives (James 4:2-3)
Lack of compassion (Prov 21:13)L
Lack of domestic harmony or peace with mate, children, relatives (I Peter 3:7)
Pride (Job 35:12-13)
Disobedience (I John 3:22)
Lack of faith (James 5:15)
Unforgiving spirit (Matt 5:23-25)
Failure to ask God according to God’s will (I John 5:14)
Failure to know God’s Word and abide in Christ (John 15:7)
Hypocrisy (Matt 6:;5)
Wrong attitudes e.g. impure thoughts, jealousy, guilt, worry, critical spirit, frustration, aimlessness, etc.
Loss of first love (Rev. 2:4)
Lukewarmness (Rev. 3:16)
Critical attitude (Matt 7:1-5)
Hardhearteness/insensitivity (Matt 7:1-5)

Confess all sin God brings to your mind:

Remember that God promises to cleanse and forgive you” “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleans us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9)
Thank him that He has forgiven all of your sins as He said he would. The very act of saying “Thank you” demonstrates faith. Faith pleases God.
Don’t let the memory of unconfessed sin trouble you again. You are clean in the sight of God!

Top 100 Church Blogs | churchrelevance.com

2010-02-01T21:40:00.000-08:00

Top 100 Church Blogs | churchrelevance.com

Kent Schaffer on his blog site "ChurchRelevance.com" has put together a list of "the world's top church blogs." The list is a little over a year old, but I still believe it is a helpful one to check out.

Whether that claim is objectively verifiable or not may leave some room for argument (it obviously isn't complete, because mine is not on it!!) ;-) but there are links to some fabulous blogs here. If you are new to the world of blog reading (and even if you're not) there is much here to keep you reading until Jesus comes back.

The Top Five are
Desire God
Between Two Worlds (No longer called that or a free-standing blog, it is now a department of "The Gospel Coalition" blog) You can find Justin's old stuff here.
Tim Challies
Stuff Christians Like
The Resurgence

Maybe Solomon should have said, "Be admonished: of the making of many blog posts there is no end." (cf Eccl. 12:12).

Peter Mead>>Planning a Selective Series

2010-02-01T21:19:00.001-08:00

One of my favorite preaching bloggers, Peter Mead blogged last week about series preaching.

What criteria can you use when planning a series in a longer book that you don’t want to last for years?

Excerpts:

Here are some pointers:

Foundation – Know the message, flow and structure of the book. Without this you are likely to end up with a plan that doesn’t represent the book, or you’ll start into the series and end up preaching every passage .

1, Select key moments in the book. In every book there are key moments of transition or anchor points for the flow of the book.

2. Select key examples in the book. There are some passages that may not be at a transition point, but are just very typical of the style and message of the book.

3. Select an example in a sequence, but show the whole progression. Often a book will string together a series of stories making a similar point, such as in Mark 2-3. …This covers a lot of ground, but can make quite an impression as people feel the weight of the authority demonstrated by the whole sequence.

4. Select passages you want to preach. As long as you have the other three types of message included, there is nothing wrong with selecting based on personal motivation – the fruit will probably show in your preaching if you are motivated!

5. Keep the big idea of the book clear throughout. Consistently, even if subtly, reinforce the big idea of the whole book to cohere the series.

Peter uses preaching from Mark as examples in many of the points in his original article.

Find the full article here.

Variety in Preaching—101 Suggestions

2010-01-29T22:12:00.001-08:00

Many years ago (the list is mimeographed and so that tells you how old it is), I received a list of sermon topics. It’s purpose was so that we might periodically review our preaching over the past (whatever length of time) and make sure that we were covering a wide variety so that our congregations received a balanced diet.

Even if you only preach expositionally or exegetically, still even in that context, the reality is that the Bible books or passages that you select must reflect the breadth of scriptural topics.

The list comes from my theological camp (thus #46) and comes from a bit more formal time and place, but I still find it a helpful list to periodically review:

Apologetics
Apostasy/Delusions
Benevolence
Bible
1. Inspiration of Scripture
Blessing
Call
Church
Christian, The Name
Christian Living
1. Christian Standards
2. Holiness
Church, The
1. Early Christian Church
2. Pentecost
3. Unity
Civic
Consecration
Conversion
Cross
Denominationalism
Discipline
1. Personal
2. Congregational
Duty
Education, Christian
Eschatology
1. Christ, Second Coming of
2. Future Rewards
3. Future Punishments
4. Immortality
5. Judgment
Evangelism
Faith
Faithfulness
Family & Home
Forgiveness
1. Divine
2. Human
Funeral
God
1. Existence of
2. Fatherhood of
3. The Love of
Gospel
Grace
1. First Experience in
2. Growth in
Hebrew History
Holy Spirit
1. Personality & Deity of
2. Witness of the
3. Work of the
Humility
Human Condition
1. Death
2. Depravity of Humanity
Jesus Christ
1. As our Example
2. Birth of/Christmas
3. Crucifixion
4. Deity of
5. Humanity of
6. In Prophecy
7. Teachings of
8. Resurrection of/Easter
Kingdom of God
Light
Lord’s Day
Love
Ministry
Ministry of All Believers
Missions
Morals
Music
Personal Religion (I think today we call this Discipleship?)
Prayer
Restoration of Erring Christian
Restoration Movement
Sacraments
1. Baptism
2. Lord’s Supper
Salvation
1. Atonement
2. Confession of Christ
3. Confession of Sin
4. Faith (Saving Faith)
5. New Birth, The
6. Repentance
Satan
Service
Sin
Social Gospel
Sorrow
Stewardship
Testaments, The Two
Tongue
Vision
Way, The
Worship
Zeal

The list is too broad in some respects and too narrow in others (how many sermons on “Denominationalism” does one church really need?) But I hold that lists like this are helpful in reminding us of the need to keep our preaching varied.

Scripturalize routine prayers.

2010-01-26T07:30:00.001-08:00

Last time here I mentioned a list of “Thirty Ways to Improve Your Church’s Worship Service".” And it is worth your attention.

But one of the thirty stood out to me personally. Many items on the list are not unfamiliar to most of us who are responsible for leading the church in worship. But #10 struck me, personally, as an important reminder. (Probably because I know I get in this rut). And so I draw it out for special attention:

Scripturalize routine prayers.

I was in a worship service in suburban Chicago one Sunday when "Joe" was asked to pray, something he had done in that church many times. As he spoke, a five-year-old boy near the front began to pray with him, speaking the same words in unison with Joe. Like a prayer duet, the two continued as if they were reciting the Lord's Prayer together, except that they were using "Joe's prayer" instead. Joe repeated the same prayer so often that a child of only sixty months was already able to recite it verbatim.

We've all heard—and perhaps offered—such "spontaneous" prayers in worship. Any repetitious prayer situation tends to breed repetitious prayer. For example, when I found myself in the situation of offering the pastoral prayer in worship each week year in and year out, I was tempted to repeat the same words and phrases since the purpose and goals of that prayer were almost identical each time. And the number and kind of prayer situations (such as at the beginning or end of the service, before the offering, etc.) in Sunday worship rarely change.

So changing the content of these routine prayers could immediately and noticeably affect worship. And there's no easier or better way to continually change their content than to "scripturalize" them. Use the words of Scripture as the basis of your prayers. Take part or all of a prayer found in the Bible (and I'm including the Psalms among the prayers found in Scripture) as the words you voice in public prayer. If you were praying through Psalm 23, for example, after reading it you could begin to pray with, "Lord, we thank You that You are our Shepherd. You are truly a Good Shepherd. Please shepherd our church, especially in the matter of ________." You would continue praying in this manner through the Psalm until you came to the end of the chapter or felt it was time to conclude the prayer. Another option is to pray your way through a few verses of a New Testament letter, again using the passage before you as the framework of what you offer to the Lord on behalf of the congregation.

In using this method you will not only pray about the matters you always want to pray for in these customary situations, but you'll be praying for them in stimulating ways you've never expressed before. Moreover, the Scripture will prompt you to pray about relevant matters that you otherwise would never think to mention. No other approach generates such potential for every prayer offered in the service—from the pastoral prayer to the spur-of-the-moment one requested of a layman—to be fresh and alive with the power of the Word of God.

30 Ways to Improve Your Church’s Worship Service

2010-01-24T11:28:00.001-08:00

I have expressed here before my appreciation for Colin Adams, originally from Scotland, but now ministering in Northern Ireland. He recently recommended Donald Whitney’s three lists "Ten Ways to Improve Your Church's Worship Service" and "Ten More Ways to Improve Your Church's Worship Service" and then A Third Ten Ways to Improve Your Church's Worship Service."

While Whitney’s suggestions may be a bit polemical (and the more so the farther you go down the list), I think that they are worth all of our consideration. I am only going to list then thirty in summary and point you to Whitney’s articles to flesh them out a little more.

Focus on God in every element in worship.
Have clear Biblical support for every element in worship.
“Offer to God an acceptable service [i.e., worship] in reverence and awe” (Hebrews 12:28).
Preach expositionally.
“Give attention to the public reading of Scripture” (1 Timothy 4:13).
Pray!
Transition smoothly between elements of worship.
Do as much as possible congregationally.
Have congregational singing with musical accompaniment, not music with congregational accompaniment.
Evaluate your worship service each week with several leaders.
Plan worship only for people who can worship.
Keep technology on a leash.
Move the announcements, welcome, and time of greeting to the beginning or the end of the service.
Prepare the congregation for worship.
Construct a call to worship.
Introduce new music wisely.
Don’t hide the ordinances.
Use confessional material.
Lead in the corporate confession of sins.
Scripturalize routine prayers.
Sing Psalms
If you consider your church's worship style to be historic, make sure you sing hymns and spiritual songs.
If you consider your church's worship style to be traditional, make sure you sing psalms and spiritual songs.
If you consider your church's worship style to be contemporary or blended, make sure you sing psalms and hymns.
Use slides, but don't lose your hymnal.
Consider congregational prayer in the worship service.
Don't have solo or choral music every Sunday.
Use silence strategically.
Allow applause only rarely and spontaneously, not routinely.
Allow only believers to lead believers in worship.

Dr. Mike Jones: The Power of the Gospel

2010-01-22T17:46:00.001-08:00

Last week the Spurgeon Fellowship met again at Western Seminary. (For those of you who are new to this blog, the Spurgeon Fellowship is the brain child of Dr. Art Azurdia, the ministry professor at Western Seminary. 3-4 times a year several hundred preachers (all men) gather in the Western chapel to hear outstanding preachers and theologians both encourage and challenge the preachers.

For this session of the SF, Dr. Mike Jones was the speaker. Jones is a Western grad and has been the pastor of the Independent Bible Church in Port Angeles, WA for perhaps some thirty years. He is the most frequent repeat speaker that they have at the Spurgeon Fellowship and after hearing him I can see why.

Jones is well spoken, thoughtful and insightful. He is able to both challenge and encourage at the same time.

His theme last week was the power of the Gospel. He spoke to the problem that too often, while we believe firmly that the gospel is sufficient to save men & women, we do not behave as if we truly believe that the Gospel will change people We are too quick to push people into all sorts of therapy, as if therapy is more powerful than the Gospel. He says we are too quick to jump to a Plan B (which he calls horizontal methodologies) if change is not spontaneous. In doing so we imply that the gospel is actually weak and to that degree we are ashamed of it.

The theme of his two presentations was: The same Gospel that saves us is the Gospel that transforms us.

He then spent almost an hour exegeting Romans 1:16-17:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Jones noted that we live in an age of horizontal resolution. The apostle Paul states: “I tried those and they don’t work.”

Three things that trip us up in how we are to live:

Love-
- John 13:34-35
Acceptance –I withhold judgment from you but will assist you
- Rom 15.7
- Marrying someone does not give you permission to change them.
Forgiveness-I assume a burden that they are never able to pay. My forgiveness from God cost him everything.
- Eph 4.32
- Jones showed a powerful documentary on the power of the Gospel in bring forgiveness between the Tutsis and Hutus of Rwanda after the mass slaughter that took place there a few years ago. It was entitled “As We Forgive” and is based on a book by Catherine Claire Larson, which is based on a PBS documentary of the same name. It was not a “cheap” humanistic forgiveness, but one that was real, costly and absolutely necessary. (The trailer for the documentary is found here.) The clip is too long to use in the normal Sunday sermon (I believe), but is extremely powerful It would be interesting to know if he has used it as his church).

Most of us believe that God is powerful enough to save us. But…

Is the Gospel strong enough to enable us to forgive?
Is the Gospel strong enough to believe that it can change me/someone else?

It was indeed a powerful presentation. Western Seminary is fairly slow about getting their presentations up on the web, but they eventually do. So when this one comes up, I will give you a heads up, It is an important one to listen to.

WWJD…fH (What Would Jesus Do…for Himself?)

2010-01-20T07:49:00.001-08:00

I am currently working on an e-book on taking care of ourselves as clergy as Jesus took care of myself. In my research, I came across this checklist that I found helpful. (Look for the book in the next couple of months).

It comes from an article Jesus and Clergy Health by John Marshall Crowe, a United Methodist minister from North Carolina.

He says: “Prayerfully and honestly answer the following health inventory”:

1.) Does the incarnation of Jesus Christ lead me to value my body?

2.) Do I feel that my attitudes about Jesus’ value of my body influence my care of myself in life and ministry?

3.) Jesus’ earthly life and ministry involved both private time to refresh himself as well as public ministry. Does His balanced model inspire me to do likewise in my life and ministry?

4.) Do I experience the love of God shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit as an empowerment to not only love and forgive others, but also myself as well?

5.) Does both Jesus’ incarnation as well as the balance of his life and ministry helps me understand the vital part that my bodily-emotional self plays in a vital spirituality?

6.) At one time, did I labor under a religious burden telling me I had to take or at least try to take better care of myself?

7.) Did that religious burden often result in guilt, anxiety, and shame in my life?

8.) Does my relationship with Christ create in me a ‘want to attitude” in taking care of my health?

9.) Have I practiced a form of spirituality that twisted the basic issues of self-denial into a denial of my unique self as created by God?

10.) Does my practice of spirituality lead me to believe that I must give up myself in order to be loved by God, by others and to be viewed as a success in ministry?

11.) Do my behaviors concerning my own health care reflect an unscriptural belief that my bodily self is in itself sinful, despicable, or unworthy?

12.) I find myself agreeing with the fourth century church father, John Chrysostom? He said, “We do not wish to cast aside the body, but corruption; not flesh, . . . What is foreign to us is not the body but corruptibility.”

13.) Do I understand Paul’s statements about the deeds of the flesh to be sinful aspects of my personhood and not my body?

14.) What does Jesus’ experience and expression of a wide range of emotions in the Gospels and the first three chapters of Revelation say to me?

15.) Are my emotions naughty monkeys for repression via religious rules, practices and structures?

16.) Are my emotions a valid part of myself that I need to respect, listen to, learn from, and then bring to our gracious savior and Lord Jesus?

17.) Do I feel comfortable taking my unheard feelings to Jesus for validation that he has dear them? I feel comfortable taking those feelings in need of healing, transformation, nurturing, or empowering to Christ’s compassion and sanctification?

18.) Does the manner in which Jesus bore many human wounds in the Gospels leads me away from taking a victim’s stance in the face of my own human wounds?

19.) Does Jesus’ incarnation in the flesh, life & ministry in the flesh, death on the cross in the flesh, and bodily resurrection tell that I am my body?

20.) Does the great commandment to love the Lord our God with all my heart, with all of my mind, with all my soul and all my strength lead me to nurture in a healthy manner all of these aspects of my total personality?

21.) Does Jesus’ command to not worry about tomorrow lead me to live authentically in the present or to promote some false self covering my anxiety about the future?

22.) Does Jesus’ forgiveness of my past and present sins lead me to live fully in the present or behind some mask covering how I’m beating myself up with guilt over my past?

23.) Does Jesus’ example of placing his trust fully in God, but not in people focus my trust and place realistic boundaries upon my expectations of others?

24.) How does Jesus living for the praise of God influence whose praise I live for?

25.) How does Jesus’ earthly ministry grounded in serving God and overflowing into ministry to others influence my own practice of ministry?

Again, find the article from which I drew this list here.

Samson and Integrity

2010-01-19T16:06:00.001-08:00

I came across this quote by Nate Larkin today and am mulling the ramifications of it:"

“Yes, it is true...that God wants men of integrity. But integrity is not perfection. It is not completion. It is not even purity of intention, something that, frankly, we are all incapable of achieving. Rather, integrity is a combination of rigorous honesty about my own condition and humble faith in the steadfast love of God."

--Samson & the Pirate Monks, p. 57.

Giving Recognition

2010-01-19T11:18:00.001-08:00

In ministry, one might think that recognition isn’t necessary…we’re just so altruistic! Not so. We all need kudos & recognition. And so do those around us.

Whether you are working with a paid staff or a volunteer staff, it is vital that you acknowledge accomplishment. It is not only good for the one being recognized, but also a good motivator for others to achieve.

According to Linda J Miller & Chad W. Hall in Coaching for Christian Leaders, there are three aspects to giving recognition or acknowledgement:

Timing
Specificity
Style.

1. Timing. Speed is everything. Getting the acknowledgement as close to the accomplishment is important. It not only reinforces the work quickly, but it enables the person to know that their work was noticed. Sometimes when we have worked hard on something, we wonder if anyone notices or cares. Quick recognition does that.

2. Specificity. Miller and Hall state:

Be specific about what has been noticed, about the small steps taken, about a change in attitude, about a changed belief, or about anything the person…has done that can be genuinely acknowledged.

3. Style. Hall & Miller note two important things about style in giving recognition.

a. Try to begin your comment with “you” or something other than “I”. YOU are not the point (“I so appreciated how hard you worked on that!”) THEY are the point. (“You really showed your perseverance in getting that done.” or “The program you put together really was creative and gave the event that extra touch of class! Thank you!”)

b. But the second element of style is knowing HOW the person likes to be acknowledged or recognized. Do they like recognition to be public, or do they prefer to be recognized privately? Do they like to hear the acknowledgement or see it in writing?

Many years ago I had a wonderful volunteer secretary who faithfully came in every week to type & print the church bulletin. I gave her verbal thanks & recognized her work in front of others. And she always smiled & seemed sheepish about it. But one day I wrote her a simple thank you note for her work. It took less than 60 seconds.

Over a year later, our family was in her home & I noticed that my thank you note was up on her refrigerator. I mentioned it and she said, with tears in her eyes, “No minister has EVER sent me a thank you note for what I have done at the church. It means SO much.”

I found her method of being acknowledged.

However it is done, acknowledging those who work so hard around us is a critical skill in ministry. It is one in which most of us could do a much better job!!

Lutzer: 5 Principles for Pastoral Success

2010-01-18T09:31:00.001-08:00

In his book Pastor to Pastor: Tackling the Problems of Ministry., Erwin Lutzer describes five principles for pastoral success:

Praying is more important than preaching.
Preaching is more important than administration.
The family is more important than the congregation.
Faithfulness is more important than competition.
Love is more important than ability.

Note that he does NOT say that preaching, administration, the congregation, competition or ability are UNimportant. He simply says that praying, preaching your family, faithfulness and love are MORE important.

I will confess that when I have not been my best in ministry it is because I was out of balance in one (or more!) of these areas.

I remember telling myself, “You’re ALWAYS going to be out of balance in one area or the other. It is just important that you not STAY out of balance in that area forever.” But I’m not sure that that statement was healthy. It gave me permission to stay “temporarily” out of balance. And temporary became long term.

I remember in Bible College having an older (at least he seemed older at the time) and very successful minister coming and talking about planning an evangelistic revival (we did that sort of thing in the 60’s & 70’s).

And he gave us this multipage list of tasks and events to have in preparation for that.

OK. But he also commented that he required all staff people to cancel ALL days off for the 6-8 weeks leading up to the revival.

And no one outwardly challenged him. To do so probably would have seemed “lazy” or “uncommitted.”

“I’d rather burn out than rust out.” was our mantra.

Today I realize how out of balance that man was and how out of balance was the modeling he was doing for us.

I learned a lot of unhealthy habits early in ministry.

If you are young in ministry: watch every habit you develop. Question every priority along scriptural lines. The attitudes you develop when you are young you will carry with you for a very, very long time.

4 Types of Friends Every Pastor Needs

2010-01-13T08:50:00.001-08:00

A number of years ago, I heard both Bobby Clinton (in a Fuller doctoral class) and Howard Hendricks (probably at PromiseKeepers in Boulder) talk about the three friends every Christian man needs:

A Paul-someone who pours into your life
A Barnabas-a peer who challenges and encourages you and who holds you accountable.
A Timothy-Someone (probably younger, at least in the faith) into who you are pouring your life.

This week, I read Ike Reighard’s post on Four Types of Friends Every Pastor Needs.

Study after study shows that most pastors, while they have lots of acquaintances with whom they are friendly and colleagues, have no friends. (I am not counting one’s spouse in that list-Reighard says some helpful things re: one’s wife as best friend & the dangers it brings).

The Developer-”Your best friend will always be the person who brings out the very best in you.”

The Designer -“We tend to think of mentors as a personal, hands-on coach. The Latin and Greek define them more as “advisors” or “wise men.”… The designer mentors us in our marriage, ministry, child-rearing, civic involvement, business acumen, or any area where we need a model.”

The Disturber-“We need friends who will shake up our status quo. Disturbers ask us difficult questions, forcing us to take a closer look at motivations and ambitions.”

The Discerner -“In a lifetime of relationships, perhaps only a handful of people are willing to play this vital role because it requires mutual vulnerability. More popularly known as accountability partners, discerners bring the gift of spiritual insight into our lives. They know how to speak the truth in love. They know how to exhort and rebuke, seeking to keep their friend on the right track. They are also vulnerable—the true friends who will walk into the room of your life while everyone else is walking out.”

Find the complete article here.

Review: Preaching from a Pulpit of Bones

2010-01-12T23:11:00.001-08:00

I debated whether or not to spend the time writing a review of “Preaching from a Pulpit of Bones.” (New York: Banner Press, 1999) I read it in an evening over the weekend and immediately put in my box of books to sell. (Where it still sits).

But I thought it at least deserved a cursory review. This is not the normal book I read. I appreciate Jim Wallis and Sojourners and the emphases that they make. And as I thumbed through it, I saw lots of references to him and some critical remarks of Bill Bennett (on whom I am fairly neutral).

I totally believe it is fair to make social and economic critiques from the pulpit. The Old Testament prophets did it. John the Baptist did it. It’s not popular, but I believe there is a definitely place and need for that.

And so a few weeks back when I was at Powell’s Books in downtown Portland perusing the Preaching section (as I am wont to do whenever I am at Powell’s) this little work caught my eye.

Especially the subtitle: “We Need Morality, but Not Traditional Morality.” OK.

And then as I read the back cover, I saw that the book was written by the Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. Hmmm…. never heard of communist leaders preaching--at least from a pulpit-- before.

So, since it was a used book and relatively cheap, I broke loose with a few bucks and decided to give it a try.

I didn’t need to. I can’t figure out why the book was in a preaching section other than the title. The section identifier on the back of the book was Politics/Ethics.

Bob Avakian is a child of privilege—his father was an Alameda (CA) County Judge and member of the Berkeley (CA) School Board. Avakian attended UC-Berkeley in the 1960’s. It was there that he was radicalized. He continued to grow in importance in revolutionary circles throughout the 1970’s. In 1979 the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping came to the US to meet with Pres. Jimmy Carter. Avakian was involved in violent protests against what he saw as China’s reversal of its communist economic policies (he was correct in his evaluation). Violence ensued and felony charges were brought against 17 people, including Avakian. Through a number of other events, Avakian came to believe that the US government was going to assassinate him and so he went into self-exile in France. All charges were later dropped against him.

Avakian’s whereabouts today are unknown, although he did do two speaking engagements on the east & west coasts of the US in 2003.

Basically the book is made up of two essays. One (“Preaching From a Pulpit of Bones: The Reality Behind William Bennett’s ‘Virtues’”) and the second (“Putting an End to ‘Sin’: We Need Morality, but Not Traditional Morality”) are both diatribes against religion from either the right or the left. He “examines Bennett’s book and also writings by Jim Wallis of Sojourners and finds both wanting.

I had thought that the “Bones” of the title referred somehow to the bones in Ezekiel:

The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’ ”

So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army. (Ezek 37:1-10)

Not so much.

The book is basically a diatribe against religion of any sort. The pulpit of bones represents religion that is lifeless and kills those around it. It is made up of the bones of the people it exploits and destroys.

Avakian’s description of religion is that it describes something that is “higher than life”, but is in actuality based on falsehood.
He says that religion and art both share this characteristic of presenting things that are “higher than life.”

“Yet, as important as it is to recognize this identity between religion and art, it is even more fundamentally important to grasp the difference between them. While much of art requires ‘the suspension of disbelief”—the willingness to accept that things which do not actually exist and are not actually happening are existing and happening--it requires this only in a limited and relative sense, only in relation to the work of art itself Religion, however (including religious art), requires and demands that people do actually believe that its fantastic representations of beings, things, events and forces really exist, when in fact they do not….

If religion were to present itself in the same way and with the same expectations and requirements that art typically does—if it were to allow and encourage people to have the ultimate recognition that its fantastic creatures are not real—then it would no longer be harmful and a hindrance to the all-around development of humanity in the way it is now. But it would also no longer be religion. In this era of world-historic transformation and in the future to come, humanity will never be able to do without the imagination and without; it must and will do without—and do much better without—religion.

I have devoted way too much space to this little book. It was a (sort of) interesting read if only to hear the take of a true-communist believer about religion. But it was more of the Marxist line that has been standard for 100 years or so.

The only thing I would say is: if you are wandering down the aisle of a used book store and find a book entitled “Preaching from a Pulpit of Bones,” keep on moving down the shelf. There is much more helpful fare.

Is Portland Jesus’ Favorite City?

2010-01-10T00:29:00.001-08:00

The current issue of Portland Monthly has a fascinating series of articles. Next month, famed atheist Christopher Hitchens comes to Portland to leclture. And so in anticipation of that, the Portland Monthly produced a series of articles on religion (or at least a couple of forms of it) here in Portland.

The title of the series (Portland: Jesus’ Favorite City) is an adaptation of a statement by Commissioner Nick Fish after evangelicals presented Mayor Sam Adams with a check for $100,000 to help curb teen dropouts in the city schools. (As a part of the Season of Service campaign among evangelical churches).

The articles include an interview with Christopher Hitchens done by retired First Unitarian-Universalist Church of Portland minister Marilyn Sewell. (find it here.)

(As an aside, I laughed out loud when Hitchens told Sewell that he didn’t consider her a Christian! He said: ”I would say that if you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, [none of which she believes] you’re really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.”

The series then goes on to feature Dr.Marcus Borg,retired OSU professor or religion and currently the Canon of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral. (Find it here.)

Excerpt: Liberal Christians like himself, Borg explains, have long been better known for what they preferred not to believe. With the emerging church, that’s changing. “They take the Bible very seriously, but I don’t for a minute think that it’s inherent,” [sic-this probably shows the reporters ignorance rather than Borg’s. The term is “inerrant”.) he says. “The fear of some people is that emerging churches are moving too far away from the scriptures. I would say that it’s not that they’re moving away from the Bible as they’re recovering the Bible as a story, symbol, and metaphor.”

At the other end of the theological spectrum is Rick McKinley of Imago Dei. (Find it here.)

Excerpt: While McKinley’s preaching is notably free of the high drama and polish of megachurch and TV evangelism, Imago Dei (which takes its name from the Latin for “image of God”) adheres strictly and unabashedly to a literal reading of the Bible as both spiritual and historical truth. But McKinley insists that his church’s fundamentalist interpretation of the gospel actually encourages liberal social action—not to mention harmony with Portland’s prevailing culture. If, as Genesis tells us, humans are all created in God’s image, it follows that we must love them as we do God. In affirmation of this lofty ideal, McKinley notes proudly that his young congregation is split evenly between Democrats and Republicans.

They interview Bob Hyatt of Evergreen community (here). This is the church that meets in a bar.

Excerpt: “It says that we don’t fit the stereotype of the anal-retentive sort of Christian,” he says, sitting at one of the communal tables at Lucky Labrador Brew Pub in Southeast Portland. “It also helps to weed out the type of Christians that wouldn’t fit with us. But most importantly, meeting in a public space embodies what we’re about: we don’t want to hole up in some building with big doors and be a sanctuary from the world.”

House church networks are represented by Duke Revard and his Bread and Wine network. (Find it here.)

Excerpt: Recalling that early apostolic vitality, Revard shrugs off the hard-nosed, conservative intolerance so commonly associated with evangelical churches. “We want to speak to people in their own language,” he says. As with other emerging churches, service takes precedent over theology and politics. It’s embodied by projects like Laundry Love, a monthly gathering at the Alberta Washhouse that provides free laundry and food for the less fortunate—a small act of Christian charity, to be sure, but to Revard and his congregants, it exemplifies the apostle Paul’s reminder to the Romans that God “does not live in temples built by hands.” Bread & Wine aspires to a more metropolitan goal. “Let us love our city,” Revard intones, leading his living room gospel community in a closing prayer. “Let us love Portland.”

Last they interview Dan Merchant, the director of the Michael Moore-style movie “Lord Save Us From Your Followers.” (here).

Excerpt: Dressed in a white jumpsuit plastered in religious regalia ranging from a Jesus fish to a bumper sticker that reads, “Sorry I missed church, I’ve been busy practicing witchcraft and becoming a lesbian,” Dan Merchant bundles evangelism and paradox.

He doesn’t want to convert you; he just wants to get you talking. “Everybody has faith of some kind, in something—whether you’re an atheist or a Baptist,” he says. “And since we all have that enormous thing in common, the conversation about religion oughta be a whole lot bigger than what can fit on a bumper sticker.”

I heard about this series today at a workshop on house churches that I attended. The articles are actually pretty fair. There is not a huge bias and from my limited perspective they allow each one to speak in his own words.

If you are interested in Portland, or just interested in interesting ways that God is working in our nation, check it out.

(Note: I had previously stated in this post that Commissioner Nick Fish was gay. I was in error. He is not gay. He is married to his wife Patricia and together they have two children. My apologies for the error).

Favorite Preaching Quotes?

2010-01-08T21:43:00.001-08:00

I am working on a project…can you share with me one or two of your favorite preaching quotes? One of mine is by Billy Graham: The test of a preacher is that his congregation goes away saying, not “What a lovely sermon!” but “I will do something.”

What one would you add?

Shifting Times/Shifting Focus

2010-01-04T21:49:00.000-08:00

If you watch this blog at all, you will notice that I have not blogged for almost three months. (It is interesting to me that not one person has noted that or asked me about it). Part of the lack of posting has been because of a major transition in my own life and with that has come a shift in what I desire to do with this blog.

A question with which I have been struggling for the past year is: what direction is God leading me in ministry? After leaving the Tigard Christian Church, my wife and I both believed that God was not calling us to move to another church (and DEFINITELY not to start another church). We prayed and talked and agonized. God simply waited. He knew that there was healing that had to happen...mostly emotionally & spiritually, but also physically...before I was ready to move into a new ministry direction.

But in September a series of circumstances came together where I began a journey training as a professional coach. (No, not for the Portland Trailblazers!) The type of coaching that helps professionals (and individuals) clarify their purpose and direction and helps them to become more productive and effective.

In September I took my introductory course on coaching and then in October I began training with a formal coaching school here in Portland. At first I was hesitant (for several reasons) to coach ministers. But as the weeks & months wore on, I realized that this was what God wanted me to do: to coach ministers to higher levels of effectiveness and personal satisfaction.

Most of us in ministry are familiar with the statistics:

Fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout, or contention in their churches.
Fifty percent of pastors' marriages will end in divorce.
Eighty percent of pastors and eighty-four percent of their spouses feel unqualified and discouraged in their role as pastors.
Fifty percent of pastors are so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living.
Eighty percent of seminary and Bible school graduates who enter the ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years.
Seventy percent of pastors constantly fight depression.
Almost forty percent polled said they have had an extra-marital affair since beginning their ministry.
Seventy percent said the only time they spend studying the Word is when they are preparing their sermons.
Eighty percent of pastors' spouses feel their spouse is overworked.
Eighty percent of pastors' spouses wish their spouse would choose another profession.
The majority of pastor's wives surveyed said that the most destructive event that has occurred in their marriage and family was the day they entered the ministry. (stats from Mark Driscoll, article: "Death by Ministry")

God seems to be telling Loretta and me that both because of our faith journey over the past thirty years but also because of my passion & giftedness that I need to move into this area of coaching ministers.

Talking the Walk has been a blog about preaching. While I have varied from that a few times, I have tried to stick to that principle fairly strictly. But as it slowly re-emerges from the hiatus that it has had, the focus will broaden to more than just preaching (although since that is a huge part of my heart, it will continue to be an emphasis). It will broaden to the area of ministry in general...what it means to be an effective Christian leader in ministry in the season of time in which we live.

If you have thoughts on this...I would encourage you to either e-mail them to me (cal.habig@gmail.com) or leave them in the comments section.

Question on Teachableness

2009-10-17T09:38:00.001-07:00

Question: I have for several months been doing a personal study on teachableness. (Another story for another post). Probably my study will end up being a book (or almost certainly an e-book).

Let me ask you--with what resources are you familiar re: teachableness? Particularly teachableness and leaders?

If you have suggestions, either put them as a comment here, or drop me a note at cal.habig@gmail.com

Thanks. If the list is particularly helpful,I’ll share it with everyone.

P.S. In searching for a picture to accompany this post, I came across one that is too horrible not to share: (Just the messenger…)

Are You Naturally Funny?

2009-10-14T09:20:00.001-07:00

I don’t think that I am. Therefore, I always keep my eyes open for appropriate ways to include humor in my preaching. (I have had some unsuccessful attempts)

I have already referred to Quick and Dirty Tips on Grammar. But there an entire stable of Quick and Dirty web sites. Today I saw Lisa Marshall’s post on “How to Add Humor to Your Posts.” Now, this is not a preaching site…it is for professional speakers, but we preachers could often learn a thing or two from professional speakers!

Lisa’s post begins:

The first time I received a speaker evaluation form that said, "I really enjoyed Lisa's quirky sense of humor, " I framed the evaluation form and put it on my desk. I still have that evaluation form and that was many years ago!

I was so proud of myself because I'm not a naturally funny person. I had been working very hard to be recognized as a humorous speaker because during my late husband's illness, I had experienced first hand just how powerful laughter could be.

And when I decided to become a professional speaker, I knew I wanted people to laugh. Of course, I didn’t want them to laugh at me; but I did want them to laugh and learn with me.

Humor Brings Us Closer Together

I'm sure you know from your own experiences that laughter brings people together. Humor helps to defuse difficult situations. It reduces stress. I've even read research that says laughter makes our internal organs work better!

So, of course, I wanted to incorporate fun and laughter into my presentations. Again, I'm not a naturally funny person, so over time, I had to learn how to be a humorous speaker. In today's episode I’ll give you some tips and techniques that worked for me so that you can add humor to your presentations too.

The first time I was funny on stage was an accident. I still very clearly remember I was giving a demonstration of body language. I was slumping my shoulders and looking depressed and then I said, "I'm very happy to be here today."

That is just the start. Check out the entire post here.

Top 100 Preachers: Hippolytus

2009-10-13T06:09:00.001-07:00

(One of the few remaining homilies of Hippolytus believed to be authentic.

(After such a length review of Origen, I thought I’d better do something shorter for a change!!)

Many of the notable preachers of the early centuries of the church are relatively famous to us: Justin Martyr, Origen, Irenaeus, Chrysostom, etc.

But one prominent early preacher is not so well known: Hippolytus (170-236). There is much about Hippolytus that is unknown. It is presumed from his name that his parents were Greek. The historian Eusebius mentions Hippolytus as a bishop, but does not say from where. Jerome in his Illustrious Men also mentions Hippolytus as a bishop, but as to the place Jerome says obliquely that he was the bishop of “some place.” (cujusdam ecclesiae).

Perhaps part of the vagueness about the location of his bishopric is that Hippolytus had strong disputes with Callistus, the bishop of Rome at the time. Some later traditions put him as the bishop of Pontus, and others put him as a rival bishop in Rome. Hippolytus ravaged Callistus in his writings.

Eventually, the emperor, Maximin banished Hippolytus to the mines of Sardinia, where he soon died in 236.

But what about his preaching? This is not a listing of ancient Christian leaders or martyrs. It is a listing of the Top 100 Preachers throughout the past 2000 years. Why would Hippolytus be included on this list? Mostly on the recommendation of Eusebius and Jerome. Eusebius praises him as an eloquent speaker. Jerome speaks of a sermon on “The Praise and of Our Lord Jesus Christ” that he preached in Rome in the presence of Origen, who happened to be visiting at the time.

There is only one sermon extant that is believed to be genuine: The Discourse on the Holy Theophany. It is a baptismal sermon, probably on the occasion of the baptism of prominent person. The sermon is addressed both to the baptismal candidate, as well as to the congregation. As the name implies [theophany-“a manifestation of appearance God to a human”] the sermon centers on the baptism of Jesus and the appearance of God in the form of a dove and the voice from heaven, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.”

E.C. Dargan (A History of Preaching) gives this appraisal of the sermon and of Hippolytus:

“There is considerable quotation of Scripture. The doctrine is not elaborate. It is sound on the Trinity, does not discuss atonement or grace, and teaches, but not baldly, the necessity of baptism to salvation. In the conclusion the preacher exhorts his hearers to come and be baptized, but only on the basis of a sound repentance and in the exercise of faith. In structure and style the homily is suggestive and eloquent, and secures for its author a place among the true preachers of his age.”

Just for the Fun of It: Every Visiting Preacher’s Nightmare

2009-10-12T21:19:00.001-07:00

I love his recovery line!

Example of Origen’s Preaching: The First Homily

2009-10-12T00:58:00.001-07:00

On the beginning of the Song of Songs to the place where the writer says: “Until the king recline at his table” (Song of Solomon 1:1–12)

1. As we have learned from Moses that some places are not merely holy, but “holy of holies,” and that certain days are not sabbaths simply, but are sabbaths of sabbaths: so now we are taught further by the pen of Solomon that there are songs which are not merely songs, but “Songs of Songs.” Blessed too is he who enters holy places, but far more blest the man who enters the holy of holies! Blessed is he who observes the sabbaths, but more blest he who keeps sabbaths of sabbaths! Blessed likewise is he who understands songs and sings them — of course nobody sings except on festal days — but much more blest is he who sings the Songs of Songs! And as the man who enters holy places still needs much to make him able to enter the holy of holies, and as he who keeps the sabbath which was ordained by God for the people still requires many things before he can keep the sabbath of sabbaths: so also is it hard to find a man competent to scale the heights of the Songs of Songs, even though he has traversed all the songs in Scripture.

You must come out of Egypt and, when the land of Egypt lies behind you, you must cross the Red Sea if you are to sing the first song, saying: “Let us sing to the Lord, for He is gloriously magnified.” But though you have uttered this first song, you are still a long way from the Song of Songs. Pursue your spiritual journey through the wilderness, until you come to “the well which the kings dug,” so that there you may sing the second song. After that, come to the threshold of the holy land, that standing on the bank of Jordan you may sing the song of Moses, saying: “Hear, O heaven, and I will speak, and let the earth give ear to the words of my mouth!” Again, you must fight under Josue and possess the holy land as your inheritance; and a bee must prophesy for you and judge you — “Debbora,” you understand, means “bee” — in order that you may take that song also on your lips, which is found in the Book of Judges. Mount up thence to the Book of Kings, and come to the song of David, when he fled “out of the hand of all his enemies and out of the hand of Saul, and said, ‘The Lord is my stay and my strength and my refuge and my saviour.’” You must go on next to Isaias, so that with him you may say: “I will sing to the Beloved the song of my vineyard.”

And when you have been through all the songs, then set your course for greater heights, so that as a fair soul with her Spouse you may sing this Song of Songs too. I am not sure how many persons are concerned in it; but, as far as God has shown me in answer to your prayers, I seem to find four characters — the Husband and the Bride; along with the Bride, her maidens; and with the Bridegroom, a band of intimate companions. Some things are spoken by the Bride, others by the Bridegroom; sometimes too the maidens speak; so also do the Bridegroom’s friends. It is fitting indeed that at a wedding the bride should be accompanied by a bevy of maidens and the bridegroom by a company of youths. You must not look without for the meaning of these; you must look no further than those who are saved by the preaching of the Gospel. By the Bridegroom understand Christ, and by the Bride the Church “without spot or wrinkle,” of whom it is written: “that He might present her to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she might be holy and without blemish.” In the maidens who are with the Bride you must recognize those who, although they are faithful, do not come under the foregoing description, yet are regarded none the less as having in some sense obtained salvation — in short, they are the souls of believers. And in the men with the Bridegroom you must see the angels and those who have “come unto the perfect man.” We have thus four groups: the two individuals, the Bridegroom and the Bride; two choirs answering each other — the Bride singing with her maidens, and the Bridegroom with His companions. When you have grasped this, listen to the Song of Songs and make haste to understand it and to join with the Bride in saying what she says, so that you may hear also what she heard. And, if you are unable to join the Bride in her words, then, so that you may hear the things that are said to her, make haste at least to join the Bridegroom’s companions. And if they also are beyond you, then be with the maidens who stay in the Bride’s retinue and share her pleasures.

These are the characters in this book, which is at once a drama and a marriage-song. And it is from this book that the heathen appropriated the epithalamium, and here is the source of this type of poem; for it is obviously a marriage-song that we have in the Song of Songs. The Bride prays first and, even as she prays, forthwith is heard. She sees the Bridegroom present; she sees the maidens gathered in her train. Then the Bridegroom answers her; and, after He has spoken, while He is still suffering for her salvation, the companions reply that “until the Bridegroom recline at His table” and rise from His Passion, they are going to make the Bride some ornaments.

2. We must consider now the actual words with which the Bride first voices her prayer: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth.” Their meaning is: “How long is my Bridegroom going to send me kisses by Moses and kisses by the prophets? It is His own mouth that I desire now to touch; let Him come, let Him come down Himself!” So she beseeches the Bridegroom’s Father saying: “Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth.” And because she is such that the prophetic word, “While thou art yet speaking, I will say, ‘Lo, here am I!’” can be fulfilled upon her, the Bridegroom’s Father listens to the Bride and sends His Son.

She, seeing Him for whose coming she prayed, leaves off her prayer and says to Him directly: “Thy breasts are better than wine, and the odour of thy perfumes better than all spices.” Christ the Bridegroom, therefore, whom the Father has sent, comes anointed to the Bride and it is said to Him: “Thou hast loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.” If the Bridegroom has touched me, I too become of a good odour, I too am anointed with perfumes; and His perfumes are so imparted to me that I can say with the apostles: “We are the good odour of Christ in every place.”

But we, although we hear these things, still stink of the sins and vices concerning which the penitent speaks through the prophet, saying: “My sores are putrefied and corrupted because of my foolishness” Sin has a putrid smell, virtue exhales sweet odours. Look up examples of them in the Book of Exodus; you will find there stacte, onyx, galbanum, and so on. Now these are to make incense; in addition, various perfumes, among them nard and stacte, are taken for the work of the perfumer. And God who made heaven and earth speaks to Moses, saying: “I have filled them with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, that they may make the things that belong to the perfumer’s art”; and God teaches the perfumers. If these words are not to be spiritually understood, are they not mere tales? If they conceal no hidden mystery, are they not unworthy of God? He, therefore, who can discern the spiritual sense of Scripture or, if he cannot, yet desires so to do, must strive his utmost to live not after flesh and blood, so that he may become worthy of spiritual mysteries and — if I may speak more boldly — of spiritual desire and love, if such indeed there be. And as one sort of food is carnal and another is spiritual, and as there is one drink for the flesh and another for the spirit, so there is a love of the flesh which comes from Satan, and there is also another love, belonging to the spirit, which has its origin in God; and nobody can be possessed by the two loves. If you are a lover of the flesh, you do not acquire the love of the spirit. If you have despised all bodily things — I do not mean flesh and blood, but money and property and the very earth and heaven, for these will pass away — if you have set all these at nought and your soul is not attached to any of them, neither are you held back by any love of sinful practices, then you can acquire spiritual love.

We have put this here, because the opportunity arose to say something about spiritual love. And it is for us to follow Solomon’s injunction, and still more His who spoke through Solomon concerning wisdom, saying; “Love her, and she will keep thee safe; enfold her, and she will exalt thee; render her honour, that she may embrace thee.” For there is a certain spiritual embrace, and O that the Bridegroom’s more perfect embrace may enfold my Bride! Then I too shall be able to say what is written in this same book: “His left hand is under my head, and His right hand will embrace me.”

3. “Let Him kiss me,” therefore, “with the kisses of His mouth.” The Scriptures are wont to use the form of command, rather than that of wish. We have, for instance, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name,” instead of “O that it may be hallowed!” and in the passage before us we read “Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth,” rather than “O that He would kiss!”

Then she sees the Bridegroom. Fragrant with sweet oils He comes; and He could not otherwise approach the Bride, nor was it fitting for the Father to send His Son to the marriage in any other wise. He has anointed Him with divers perfumes, He has made Him the Christ, who comes breathing sweet odours and hears the Bride declare: “Thy breasts are better than wine.” The Divine Word rightly has different names for the same thing, according to the context. When a victim is offered in the Law, and the Word wants to show exactly what is meant, it says: “The little breast that is set apart.” But when someone reclines with Jesus and enjoys full fellowship of thought with Him, then the expression is, not “little breast,” but “bosom.” And again, when the Bride speaks to the Bridegroom, because it is a marriage-song that is beginning, the word used is not “little breast,” as in the sacrifice, not “bosom,” as in the case of the disciple John, but “breasts” — “Thy breasts are better than wine.”

Be you of one mind with the Bridegroom, like the Bride, and you will know that thoughts of this kind do inebriate and make the spirit glad. Wherefore, as “the inebriating chalice of the Lord, how surpassing good it is!” — so are the breasts of the Bridegroom better than any wine. “For Thy breasts are better than wine” — this is how in the midst of her prayers she addresses herself to her Spouse — “and the odour of Thy perfumes is above all spices.” Not with one perfume only does He come anointed, but with all. And if He will condescend to make my soul His Bride too and come to her, how fair must she then be to draw Him down from heaven to herself, to cause Him to come down to earth, that He may visit His beloved one! With that beauty must she be adorned, with what love must she burn that He may say to her the things which He said to the perfect Bride, about “thy neck, thine eyes, thy cheeks, thy hands, thy body,” thy shoulders, thy feet! God permitting, we will think about these questions, and consider why the Bride’s members are thus differentiated and a special meed of praise accorded to each part; thus, when we have thought it out, we may try to have our own soul spoken to in the same way.

“Thy breasts,” then “are better than wine.” If you have seen the Bridegroom, you will know that what is spoken here is true: “Thy breasts are better than wine, and the odour of Thy perfumes is above all spices.” Many people have had spices: the queen of the South brought spices to Solomon, and many others possessed them; but no matter what any man had, his treasures could not be compared with the odours of Christ, of which the Bride says here: “The odour of Thy perfumes is above all spices.” I think myself that Moses had spices too, and Aaron, and each one of the prophets; but if I have once seen Christ and have perceived the sweetness of His perfumes by their smell, forthwith I give my judgement in the words: “The odour of Thy perfumes is above all spices.”

4. “Thy name is as perfume poured forth.” These words foretell a mystery: even so comes the name of Jesus to the world, and is “as perfume poured forth” when it is proclaimed. In the Gospel, moreover, a woman took an alabaster vessel containing precious ointment of pure spikenard and poured it on Jesus’ head, and (another) on His feet. Note carefully which of the two women poured the perfume on the Saviour’s head: the “sinner” poured it on His feet, and she who is not called a sinner poured it on His head. Notice, I say, and you will find that in this Gospel lesson the evangelists have written mysteries, and not just tales and stories. And so “the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.” We must take what the sinner brought with reference to the feet, and what the woman who was not a sinner brought with reference to the head. Small wonder that the house was filled with fragrance, since with this fragrance all the world is filled!

The same passage speaks of Simon the leper and his house. I think the leper is the prince of this world, and that the leper is called Simon: his house it is that at Christ’s coming is filled with sweet odours, when a sinful woman repents and a holy one anoints the head of Jesus with sweet perfumes.

“Thy name is as perfume poured forth.” As perfume when it is applied scatters its fragrance far and wide, so is the name of Jesus poured forth. In every land His name is named, throughout all the world my Lord is preached; for his “name is as perfume poured forth,” We hear the name of Moses now, though formerly it was not heardbeyond the confines of Judea; for none of the Greeks makes mention of it, neither do we find anything written about him or about the others anywhere in pagan literature. But straight away, when Jesus shone upon the world, He led forth the Law and the Prophets along with Himself, and the words, “Thy name is as perfume poured forth,” were indeed fulfilled.

5. “Therefore have the virgins loved thee.” Because “the charity if God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit,” the mention of pouring forth, which is made here is apt. As the Bride says the words, “Thy name is as perfume poured forth,” she sees the maidens. When she made her petition to the Bridegroom’s Father, and while she was talking directly to the Spouse Himself, the maidens were not present; but a band of virgins appears even as she is praying, and, praising them, she says, “Therefore have the virgins loved Thee, and have drawn thee.” And the maidens answer: “We will run after thee in the fragrance of thy perfumes.”

How fine a touch it is that the attendants of the Bride do not as yet have the Bride’s own confidence! The Bride does not follow behind, she walks side by side with the Bridegroom; she takes His right hand, and in His right hand her own hand is held. But the handmaidens follow after Him. “There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and young maidens without number. One is my dove, my perfect one, she is the only one of her mother, she that conceived her hath no other one.” “After thee,” therefore, “we will run into the fragrance of thy perfumes.”

It was entirely appropriate that these words, “we will run into the fragrance of thy perfumes,” were used of lovers; they accord with “I have finished the course,” and “they that run in the race all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize” — which prize is Christ. And these maidens who, as we know, are standing without because their love is only just beginning, are like “the friend of the Bridegroom, who standeth and heareth Him, and rejoiceth with joy because of the Bridegroom’s voice.” The maidens undergo a like experience: when the Bridegroom enters, they remain without.

But when the Bride, the fair, the perfect one who is without spot or wrinkle, has entered the Bridegroom’s chamber, the secret place of the King, she comes back to the maidens and, telling them the things that she alone has seen, she says: “The king brought me into His chamber.” She does not say: “He brought us” — using the plural — “into His chamber”; the others remain without, the Bride alone is brought into the chamber, that she may see there dark and hidden treasures and may take back word to the damsels: “The King brought me into His chamber.”

Further, when the Bride has gone into the Bridegroom’s chamber and is seeing there the riches of her Spouse, the maidens — the goodly company of those who are learning to be brides — sing together joyfully while they await her coming, saying: “We will be glad and rejoice in Thee.” They are glad because of the Bride’s perfection, for there is here no envy in respect of virtues; this love is pure, this love free from fault.

“We will be glad and rejoice in thee. We will love thy breasts.” She who is greater is already enjoying the milk of those breasts, and she says in her joy: “Thy breasts are above wine.” But these, because they are young maidens only, defer their joy and gladness; their love also they defer and say: “We will be glad and rejoice in thee. We will love” — not “we love,” but “we will love” — “Thy breasts more than wine.” Then they say to the Bridegroom, “Equity has loved thee”: they praise the Bride by calling her Equity, as denoting the sum of her characteristic virtues — “Equity has loved Thee.”

6. The Bride then makes the maidens this reply: “I am black and beautiful, O ye daughters of Jerusalem” — we learn now that “daughters of Jerusalem” is what the maidens are — “As the tents of cedar, as the curtains of Solomon. Look not at me, for that I am blackened; for the sun has looked down on me.”

Beautiful indeed is the Bride, and I can find out in what manner she is so. But the question is, in what way is she black and how, if she lacks whiteness, is she fair. She has repented of her sins, beauty is the gift conversion has bestowed; that is the reason she is hymned as beautiful. She is called black, however, because she has not yet been purged of every stain of sin, she has not yet been washed unto salvation; nevertheless she does not stay dark-hued, she is becoming white. When, therefore, she arises towards greater things and begins to mount from lowly things to lofty, they say concerning her: “Who is this that cometh up, having been washed white?” And in order that the mystery may be more clearly expressed, they do not say “leaning upon her Nephew’s arm,” as we read in most version — that is to say, epistērizomeˊnē, but epistēthizomeˊnē, that is, “leaning upon His breast.” And it is significant that the expression used concerning the bride-soul and the Bridegroom-Word is “lying upon His breast,” because there is the seat of our heart. Forsaking carnal things, therefore, we must perceive those of the spirit and understand that it is much better to love after this manner than to refrain from love. She “cometh up,” then, “leaning on her Nephew’s breast” and of her, who at the Canticle’s beginning was set down as black, it is sung at the end of the marriage-song: “Who is this that cometh up, having been washed white?”

We understand, then, why the bride is black and beautiful at one and the same time. But, if you do not likewise practise penitence, take heed lest your soul be described as black and ugly, and you be hideous with a double foulness — black by reason of your past sins and ugly because you are continuing in the same vices! If you have repented, however, your soul will indeed be black because of your old sins, but your penitence will give it something of what I may call an Ethiopian beauty. And having once made mention of an Ethiopian, I want to summon a Scriptural witness about this word too. “Aaron and Mary murmur against Moses, because Moses has an Ethiopian wife.” Moses weds an Ethiopian wife, because his Law has passed over to the Ethiopian woman of our Song. Let the Aaron of the Jewish priesthood murmur, and let the Mary of their synagogue murmur too. Moses cares nothing for their murmuring; He loves his Ethiopian woman, concerning whom it is said elsewhere through the prophet: “From the ends of the rivers of Ethiopia shall they bring offerings,” and again: “Ethiopia shall get her hands in first with God.” It is well said that she shall get in first; for, as in the Gospel the woman with the issue of blood received attention before the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, so also has Ethiopia been healed while Israel is still sick. “By their offence salvation has been effected for the Gentiles, so as to make them jealous.”

“I am black and beautiful, O ye daughters of Jerusalem.” Address yourself to the daughters of Jerusalem, you member of the Church, and say: “The Bridegroom loves me more and holds me dearer than you, who are the many daughters of Jerusalem; you stand without and watch the Bride enter the chamber.” [Let no one doubt that the black one is beautiful, for all she is called black. For we exist in order that we may acknowledge God, that we may tell forth songs of a song, that we may be those who have come from the borders of Ethiopia, from the ends of the earth, to hear the wisdom of the true Solomon.] And when the Saviour’s voice is heard thundering out the words: “The queen of the South shall come to judgement and shall condemn the men of this generation, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, a greater than Solomon is here,” you must understand what is said in a mystical sense: the queen of the South, who comes from the ends of the earth, is the Church; and the men of this generation whom she condemns, are the Jews, who are given over to flesh and blood. She comes from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom, not of that Solomon about whom we read in the Old Testament, but of Him who is said in the Gospel to be greater than Solomon.

“I am black and beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, black as the tents of Cedar, beautiful as the curtains of Solomon.” The very names accord with the Bride’s comeliness. The Hebrews say that “Cedar” is the word for darkness — “I am black,” therefore, “as the tents of Cedar,” as the Ethiopians, as Ethiopian tents; and “beautiful as the curtains of Solomon,” which he prepared as adornments of the tabernacle at the time when he built the Temple with the utmost care and toil. Solomon was rich indeed, and no one surpassed him in any branch of wisdom. “I am black and beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Cedar, as the curtains of Solomon. Look not at me, for that I am blackened.” She apologizes for her blackness; and, being turned to better things through penitence, she tells the daughters of Jerusalem that she is black indeed, but beautiful for the reason which we gave above, and says: “Look not at me, for that I am blackened. Do not be surprised,” she says, “that I am of a forbidding hue; the Sun has looked down on me. With full radiance His bright light has shone on me, and I am darkened by His heat. I have not indeed received His light into myself as it were fitting that I should, and as the Sun’s own dignity required.”

By “their offence salvation has been effected for the Gentiles.” And again: “Through the unbelief of the Gentiles is the knowledge of Israel.” You find both of these texts in the Apostle.

7. “The sons of my mother have fought against me.” We must consider in what sense the Bride says: “The sons of my mother have fought against me,” and at what time her brothers launched this attack. You have only to look at Paul, the persecutor of the Church, to see how a son of her mother fought against her. The persecutors of the Church have repented, and her opponents have turned to their sister’s banners and have preached the faith which they formerly sought to destroy. Foreseeing this, the Bride now sings: “They have contended against me, they have made me the keeper in the vineyards; my vineyard I have not kept.” “I, the Church, the spotless one,” she says, “have been appointed keeper of many vineyards by my mother’s sons, who once had fought against me. Harassed by the responsibility and care involved in guarding many vineyards, I have not kept my own.”

Apply these words to Paul or any other of the saints who care for the salvation of all men, and you will see how he guards others’ vineplantations while not guarding his own; how he himself bears loss in some respects so that he may gain others; and how, though he was free as to all, he made himself the servant of all that he might gain all, being made weak to the weak, a Jew to the Jews, as subject to the Law to those who are so subject, and so forth — how, in a word, he can say: “My vineyard I have not kept.”

The Bride then beholds the Bridegroom; and He, as soon as she has seen Him, goes away. He does this frequently throughout the Song; and that is something nobody can understand who has not suffered it himself. God is my witness that I have often perceived the Bridegroom drawing near me and being most intensely present with me; then suddenly He has withdrawn and I could not find Him, though I sought to do so. I long, therefore, for Him to come again, and sometimes He does so. Then, when He has appeared and I lay hold of Him, He slips away once more; and, when He has so slipped away, my search for Him begins anew. So does He act with me repeatedly, until in truth I hold Him and go up, “leaning on my Nephew’s arm.”

8. “Tell me, Thou whom my soul has loved, where Thou feedest, where Thou liest in the midday.” I am not asking about other times, I ask not where Thou feedest in the evening, or at daybreak, or when the sun goes down. I ask about the full day-time, when the light is brightest and Thou dwellest in the splendour of Thy majesty: “Tell me, Thou whom my soul has loved, where Thou liest in the midday.”

Observe attentively where else you have read about midday. In the story of Joseph his brethren feast at noon; at noon the angels were entertained by Abraham, and there are other instances besides. You will find if you look into it, that Holy Scripture never uses any word haphazard and without a purpose. Who among us, do you think, is worthy to attain the midday, and to see where the Bridegroom feeds and where He lies at noon? “Tell me, Thou whom my soul has loved, where Thou feedest, where Thou liest in the midday.” For, unless Thou tell me, I shall begin to be a vagrant, driven to and fro; while I am looking for Thee, I shall begin to run after other people’s flocks and, because these other people make me feel ashamed, I shall begin to cover my face and my mouth. I am the beautiful Bride in sooth, and I show not my naked face to any save Thee only, whom I kissed tenderly but now. “Tell me, Thou whom my soul has loved, where Thou feedest, where Thou liest in the midday, lest I have to go veiled beside the flocks of Thy companions.” That I suffer not these things — that I may need not to go veiled nor hide my face; that, mixing with others, I run not the risk of beginning to love also them whom I know not — tell me, therefore, where I may seek and find Thee in the midday, “lest I have to go veiled beside the flocks of Thy companions.”

9. After these words the Bridegroom warns her, saying: “Either know thyself, that thou art the Bride of the King and beautiful, and made beautiful by me because I have presented to myself ‘a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle’; or understand that if thou hast not known thyself nor grasped thy dignity, thou must endure the things that follow.” What may these be?

“If Thou have not known Thyself, O fair one among women, go forth in the steps of the flocks and feed” — not the flocks of sheep, nor of lambs, but — “Thy goats.” He will set the sheep on the right hand and the goats upon the left, assuredly. “If thou have not known thyself, O fair one among women, go forth in the steps of the flocks and feed thy goats among the shepherds’ tents.” “In the steps of the flocks,” He says, “wilt thou find thyself at the last, not among the sheep, but among the goats; and when thou dwellest with them thou canst not be with me — that is, with the Good Shepherd.”

10. “To my company of horsemen among Pharao’s chariots have I likened thee. If thou wouldst understand, O Bride, how thou must know thyself, think what it is to which I have compared thee. Then, when thou hast recognized thy likeness, thou wilt see that thou art such as must not be disgraced.”

What then is the meaning of these words: “To my company of horsemen among Pharao’s chariots have I likened thee”? I myself know that the Bridegroom is likened to a horseman in the words of the prophet: “Thy riding is salvation”: so thou art compared to “my company of horsemen among Pharao’s chariots.” As different is the company of horsemen that belongs to me, who am the Lord and drown the Pharao and his generals, his riders and his horsemen in the waves — as different, I tell you, is my cavalry from Pharao’s horses as thou, the Bride, art better than all daughters, and thou, the soul belonging to the Church, art better than all souls that are not of the Church. “To my company of horsemen among Pharao’s chariots have I likened thee.”

He next describes the beauty of the Bride in terms of spiritual love: “Thy cheeks are as the turtle-dove’s.” He praises her face, and is kindled to admiration by her rosy cheeks. A woman’s beauty is considered to reside supremely in her cheeks. So let us likewise take the cheeks as revealing the beauty of the soul; by lips and tongue, however, let the intelligence be represented to us.

“Thy neck is as a necklace.” Thy neck, that is to say, even when unadorned is of itself as much an ornament as is the little necklace called hormiskos, that virgins are wont to wear.

After these things the Spouse takes His repose. “He has reposed as a lion, and as a lion’s whelp He has slept,” so that in due course He may hear: “Who shall arouse Him?” While He reposes, His companions the angels appear to the Bride and comfort her with these words: “We cannot make thee golden ornaments — we are not so rich as is thy Spouse, who gives thee a necklace of gold; we will make thee likenesses of gold, for gold we have not got. Yet this also is matter for rejoicing, if we make likenesses of gold, if we make studs of silver. “We will make Thee likenesses of gold with studs of silver;” but not for always, only until thy Spouse arises from His rest. For, when He has arisen, He Himself will make thee gold and silver, He will Himself adorn thy mind and thy understanding, and thou shalt be rich indeed, the Bride made perfect in the House of the Bridegroom, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

Top 100 Preachers and Sermons: Origen

2009-10-12T00:34:00.001-07:00

No list of prominent Christian preachers would be complete without adequate attention being given to Origen (A.D. 185-254).

Origen was born in Alexandria of Christian parents. When he was 16 years old a great persecution broke out and Origen’s father, Leonides, was thrown into prison. Origen wanted to join his father in prison and into what was presumed to be the martyrdom to follow, but his mother—unwilling to see this—hid all of Origen’s clothes when he was undressed, so that he couldn’t leave the house. Unable to leave, he wrote to his father, pleading with him to have courage and not give up his faith. Leonides stood by his faith and was beheaded. All of his property was confiscated.

Origen began to provide for his family financially at that time by beginning to teach.Because of the persecution, Origen’s teacher, Clement of Alexandria abandoned his work as head of the catechetical school at Alexandria and Origen took it up, even though he was only 18 years old.

Origen continued to live in ascetic poverty. He used no wine. He slept on the ground. He fasted constantly — to the injury of his health. He wore no shoes. He possessed only one coat. He spent day and night in study. According to some authorities, Origen’s zeal for dedication and purity led him to self-mutilation. Whether or not he was ever actually castrated is an issue difficult to establish on the basis of existing evidence. But the story does reflect something of his image among his contemporaries as a zealous — almost fanatical — Christian. (Fant & Pinson, A treasury of great preaching, vol. 1, p. 30)

His fame as a teacher grew and for a time he was summoned to Antioch to teach Julia Mammaea, the mother of Emperor Alexander Severus.

After his return to Alexandria, and with the rise of a new emperor, a new persecution arose and Origen was forced to flee his home city. He wandered until finally ending up in Caesarea in Palestine. While the bishops in Caeasarea were delighted to have Origen teaching there, his own bishop in Alexandria was furious over it (because Origen was not ordained) and ordered Origen to return to Alexandria.

Origen’s relationship with Demetrius, the bishop of Alexandria was continually antagonistic. “Demetrius apparently was jealous of anyone whose ability threw him entirely into the background, whose opinions were beyond his understanding, and whose methods he did not approve.” (Fant & Pinson) Demetrius called a synod to seek excommunicate Origen, but the synod refused. Demitrius, therefore, called a second synod, who complied and excommunicated Origen, but most of the churches ignored the action.

Origen spent the next twenty years in Palestine researching, writing and teaching. After another persecution arose, he was forced to live in hiding, but he continued his work, even clandestinely.

Eventually a persecution arose that caught Origen in it’s web. He was arrested in Tyre, imprisoned and tortured. He was eventually released, upon the death of Emperor Decius, but Origen was so broken that he soon died there in Tyre at the age of 69.

Origen heavily influenced preaching during these years. He is most famous for his incredible flights of allegorical fancy in his biblical interpretation. He formulated that all scripture had three senses: grammatical, moral, and spiritual (or allegorical) and the last was the most important.

Part of this arose because of two factors: the allegorical method was widely used in the culture at that time. But second (and more important) Origen had no understanding of the concept of progressive revelation. Therefore he struggled with harmonizing the laws and regulations of the Old Testament with the faith and ethic of the gospel.

Origen sought to save the whole structure of Scripture as a unity by discovering a mystical or spiritual meaning within every obscure and difficult passage. This desire for unity between the Old and New Testaments led him into many of his fantastic comparisons between Old Testament regulations and New Testament principles. (Fant & Pinson, 1:36)

But that judgment overshadows the three greatest contributions of Origen:

Origen was the first preacher to establish the form of the sermon as a discourse on a specific biblical text, where that text should be explained and applied. Up until this time every Christian saw him/herself as a preacher and sermons were often little more than personal testimonies. Because of the repeated persecutions during this period, Origen felt it was vital that preachers preach the content of the Bible and be able to defend it intellectually.
Origen was the first preacher to lay great stress upon the importance of a careful exegesis of the historical and grammatical significance of the sermon text.
Related to the above, Origen contributed to the structure of the sermon. Before this time, sermons had been (as already stated) little more than personal testimonies with random thoughts, seldom related either to one another or to scripture. But Origen insisted that preaching must be expository: a continuous narrative based on one particular passage of scripture. Generally there was no single theme to the sermon: it was simply a running commentary on the passage of scripture. The only unity in the sermon could be found in whatever unity was found in the text being addressed.

Ambrosius, one of Origen’s converts, sponsored seven or more scribes who would take down Origen’s sermons in shorthand as they were being preached and then put them into publishable format. (I suspect that something similar to that must be happening with D.A. Carson today, so prolific is his output). Even to today, we have over 200 of Origen’s homilies recorded.

Origen believed that it was God who called and qualified the preacher. It was, however, the preacher’s responsibility to acquire and improve the gift of prophecy.

Origen was not a orator: he was a teacher. But it was not just his academic prowess that attracted students. The historian Eusebius notes that “his warmth of nature, his enthusiasm and his sympathy won men to him.”

Through his teaching and through his life, Origen impacted the theory and practice of Christian preaching for millennia to come.

Bryan Chapell on the Future of Expository Preaching

2009-10-06T00:03:00.001-07:00

I found this little video helpful in defining expository preaching in a simple way.

Mead>>Don’t Disregard Distractions

2009-10-01T01:09:00.001-07:00

Peter Mead has a great post on avoiding distractions in our preaching:

Don’t ignore the power of distractions. I’m not referring to the things that distract you, but the things you do that distract your listeners. Don’t just shrug and say, “that’s just me.” It’s not. If you know about a distraction and don’t do something about it, then really you are saying, “that’s just me being too lazy or proud to address the issue.” If you don’t know about your distracting mannerisms and habits, perhaps it’s time to ask someone who will be honest with you? What might they point out?

Distracting Gestures – These tend to be the first thing people will mention because their power to distract is so great. Basically any gesture you use too frequently will distract. Especially any gesture you use rhythmically.

Distracting Gaze – It is distracting to listen to a speaker who won’t look at you, but instead seems to be looking over your head, or at some apparition only he can see on the wall over by the clock. Eye contact matters to people, whether they know it or not.

Distracting Words or Non-Words - Hmmm, you know, like, I mean, just really, uhhhh, and what not. Non-words, filler words, mispronounced words and repeatedly tacked on words are all distractions. Find out what you use and graciously assassinate it.

Distracting Attire – Do most people really appreciate that loud shirt you were given on the ministry trip to wherever-land, or only the one or two ebullient people who react with joy to anything that breaks the monotony of normal life? Equally, do the right clothes fit wrong, or the patterns create hallucinations for people watching your image projected on the screen (most of us don’t have this problem).

Your goal in communicating is to communicate. It makes no sense to tolerate distractions. Funnily enough, distracted listeners are, well, distracted. Find out if you are causing distraction in any way, the don’t disregard what you discover.

Find Peter’s blog here.

Spurgeon Fellowship Schedule for 2009-2010

2009-09-30T07:42:00.001-07:00

I have recently been blogging about the first of the 2009-2010 Spurgeon Fellowship lectures at Western Seminary which was given by Art Azurdia. This is the fourth season for the SF lectures. In case you will be in Portland on the following dates, here is the schedule for the rest of this school year. (While the sessions are free, pre-registration is required. The auditorium will only hold 250 people. It ALWAYS sells out).

November 3, 2009 (Tuesday)
DR. ALEX MONTOYA “Preaching And The Purpose Of The Church”

Associate Professor of Pastoral Ministries at The Master’s Seminary in Sun Valley and Pastor of First Fundamental Bible Church of Monterey Park, California.

We will examine the place of Biblical preaching as the primary means for advancing the grand purpose of the church, the importance of the pulpit as the driving force for the church, as well as the necessity of the pulpit being in step with the Biblical purpose of the local church.

January 12, 2010 (Tuesday)
DR. MIKE JONES “The Weapons Of Our Warfare”

Pastor of Independent Bible Church in Port Angeles, Washington.

At the end of our spiritual journey, will we be able to say with the apostle Paul, ”I have fought the good fight?” In a day given over to constant attacks on the role of the preacher and the importance of preaching the word of God faithfully, we need to know the weapons supplied by God for victory.

March 16, 2010 (Tuesday)
Session 1: DR. JOHN JOHNSON “The Need To Preach Ecclesiastes In An Age Of Folly”

Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology and Director of the Doctor of Ministry program at Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon. John is also Lead Pastor of Village Baptist Church in Beaverton, Oregon

Most congregants have a disparaging view of Ecclesiastes, while most preachers tend to avoid this book. But could Ecclesiastes be one of the most timely, significant books for our present culture? If so, how in the world do we preach it?

Session 2: DR. ROBERT SMITH “Doctrine That Dances”

Professor of Christian Preaching at Beeson Divinity School. Author of Doctrine That Dances: Bringing Doctrinal Preaching and Teaching to Life, he pastored for twenty years and has preached and taught in over forty schools in the United States and abroad.

“Ministers who dare to preach doctrinally must always remember that they not only participate in rightly dividing the word of truth before the congregation, but that they are also divided by that same word.” But what happens to the man who, while laboring at preaching, fails to experience the truth being proclaimed? What are the effects of this on the congregation? How can a preacher be touched by the Word he proclaims?

For more information or to register for The Spurgeon Fellowship, call 877-517-1800 x1855 (toll-free) or 503-517-1855 or visit www.thespurgeonfellowship.org. Western Seminary is located at 5511 SE Hawthorne Blvd in Portland, OR.

Download the informational brochure here.

Further Thoughts on Successful vs. Faithful and Divine Healing

2009-09-29T08:02:00.001-07:00

The last couple of days I have reported on Art Azurdia’s presentation at the Spurgeon Fellowship on the topic: Faithful or Successful: Shattering the Dichotomy. And I absolutely appreciated Art’s emphases. It is worth listening to, if you weren’t there. (You can find the audio here.) It helped me put a number of things from my last pastoral ministry in context.

But I struggle with one aspect. And perhaps I am coming at it wrongly, but it is where I am coming from.

(Excuse me for the excurses into divine healing. I promise to bring it back to Art’s lecture)

In recent years I have been in regular contact with a pastor friend from Beaverton, Craig DeMo, who espouses the principles of Portland faith-healer John G. Lake. (Lake—picture to the right--ministered in Portland in the 1920’s).

I do not want anything I say to come across as anything but respectful to Craig. I value him and the ministry he performs. I just can’t buy into it. My friend has evangelistic and healing ministries both in the US as well as in Asia, particularly Pakistan.

He teaches regularly in writing, in classes and on CD recordings on “divine healing” that I have studied & of which I have tried to make sense. He has seven principles of divine healing, the first and last which are:

#1: We cannot judge whether or not someone is healed based on what we see, what we hear or on ANY external evidence. (p. 3)

and

#7: The Word always works. Healing always comes. (p. 28)

Later, he seems to qualify this a bit when he says, “Whenever we act or move in faith for healing, healing always comes.” (p. 30) But his principle still stands: Healing always comes.

Let me break down a little bit more what I believe Lake & DeMo are saying:

#1: We cannot judge whether or not someone is healed based on what we see, what we hear or on ANY external evidence.

He compares it to salvation: When someone accepts Christ, we may not immediately see any observable difference in their lives or behavior. But we have no qualms declaring that they are saved. Craig notes: “When it comes to the New Birth, we don’t judge based on what we see—but when it comes to divine healing, we change the rules.” (p. 3)

I just don’t see evidence of that in the New Testament. When Jesus healed someone, there was an immediate, observable change in the physical condition of the person asking for healing. The example that Craig uses as his main point of evidence is the healing of the blind man who was healed in stages in Mark 8.

Mark 8:22-26: They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”

The point made, was that this man was not healed immediately. It took two steps. Therefore, Craig says, healing may not come immediately: the observable healing may come days, weeks or years later.

However, observable healing DID come when Jesus put spit in the man’s eyes & touched them. He did NOT remain blind. It was an observable difference. Now the reason why the healing was in two stages is a discussion for another article (or not) but I don’t believe this is a valid example of healing not being immediately observable. Even in this case, Jesus did not leave the person until healing was complete.

#7: The Word always works. Healing always comes.

The only exemption that Craig allows to that is when there is unbelief, but not unbelief on the part of the one seeking healing, but unbelief on the part of the one administering healing. He uses the example of Jesus’ disciples in Matt 17:

Matthew 17:14-21 When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.” “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment. Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

As much as I want to believe Craig’s teachings on divine healing, it just doesn’t add up to me. To say that healing ALWAYS comes whether or not we can observe it or not seems like a bit of word-play hocus-pocus. It comes across as not just faith, but blind faith. “In spite of all of the evidence to the contrary, I choose to believe.” And there may, sometimes, be an aspect of that in faith. But that is not a definition of faith.

I have to say there comes a time when one MUST say, “Healing didn’t come. Whatever God’s reasons; we were not necessarily at fault, the sick person was not necessarily at fault. But God chose not to heal.”

So…back to Faithful-vs.-Successful.

Probably I am just reading too much into this based on my reaction to Craig’s teaching on Divine Healing, but these two principles seem to be the same as what Art is saying about preaching and ministry.

Remember where Art left off as his conclusion: “IF YOU STAY FAITHFUL TO THE GOSPEL, YOU WILL SUCCEED.” And I surmise from both lectures that success will come, even if it is not observable.

He premised that on his previous lectures that –

1. Success does not come because of our efforts, but because of God’s work. (I buy into that).

2. God has said that he chose us to bear fruit. (I buy into that).

3. Therefore…our work will always be successful; we may just not see it.

(Perhaps the fault in the logic that I am tripping over is that Art is equating “bearing fruit” with success?

I hear both of them saying, “In spite of all of the evidence…healing/success will come.”

I understand all the talk about Paul “planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.” (I Cor. 3:6) And I ABSOLUTELY believe that.

But I struggle with the blanket statement that “IF YOU STAY FAITHFUL TO THE GOSPEL, YOU WILL SUCCEED.”

“All evidence to the contrary, you will succeed.”

Maybe that is just an element of faith. But I cannot differentiate clearly between what my friend Craig teaches and what I hear from Art.

It seems there may come a time when we say, “We were not successful. Whatever God’s reasons; we were not necessarily at fault, those around us were not necessarily at fault. But God (for his own reasons) chose not to make this endeavor successful.” And blindly saying, “Well, we ARE or WILL BE successful because God promised that,” seems a bit like presuming on God.

I would say of my friend Craig that he has set up human principles on healing that he must defend whether or not the evidence stacks up against it. May we also say that if we accept what Art says about ultimate success, that we may find ourselves having to do the same thing: defend principles whether or not the evidence stacks up against it?

I am not wanting to be negative and prematurely declare failure when the story is not all in. But I (wonder…not conclude…just wonder…if Art is setting up principles that may prove to be indefensible in the end.

Don’t take any of this as dissing Art’s presentation. It was excellent. And I may be splitting hairs a bit too much. l just want to understand if he is taking a scriptural truth and making a man-made principle out of it that is not actually biblical truth.

Can you help me differentiate between the two teachers and their teaching?

If you can, put a note in the comments section. I may address this again if there is enough interest.

Faithful or Successful: Shattering the Dichotomy, Part II

2009-09-28T18:24:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I gave a report on Art Azurdia’s first presentation at the Spurgeon Fellowship at Western Seminary which was held a couple of weeks back. In spite of what some of my friends thought, it was not the Surgeon Fellowship (I am not a physician) nor was it the Sturgeon Fellowship (for my Columbia River-fishing friends)

Both of Art’s presentations were EXCELLENT and dealt with the topic of Faithfulness vs. Success in the proclamation of the Gospel. Last time we looked at the divine aspect…that ultimately God, not we, are the determiner of whatever success we have. We are called to be faithful.

HOWEVER… at the break, I ask Art, “So what does that do to job evaluations and personal accountability.” He smiled and said, “Just wait until the second lecture.”

And for the most part he was correct. He MOSTLY answered my question.

Art’s thesis during the second lecture was: (my notes follow)

Can a called man(*), faithful to the gospel, be certain of success?

John 15:12-17 (esp. v. 16)

The preacher does not select his vocation. It is selected for him. –Will Houghton

The man whom Christ makes a fisher of men is successful. --Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Prayer is one half of a man’s ministry; and it gives to the other half all its power and success –Charles Bridges

Size in and of itself is not the sign of anything good or bad.

Can a called man, faithful to the gospel, be certain of success?

John 15:12-17: You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

I. Considering the Context (…as I have loved you”)…

That phrase appears at the beginning and the end of this passage like parenthesis “inclusio”
- v. 12: My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
- v. 17-This is my command: Love each other.
Jesus: “ponder how you should love each other based on how I have loved you.”
Moral imperative based on a moral indicative.
The love of Jesus displays itself in
- His death for them (v. 13: “to lay down his life for one’s friends.”)
- His intimacy with them (v. 14-“you are my friends if you do what I command.”)
- His appointment of them. (v. 15: I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.)
Lest they get pompous because of His love, he punctures their balloon—You didn’t choose me, I chose you.”

II. Narrowing the Focus

Can a called man, faithful to the gospel, be certain of success?

John 15:16: You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.

Three truths:

1. Gospel ministers are sovereignly commissioned. (v. 16a-“you did not chose me, but I chose you”)

Don’t be afraid of this. (“You did not choose me [for yourself], but I chose you [for myself]”)-middle active.

“Jesus found Philip” vs. “We have found him of whom Moses & the prophets spoke.” Was Philip a liar? No, he was speaking existentially.
This is not the appointment of salvation, but the appointment of certain people to tasks of bearing fruit. An election FOR ministry/an election to GO.
- Num 8-the appointment of the Levites
- Jeremiah-before you were born, I knew you.
We must not democratize the church.
1. Jesus calls
2. It does not mean that
3. The plurality of elders is not the NT’s only word about church leadership. (My emphasis, not his)
4. Gospel ministers are sovereignly commissioned.
5. This appointment is not for indolence and ease, but for a task that is relentless, vicious & at times dangerous to their health.
6. You have not chosen this work, but that God chose it for you.
7. We have too many “self-sent” men: Self-centered entrepreneurialism.
8. People in our congregations are thinking “Any boob can be a pastor”

2. Gospel ministers are commissioned to succeed (16b: “I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit & that your fruit should abide?”)

What is the type of fruit referred to here?
1. The fruit is the consequence of their going. Fruit that is borne of mission.
2. It is the disciple-making process (not to be confused with the decision-making process).
In this context WE WILL BEAR FRUIT.
It is a LIE to say: “God hasn’t called you to be successful; God has called you to be faithful.”
- Some people use it to excuse complacency.
- The occupational hazard of the ministry is a broken heart.
Faithful or successful is a false dichotomy; it is Faithful AND successful

(Is Peter dispassionate in Acts 2:38-39?)
The gospel is not an invitation; it is a summons.
To NOT do it is not to decline; it is to deny.

What brings passion in preaching?

Passion is the fruit of a Word saturated life.
I expect something to happen when I preach.
That doesn’t mean that I can immediately see the results of each sermon.

3. Gospel ministers are successful through Prayer. (v. 16c: Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.)

Culture sets your context, but it must never set your agenda.
We must distinguish between the assembling of a mob from the salvation of the multitude. (“so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.”)
Praying IS YOUR JOB (If it was not part of your job description given to you by the church, it was part of your job description given to you by Christ).
“Apart from me you can do nothing.” (Luther: “a nothing does not mean a little something.”)
How do we live in the tension between an evidence fruitlessness?
- 1. Resist all attempts to measure success now.
  - You not possess the capacity to measure success accurately.
  - Your knowledge & motives are limited & stained.
- 2. Rest your assurance of success on the promise of Jesus.
  - If you are a God-called man & are faithful to the Gospel, then fruit will be born of your ministry.
  - You may not see the fruit in your lifetime.
  - For now our assurance must rest not on what we see, but what Jesus said.

IF YOU STAY FAITHFUL TO THE GOSPEL, YOU WILL SUCCEED.

And so, in answer to my question about accountability and evaluation, it seems to me that Art’s answer would be that we are accountable for the execution of what we set out to do…but not necessarily to the immediate results. If the supervisor/eldership/senior minister/whatever and the minister/staff person, whatever have agreed on the criteria for the execution of a plan, then the execution, not it’s immediate results are what is evaluatable.

I am not positive that this is what he is saying. I also have one more hesitation which I will lay out tomorrow.

(*)- The Spurgeon Fellowship premise is that only men can be called to Gospel ministry and so their language is always “men.” Please don’t give me grief about it…I am only reporting, not advocating nor defending.

Spurgeon Fellowship: “Successful or Faithful: Shattering the Dichotomy”

2009-09-27T19:57:00.001-07:00

Last week I promised to give you a run-down on the Fall Spurgeon Fellowship meeting at Western Seminary. Each year, the director of Spurgeon Fellowship, Art Azurdia, gives at least one of the major presentations. Dr. Azurdia is Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology and Director of Pastoral Mentoring at Western Seminary here in Portland. He was the founding minister of Christ Community Church in Fairfield , California , which he subsequently pastored for 19 years. He is also the founder of The Spurgeon Fellowship at Western Seminary, a fraternity of ministers devoted to seeking the wisdom of classical pastoral theology for contemporary church ministry. Art is the author of Spirit Empowered Preaching (Christian Focus Publications) and a contributing author in two additional volumes: The Compromised Church (Crossway) and Reforming Pastoral Ministry (Crossway).

Art’s presentation last week was not so much on preaching (the primary focus of this blog), but on ministerial leadership generally. His theme was “Successful or Faithful: Shattering the Dichotomy.”

You can find the audio here.

Here are my notes in outline form:

HOW CAN YOU CRUCIFY MINISTERIAL JEALOUSY
WHEN ANOTHER’S APPARENT SUCCCESS SO CLEARLY OUTSTRIPS YOUR OWN?
John 3:22-30

We aim at God’s glory when we are content to be outshined by others in gifts and esteem --Thomas Watson

No other sin has wrought such havoc among the ministers of Christ as the inordinate love of place and power. --Charles Jefferson

A preacher must despise praise --William Willamon

Introduction

The dangers of pastoral jealousy:
- “The bitch goddess of success”- William James
- Unsanctified ambition: the lust to succeed.
- An acid rain that can burn holes in your heart.
John & Jesus were baptizing in close physical proximity to one another.
- v. 35-as a consequence of these two very similar ministries in the same geographical area, questions arose over competition.
- Johns disciples: John’s baptism is the original; the “real deal”
  - The disciples went to John & tried to imply that Jesus was inferior to John since John’s ministry was first & Jesus had co-oped John’s methodology—baptism.
  - They didn’t even refer to Jesus by name
  - Exaggerated the extent of the receiving of the message-“everyone is going to him”
  - v. 23-“was baptizing” –implies continual action.

John’s reply tells us how to battle pastoral jealousy.

Recognize that…

1. …any expression of success is the exclusive prerogative of God. (John 3:27)

John 6-no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the father
To Pontius Pilate: You would have no authority over me at all unless it was given to you by God.
What do you have that you did not receive?
“Apollos planted, I watered, etc.” Paul: sovereignty does not deny pastoral responsibility
Peter: “not lording it over those allotted to your charge.” God allots those who are in your church. God is the one who determines the size of your church.
Dissatisfaction with the sovereignty of God is not the mark of a sanctified mind.

2. …ultimate Satisfaction is found in uniting people intimately with Jesus Christ. (John 3:28-29)

v. 28-You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’
Responsibilities of bridegroom-
- To prepare for the wedding
- He was forever forbidden from marrying the bride
- To escort the bride to the bridal chamber & wait outside the bridal chamber until he hears the word of the groom that the bride is indeed a virgin.
In America success is measured by bodies, bucks & buildings.
We talk about “building the church” when in fact that is exclusive role of God.

3. The exclusive preeminence of Jesus has been irresistibly predetermined. (John 3:30)

John bore the exclusive right to be the hinge between the old & new covenant?
“No-one is greater than John”
- Greater in miraculous power? (John did no miracles)
- Greater in revelatory insight? (John wrote no books)
- Greater than David, Noah, Moses?
- Greater because he is able to point to the Messiah with an immediacy like no one else.
John could only point to Jesus in anticipation.
Yet Jesus said, “the least in the KOG is greater than John the B” Why? When we declare the conquest of Jesus in his death & resurrection, we are greater than John the Baptist
“He MUST increase & I MUST decrease” MUST is one of John’s favorite words. The Greek word means pre-ordained.

CONCLUSION

Example of Alexander Whyte- He was known as one who poured himself into younger ministers, even those whose abilities were greater than himself. “All of his geese became swans.”

Again, you can find the audio here.

The second half, on pastoral responsibility tomorrow.

The Good Funeral…Or Is It?

2009-09-26T22:55:00.001-07:00

It is kind of a funny thing. I have a post 4/5 completed on Origen: one of my top 100 preachers and sermons of all time; I have a two-part report on Art Azurdia’s presentation at the Spurgeon Fellowship of two weeks ago well underway, and yet today I find myself posting on something totally different…funerals.

One of the most spiritually rewarding things I have done in the past few years is subscribe to Christian Century. It was always the “liberal” nemesis to Christianity Today, and so I avoided it for a long time. But I find the Century more interesting and more spiritually challenging than CT has been in a long time.

In the current issue the cover article is on “The Good Funeral” which might seem to be a fairly innocuous subject. But I found it very thought provoking and insightful.

For most of my pastoral career, I have pushed for a more personalized, informal and positive focus to funerals. And those are not in and of themselves wrong.

But Thomas Long (professor of preaching at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta) contrasts the “normal” service of today with the historic understanding of a funeral…and the contemporary “normal” service comes up short in a number of ways.

Long posits that by the beginning of the third century, Tertullian could speak of a basic form of Christian funeral practice that had arisen which firmly reflected Christian theology. It consisted of three parts:

Preparation
Processional
Burial

“In Preparation, the body is washed, anointed and clothed in garments representing baptism.

“In Processional, the body was carried to the grave, and sometimes the procession entered the church on the way for prayer and the reading of Scripture.

“The Burial phase took place at graveside & included the commendation of the deceased to God and the actual burial of the body During each movement, the church prayed, chanted psalms and sang hymns of joy. Often a Eucharist was held, either in the church or at the grave.”

But note this:

“The theme of the service was the completion of baptism, and the church accompanied a brother or sister to the place of union with God through the resurrection of Christ. Taken as a whole, the early Christian funeral was based on the conviction that the deceased was a saint, a child of God and a sister or brother of Christ, worthy to be honored and embraced with tender affection. The funeral itself was deemed to be the last phase of a lifelong journey toward God, and the faithful carried the deceased along the way to the place of final departure with singing and a mixture of grief and joyful hope.”

Contrast that with the normal “memorial service” of today. The body is often cremated. If there is an interment of the body (or of the “cremains”) it happens privately with the family…or sometimes simply is done by the funeral home or cemetery attendants.

If there is a service, it is a “memorial service.” The customary distinction between a funeral and a memorial service is that the body or “cremains” are present at the former and not the latter. It is usually held many days, or even weeks or months later (to allow a dispersed family time to get the best prices on airline tickets).

It is generally a simple, brief, highly personalized and customized service often involving several speakers remembering the life of the deceased.

The focus is on good remembrances of the life of the deceased and there is usually a display of photos or memorabilia of the person being memorialized.

The emphasis is on joy rather than sadness. But the joy is not based on a biblical concept of resurrection and hope in Christ. It is a celebration of the past…of a life (presumably) well-lived. Much is done to avoid the somber reality of death.

Long’s judgment is that “these newer rituals, for all of their virtues of freedom, simplicity and seeming festivity, are finally expressions of a corrupted understanding of the Christian view of death. These newer practices are attractive mainly because they seem to offer relief from the cosmeticized, sentimental, impersonal and often costly funerals that developed in the 1950’s, which were themselves parodies of authentic Christian rituals.”

Long notes that the contemporary funeral is really not about the deceased at all. It is about the mourners and psychologically encouraging them to move on. (I have often pretty much stated as much at funerals).

But it is no longer the metaphorical expressions of the journey of a saint to be with God (the body of the saint isn’t even present!) “Instead of the grand cosmic drama of the church marching to the edge of eternity with a fellow saint, singing songs of resurrection victory and sneering in the face of the final enemy, we now have a much smaller, more privatized psychodrama, albeit often couched in Christian language. If we take the plot of the typical memorial service at face value, the dead are not migrating to God; the living are moving from sorrow to stability.”

What is your reaction to this? At a minimum it makes me rethink what I say when I meet with a family and what I say at the meditation part of the service. (I DO insist on keeping that in the service, much to the consternation of some).

I don’t know that I have done justice in a few paragraphs to Longs five-page article, but I would recommend it to you. Whether or not you agree that we should go back completely to the idea of the community of faith accompanying the deceased brother or sister to the last step of his/her journey towards God, it is at least worth mulling over. Is what we have gained in the personalization of the service greater than the loss we have endured by the change?

If we as preachers are Christian LEADERS, do we have any say in what happens at a funeral/memorial service that takes place in the church building? Or do we just cower to the ill-informed wishes of the grieving family, not wishing to buck them or “further upset” them by suggesting that their plans for grandma’s memorial service really is devoid of any Christian content other than platitudes that might be said at the funeral of Carl Sagan?

I don’t think that the Christian Century has this article up on their website yet (they usually wait until the next issue comes out before posting the articles from the last issue), but when I see that it is up, I will try to post the link here. It is at least worth reading and mulling these issues over for oneself.

Thoughts? Reactions? (As I have said so many times, “God forbid that we should actually THINK for a change!”) Post them here.

Crosswalk.com>>Preaching: Such Demanding Work but Such a Calling

2009-09-21T22:32:00.001-07:00

"I have known what it is to use up all my ammunition. Then I have, as it were, rammed myself into the great Gospel gun and I have fired myself at my hearers - - all my consciousness of sin, and all my sense of the power of the gospel. There are some people upon whom that kind of preaching tells when nothing else does, for they see that then you are communicating to them not only the gospel, but yourself also."

--Charles Spurgeon

That quote ends an article entitled “Preaching: Such Demanding Work but Such a Calling” on Crosswalk.com today. It’s one of those you need to read when you are discouraged about your preaching.

Spurgeon Fellowship

2009-09-14T17:51:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow I will be attending the Spurgeon Fellowship at Western Seminary here in Portland. If any of you who read this are going to be there, let me know and perhaps we can connect. I have live-blogged the Spurgeon Fellowship before, but doubt that I do it tomorrow. I do intend, however, to give a full report.

Top 100 Preachers and Sermons: Justin Martyr

2009-09-14T17:41:00.001-07:00

While the first on my list of the Top 100 Christian Preachers & Sermons was anonymous, although the homily is entitled “Second Clement”, the second on my list has a name, but no extant sermons.

Justin (ca 100-165) was born probably about the beginning of the second century, at Neapolis (the ancient Sychem) in Samaria. We do not know his lineage, whether Greek or Roman, although he himself claimed that he was Samaritan. It appears that Justin was financially wealthy because he had the means to study & travel. He was well educated and studied widely in philosophy which he thoroughly enjoyed.

One day he met an old man who introduced him to Christianity. Justin was converted & found peace of mind in his faith. He later stated, “Straitway a flame was kindled in my soul... I found this philosophy alone (Christian faith) to be safe and profitable."

Justin began to share his faith, but he continued to wear the distinctive cloak of a philosopher. Dargan states that Justin “retaining his philosopher’s cloak, not so much now because it was a badge of distinction, as because it gave him the opportunity to teach, with the authority of culture, the truths of his religion.” (p. 47).

Justin is the chief representative of the early preachers known as the Apologists.

Dargan divides the earliest preachers into three categories:

Apostolic Fathers (ca. 68-160) These preachers knew, or might have been reasonably been expected to have come in direct contact with one or more of the apostles. This time period stretches from approx date of the death of the apostles [68 or 100 depending on how you see the death of John] until the middle of the second century, perhaps 160. This group included Polycarp, Ignatius of Antioch, and as we have already seen, Clement of Rome.
Apologists-During the period of continued persecution of the church, there arose the need to be able to vigorously and intellectually defend the Gospel and the Church. There were enough times of stability and tolerance, however for Christians to gain the needed education. Examples would be Dionysius, bishop of Corinth; Tertullian; Quadrates of Athens; Melito, bishop of Sardis; Theophilus, the sixth bishop of Antioch and of course Justin Martyr.
Ante-Nicene Theologians-(ca. 180-300) (for those who are unaware, “ante-“ means “before.” It is not the same as “anti-“ which means “against”. And Nicene refers to the development of the Nicene creed in 325 A.D at the Council of Nicaea. Thus those who preached & taught before the Council of Nicaea were “Ante-Nicene preachers and teachers) It was during this period that the most severe persecutions arose. While there continued to be a need for teaching and preaching that was highly apologetic, some of the great heresies of the church sprung up in this period. It was necessary for preacher-theologians to arise who could develop the great thoughts of Scripture into a defined system of theology and philosophy. This period includes Origen as its primary standout. Because its make up was more complex than the times of the Apostolic Fathers or Apologists, I will outline it more when I come to discuss Origen (DEFINITELY one of my 100).

Is is recorded that Justin, while not located in any one specific congregation, travelled and preached to all who would hear him. And he was popular enough that he awakened the jealousy of a Cynic philosopher named Crescens, who successfully worked to have Justin killed under the leadership of Marcus Aurelius for sedition around 165. When Justin and six others refused to sacrifice to the emperor as god, the sentence was read: “Those who do not wish to sacrifice to the gods and to obey the emperor will be scourged and beheaded according to the laws.”

He didn’t, so they did. It was then that he earned the appellation of Justin (the) Martyr.

While we have no specific extant sermons from Justin, we have several writings from him which show his views, his style and his ability. Most of his teaching/preaching deals with the Old Testament and prophesies that were fulfilled in Christ. He was fairly loose with scripture and misunderstanding several thing about Judaism, led him to make connections that preachers and scholars today would say are inaccurate.

His three main extant works are First and Second Apology and the Dialogue with Trypho the Jew.

One of the charges against early Christians was that they were atheists. Justin’s reply:

And we confess that we are atheists, so far as gods of this sort are concerned, but not with respect to the most true God, the Father of righteousness and temperance and the other virtues, who is free from all impurity" (The First Apology. Chapter VI).

And neither do we honour with many sacrifices and garlands of flowers such deities as men have formed and set in shrines and called gods; since we see that these are soulless and dead, and have not the form of God (for we do not consider that God has such a form as some say that they imitate to His honour), but have the names and forms of those wicked demons which have appeared. For why need we tell you who already know, into what forms the craftsmen, carving and cutting, casting and hammering, fashion the materials? And often out of vessels of dishonour, by merely changing the form, and making an image of the requisite shape, they make what they call a god; which we consider not only senseless, but to be even insulting to God, who, having ineffable glory and form, thus gets His name attached to things that are corruptible, and require constant service (The First Apology. Chapter IX).

What sober-minded man, then, will not acknowledge that we are not atheists, worshipping as we do the Maker of this universe, and declaring, as we have been taught, that He has no need of streams of blood and libations and incense; whom we praise to the utmost of our power by the exercise of prayer and thanksgiving for all things wherewith we are supplied (The First Apology. Chapter XIII).

To counter claims that Christians wanted to take over the government, Justin replied:

And when you hear that we look for a kingdom, you suppose, without making any inquiry, that we speak of a human kingdom; whereas we speak of that which is with God, as appears also from the confession of their faith made by those who are charged with being Christians, though they know that death is the punishment awarded to him who so confesses. For if we looked for a human kingdom, we should also deny our Christ, that we might not be slain; and we should strive to escape detection, that we might obtain what we expect. But since our thoughts are not fixed on the present, we are not concerned when men cut us off; since also death is a debt which must at all events be paid (The First Apology. Chapter XI).

One of the most famous excerpts is from his First Apology where he describes the early Christian worship services, still very reflective of Acts 2:42:

'On the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succors [give assistance to] the orphans and widows, and those who, through sickness or any other cause are in want, and those who are in bonds, and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose from the dead.'

I will draw this to a close, but the second in my list of the greatest preachers of all time is Justin Martyr.

Chrysostom and the NFL

2009-09-12T07:25:00.001-07:00

I intend to talk about Chrysostom (347-407) later in my “Top 100 Preachers of All Time” series, but today I ran across a great little article from the Christian History Blog. It deals with the launch of the fall NFL season and what Chrysostom preached about sports.

The article begins:

This week, the bane of preachers everywhere returns. When the clock strikes noon on Sunday in America's heartland, anxious Christians will clear their throats, shift positions in their seats, and hope the pastor's next words are "in conclusion." Some Christians living in the Mountain West and on the Pacific Coast might decide to skip church altogether. Because the NFL is back. And pastors will once again wonder privately how members can forget everything about that morning's sermon but recall detailed statistical information for scores of players they "own" in fantasy football leagues.

Few preachers I know would dare mention this frustration in a sermon.… What many Christians may not realize, however, is that these pastoral concerns run all the way back past the fundamentalists, beyond the Puritans, to the early church. Even those of us who love to watch the pigskin fly would be wise to consider the warning from the most famous preacher in early Christianity.

You can read the entire article here.

Losing My Religion

2009-09-10T22:56:00.001-07:00

Usually when I review books here on the blog they are one of two or three types: books on preaching, books which have been sent to me gratis with the request that I review them, or some things I have written myself.

Tonight I finished a book that has really made me think (which is a good thing!). It is “Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America—and Found Unexpected Peace” (NY: Collins, 2009) by William Lobdell.

Lobdell was for many years a religion writer for the Los Angeles Times. He was not raised in the church, but at a very difficult time in his twenties, after a very painful divorce, was introduced to (and “accepted”) Christ. He took the path that I have recommended over and over to new believers…small group Bible studies, personal study, accountability groups, regular worship, finding a ministry to serve God. Bill Lobdell believed that his journalistic career was his spiritual gift. By using journalism, he could expose people to the benefits of faith in God (and further down his journey, he believed God had put him in this position to clean up the church through his journalistic endeavors). “For such a time as this” as Mordecai told Queen Esther.

Lobdell travelled a spiritual journey from the Mariners Church in southern California, (where he had accepted Christ, but as he grew in his faith he saw it as “too simplistic”) to St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach, CA (a compromise between Bill and his Catholic wife, Greer) to being literally the night before he was to be baptized as a Catholic after a year of catechism. He backed out, because by the time his baptism was about to happen, his faith in God and the Church had pretty well been destroyed. To be baptized in the Catholic church seemed a betrayal of all of the victims of the church with whom Bill Lobdell had come in contact.

Several streams came together to overwhelm Lobdell’s faith:

The biggest of those was reporting on the Catholic priest sexual child abuse cases that have filled the papers over the past decade or so. Lobdell was at the forefront of the reporting on this great tragedy. Seeing the evil to which an amazing number of priests would stoop, and in so doing damage some of the most innocent members of their flock disgusted Lobdell (as it should all of us). But even worse than that was the cavalier and self-protective attitude of the priests’ superiors. The lies and the manipulation that was used to cover up the heinous behavior almost seemed worse (if that was possible) than the behavior of the child-molesting priests.

(My favorite Lobdell account was the one about the Archbishop here in Portland who defended a priest who had impregnated a young unemployed woman 13 years before. The Archbishop said that the pregnancy was the result of “the woman’s own negligence” because she had failed to use birth control. The irony of an archbishop chastising a woman for not using birth control, which is considered a mortal sin in Catholicism, was not lost on Lobdell).

He writes (as he discussed with his wife Greer, the extreme pain that this reporting was doing to his own mental & spiritual health), “Unbeknownst to us, it was leading to skepticism. We would find, in fact, a deep connection between faith in the church and faith in God.” (p. 145)

But Lobdell’s beat was not limited to Catholic priests. His religion responsibilities took him into the world of TBN (Paul & Jan Crouch) and Benny Hinn. The corruption of TBN and Hinn (and other evangelists like them) would make even Bernie Madoff blush.

Ironically, some of the most “moral” people Lobdell met were Mormons. But the belief system of Mormonism so lacks intellectual credibility that Lobdell wondered at the herd mentality of those who buy into it.

Bill Lobdell was asked to speak at one Mormon gathering, at a time when recently discovered scientific evidence pointed to the fact that the American Indians (whom Mormonism teaches are part of the lost tribes of Israel) have no genetic similarity to anyone from the Middle East, but are genetically similar to Asians. This genetic evidence simply destroys a basic tenet of Mormon “history” and theology. When confronted with the evidence, at least one of the speakers angrily declared “After we have been defeated and all our stories proven untrue, we will perhaps come to know the more important reason and the only question that ever is—not whether the histories are true, but whether we are true to our stories.”

Lobdell’s observation was that the speaker resorted to “a smokescreen of angry rhetoric, biting humor, sarcasm and clever phrases. I suspect [the speaker], like most of his Mormon brothers and sisters, believed his religion had a good thing going—the church members loved each other, looked after those who had fallen on hard times, raised good families—and he didn’t need outsiders, or science, to cast doubts on the operation. Mormonism worked, so leave it along. If too many people chipped away at it, if too much truth were revealed, the foundation that [he] and other Mormons built their life upon might give way.” (p. 282)

Earlier in the book, after listing out the bizarre and self-contradictory teachings of the book of Mormon and the “go with the winds of the moment” theological changes Mormon leaders have made doctrinally, Lobdell noted:

At the time I didn’t see any parallel between the Mormon’s fidelity to the claims in the Book of Mormon and my allegiance to the New Testament which included stories of a virgin birth, water turning into wine, two people rising from the dead, a coin to pay a temple tax bring found in a fish’s mouth, Jesus walking on water, five loaves of bread and two fish feeding 5,000 families, and Jesus and his apostles curing people of crippling and fatal illnesses. And that’s just the New Testament. The Hebrew scriptures talk about a global flood, people living well into their hundreds, a parted sea, a vast exodus not yet found in the archaeological record, bread falling from heaven daily for 40 years and a man living three days inside a whale before being spit out. The details of Mormonism are fresher, but not much more strange and mythical. I just happened to have grown up with the stories of the Bible. I was more used to them. (pp. 126-127)

Was there much difference between between the absurdity of Scientologists and their sacred E-Meters that allegedly trace the emotions of adherents, the Mormons and their belief that the Garden of Eden was in Missouri, and the Jews and Christians and their belief that the sound of trumpets caused the fortified walls of Jericho to come rumbling down? (p. 271)

But the stumbling block that finally shipwrecked Lobdell’s faith was the behavior of traditional Christians themselves. What troubled Bill Lobdell (as it should trouble those of us in leadership responsibilities in the church) was the utter lack of impact that faith in God seems to have on the morality of (at least American) Christians. He notes the oft-quoted findings of George Barna, the Pew Research Center & the Gallup poll:

“Christians divorce at about the same rate as or even at slightly higher rate than atheists. White evangelical Christians are more racists than others. Evangelicals take anti-depressants at about the same rate (7%) as others. Non-Christians are more likely to give money to a homeless or poor person in any given year (34%) than are born-again Christians (24%). Born-again Christians are taught to give 10% of their money to the church or charity, but 95% of them decline to do so. The percentage of Christian youth infected with sexually transmitted diseases is virtually the same as the rate among their non-Christian counterparts.” (p. 205)

If God and faith cannot even get those who claim to be his most devoted followers to do what he teaches, is he really that powerful? If God cannot or will not protect the most susceptible members of society, but instead allow those who claim to represent him to be some of the biggest offenders and abusers, what kind of power can this god really have?

Lobdell (pictured, left) had an e-mail correspondence with his former pastor at St. Andrews, John Huffman, and he duplicates much of the correspondence in the book. Huffman doesn’t shy away from Bill’s hard questions, but in the end Lobdell isn’t buying any of it.

Finally, Lobdell, after realizing that he had totally lost his faith in God and the Church asked to be reassigned off of the religion beat and wrote an article for the LA Times chronicling his journey from faith to “reluctant atheist” or, at best, deist. He stated his motivation for the article (and, by extension, for the book):

“The darkest part of my heart wanted to show, in a very public way, how people who identified themselves as Christians had driven me away from a faith I loved. If someone with my desire for God could come away disillusioned by faith, then Christianity in its present form was in trouble,and someone should point that out to believers. I felt a little like the kid who declared that the emperor had no clothes, though I had no illusion that my revelation would open the eyes of others. It would be enough just to speak up for myself.” (p. 262)

So, why have I spent so much time detailing this book and why did I read it in the first place? Because I believe that there are many people in the church who are in the same position as Lobdell, but they have not had the courage or opportunity to simply walk away. Or there are even more (like me) who have seen the behavior of people who claim the name of Christ and yet act in ways that Christ would find abhorrent and who wonder, “Is it really worth the effort?”

If the Christian faith is true (which I am convinced that it is), then the matters that trouble Lobdell need to be seriously addressed by the church. Simply yelling claims that he was “never a believer in the first place”, or that he is “just looking at humans and not looking at God”, or “those problems are just limited to the Catholic church” are not adequate.

Grappling with the issues is the only way that the church can begin the long process of regaining credibility with people like Lobdell and the hundreds of thousands (millions?) like him, who do not have the pulpit of a world-class newspaper to broadcast their views.

I don’t have a lot of answers. I am very sad for Bill Lobdell. I am, however, also hopeful. On the back jacket of the book was a quote by John Huffman, Lobdell’s former pastor. In part Huffman says, “This is a must-read filled with warnings and wake-up calls to those of us in leadership positions. I respect Bill for his honest reporting of his odyssey to this point and pray that someday there may be a future book, just as honest, with a grace-filled conclusion.”

That is my prayer as well. For William Lobdell and for many, many others as well.

The Encouragement of a Middle School Boy

2009-09-09T00:17:00.001-07:00

The largest gatherings I have preached to have been Easter weekend in 1998 (2,500) and Easter Sunday 2000 (1,400). And those experiences were rewarding in their own way.

But last Sunday I had a rewarding experience that will go down in my mental record book. I was filling in for a friend who had taken a much-needed Sunday off. He is a church planter who three years ago planted a congregation in a (then) fast-growing area of Portland.

Last week the church planter and I met and Matt told me that they average about 60 in worship and meet at a local middle school. OK, great.

However, this was Labor Day weekend. Summer. A holiday weekend. The LAST holiday weekend before school starts. And my brother-in Christ told his congregation he was going to be gone. Oh my…

There were twenty of us in worship. The gymnasium was set up with some chairs in the front and then round-shaped tables encircling the back where most of the people sat. It is probably one of the smallest groups to which I have preached (at least in as long as I can remember). But none of that is really the point. God was worshipped and honored.

BUT (BIG but…) as I began to preach, I noticed this middle school youth, kind of wandering around the back. He fidgeted around the coffee table (where the pastries were…he was a middle school boy, remember). He kind of wandered over to the sound board & watched the technician there.

But the longer I preached (maybe total 25 min), the more he wandered towards the front. And while earlier his attention had been focused on the pastry table & the soundboard, he began to make eye contact with me. (It was a small crowd, remember. It is easy to move from person to person making eye contact pretty quickly with just twenty people!)

The longer I preached, the closer he moved.

The last five minutes or so, he had moved up to the back row of tables & was holding on to a chair & leaning forward. His eyes were glued to the front.

SUCCESS!!

I was preaching on what it means to be a new creation in Christ. But, little matter. If I can not only attract the attention, but KEEP the attention of a middle school boy who is not being corralled by his parents and forced to sit in a chair and keep quiet, then I must be doing something right!

It’s fun to preach to the large crowds. But I actually felt better after preaching to one middle school boy (and nineteen others) than I did after those Sundays where the masses had gathered.

Thank you, God, for the encouragement that middle school boy gave to me. I hope I gave him something in return.

Questioning God’s Definition of Preaching

2009-09-08T23:49:00.001-07:00

In thinking through what defines great preaching (see recent “Top 100” post), I came across an article from The Carolina Messenger by David N. Powell titled “God’s Definition of Preaching” (The Carolina Messenger seems to be a paper of the non-instrumental churches of Christ)

I know nothing of Mr. Powell, except that the article says he preaches in Bluefield, WV. The article is not even dated.

The article does not explicitly define great preaching (or even preaching) and doesn’t explicitly lay out what “God’s Definition of Preaching” entails. The closest he comes is to quote Nehemiah 8:8- “They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read.”

BUT…he DOES give a helpful list that could be entitled “Questioning God’s Definition of Preaching. Here is a summary of what he states:

I question God’s definition of preaching when I…

put decibels over doctrine (God used both trained & untrained preachers. He examined the heart, not their tongues or college degrees). 2 Timothy 4:2
put undue emphasis on excitement (style over substance has always been the downfall of the shallow) 2 Timothy 4:3-5
feel his message will fail unless augmented by my ability. (“The excitement ought to be from the truth realized during sermon preparation and not merely as some speaking tactic. Some put on a preaching voice that is as phony as Monopoly money. Why in the world do they feel the need to jazz up their delivery? Is the Bible so dull, or study so infrequent, and our members' attention so short that God's book is not enough? Anything I do that draws
attention to me takes attention from what I supposed to be heralding.”) Romans 16:18
put my oratory over his oracles. I Cor. 2:4-5; 2 Cor. 11:6; I Cor. 2:2

At least worthy of consideration. Find it here.

100 Top Preachers and Sermons: Homily by Clement of Rome (aka Second Clement)

2009-09-07T12:28:00.001-07:00

The first sermon that is worthy of note is traditionally called The Second Epistle of Clement. The title is ironic because early on it was recognized that it was not an epistle, but a sermon; and it was also recognized as anonymously written, not by (as the title would suggest) Clement of Rome. No matter…the title stuck. (I went ahead and put his picture to the right anyway).

2 Clement is significant mostly because it is the first fully extant post-Biblical sermon. The homily says that it was to be read after the reading of scripture in the worship service, thus signifying it as a sermon (homily).

Edwin Dargan describes the sermon this way homiletically:

The doctrine is not elaborate, the homily being hortatory in character, but the main great teachings of the Christian faith are implied, and for all that appears to the contrary the treatment is orthodox. The morality urged is sound and elevated. The style is natural, simple and appropriate; but is not marked by special oratorical excellence, is somewhat feeble, and is marred by much repetition. The use of Scripture is reverent. There is no text, but the quotations and allusions are frequent, and derived from both the Old and the New Testament. This is significant for the early recognition of the New Testament writings as authoritative in pulpit use. The interpretation and application are fairly good. There is no wild allegorizing or forcing of Scripture. The tone and spirit are admirable faith, hope, and love, with humility and sincerity, are apparent throughout. Particularly worthy of note is a passage near the end, where the preacher modestly declares that though conscious of imperfection he tries to do what he urges upon others, and begs his hearers to think on these things after they leave the house of worship and go about their affairs. He earnestly exhorts them in view of the future life, and tenderly consoles them in the midst of present trials, concluding with a doxology.” (p. 44-45)

The sermon does not have natural large outline points. It has traditionally been broken down into twenty “chapters” and it is best to simply see them as an elucidation of two themes that are necessary for the Christian life: confession of Christ, and repentance.

The outline (such as it is) is this:

We Ought to Think Highly of Christ.
The Church, Formerly Barren, is Now Fruitful.
The Duty of Confessing Christ (How do we confess him? By doing what he says.)
True Confession of Christ (confession by words will not save us; we must confess him by our deeds)
This World Should Be Despised.
The Present and Future Worlds are Enemies to Each Other.
We Must Strive In Order to Be Crowned
The Necessity of Repentance While We are on Earth.
We Shall Be Judged in the Flesh
Vice is to be forsaken and Virtue Followed
We Ought to Serve God, Trusting in His Promises.
We are Constantly to Look for the Kingdom of God
Disobedience Causes God’s Name to Be Blasphemed.
The Living Church is the Body of Christ
Faith and Love the Proper Return to God.
The Excellence of Almsgiving
The Danger of Impenitence.
The Preacher Confesses His Own Sinfulness.
He Justifies His Exhortation
Concluding Word of Consolation. Doxology.

You can find a good online translation of Second Clement here.

Just a couple of thoughts:

For those preachers who “poo-poo” non-exegetical preaching, I would warn that they do not necessarily have history on their side. Most of the preaching --even great preaching--in scripture and throughout history is non-exegetical.

Second, there is a great emphasis on what Christians are TO DO. Action, implementation, application are key to this sermon.

So, that is #1 in my list of the Top 100 Preachers or Sermons in Church History!

100 Top Preachers & Sermons

2009-09-07T11:46:00.001-07:00

I want to begin an occasional series laying out what I see to be the top 100 preachers and/or sermons in the history of the church. I put “and/or” because some of the sermons are anonymous, (see below) but worthy of note; and other times a preacher may be worthy of note and have several sermons that may qualify as great. I don’t intend for this to take over my blog, but for it to be a regular feature, reminding us that preaching has a rich past and is a constantly changing and varied activity. Preaching has, however, remained a central constant throughout the history of the church and has been the spark of most of the church’s revivals. Many of the preachers in my list will come from Edwin Charles Dargan’s History of Preaching, but in more recent centuries I will deviate from it because Dargan ends with the 18th century and has no preachers from America in the 19th century.

One of my goals in this process is to come up with a definition or a list of what makes a sermon truly “great”. I already have a list of 2-3 items, but hope to expand it and then try it out before you as we go along.

Loretta and I went and watched “Julie & Julia” last night and in the spirit of that movie (one I highly recommend), I hope to list & review these 100 preachers/sermons within a year.

You can help in a couple of ways: I would very much solicit your suggestion. My list is not even half-way complete. I have some ideas on direction, but my list is a growing list at this point. So I would ask for your input.

Second, as I stated above, I am working on a definition or a list of criteria for what makes a sermon truly “great”. If you have suggestions toward that end as well, I would welcome them. So let’s get started…

TALKING THE WALK

New Location for Blog

YouTube - The Archbishop of Canterbury on the Royal Wedding

How to Write a LinkedIn Recommendation

The Last Five Minutes of Your Day

Only Do “Work” on Your Computer?

Monday Criticism

Have you been criticized yet today? (If not, consider yourself lucky!) Monday is big day for ministers to receive criticism. HOWEVER, it is also a day for them to criticize ("critique") what happened on Sunday.

Tim Sanders has a helpful little article on principles to follow in giving criticism. It is good. Again, find it here.

Position Papers Will Save You From “Numbskulls”

March Newsletter

2011-2012 Spurgeon Fellowship Lectures

HBR: Decide What YOU Think First

Groups, Tribes & Posses | Steve Scanlon | Reality and Hope

January Newsletter

Bringing Focus to Staff Meetings

Confused, Not GLEEful at Christmas.

Just for the Fun (and Conviction) of IT

The Church of the Pumping Heart

Truth Telling

Is Preaching Against Homosexuality a Hate Crime?

New York Times on Clergy Burnout

Determination…an Asset?

The Economy: Foxhole Religion or New Tractors?

The Church & Controversy: How One Church is Handling It

When Delay Allows Us to Review Our Priorities

The Internal Judge

Methodists and Healthy Churches

Quote on Open Doors

June Newsletter Going Out

Survey on Summer Preaching Plans

Tell Them What You Want!

Mobbing

Sage from Leadership Network

Discipleship Bibliography pt. 2

Discipleship Bibliography, pt. 1

The Wearisomeness of Easter

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Top 25 Preaching Books of the Past 25 Years

Alternatives to Spiritual Leadership

The Seven Deadly Siphons

The Amen Corner

Peter Mead>Movie Illustrations: A Risky Business

The Cross is All We Have

Jim Wallis>Rediscovering Values

Skimming for the Vision?

Expository Thoughts: How to Recognize Symbolic Language

A Quick Schedule/Time Management Tip

“Ministry is Not for Sissies”

Pastors and Porn

An Interesting Development in Pastor-Board Relations—”If You Ain’t Willing to Back it Up…”

A Pure Heart Before God

Top 100 Church Blogs | churchrelevance.com

Peter Mead>>Planning a Selective Series

Variety in Preaching—101 Suggestions

Scripturalize routine prayers.

30 Ways to Improve Your Church’s Worship Service

Dr. Mike Jones: The Power of the Gospel

WWJD…fH (What Would Jesus Do…for Himself?)

Samson and Integrity

Giving Recognition

Lutzer: 5 Principles for Pastoral Success

4 Types of Friends Every Pastor Needs

Review: Preaching from a Pulpit of Bones

Is Portland Jesus’ Favorite City?

Favorite Preaching Quotes?

Shifting Times/Shifting Focus

Question on Teachableness

Are You Naturally Funny?

Top 100 Preachers: Hippolytus

Just for the Fun of It: Every Visiting Preacher’s Nightmare

Example of Origen’s Preaching: The First Homily

Top 100 Preachers and Sermons: Origen

Bryan Chapell on the Future of Expository Preaching

Mead>>Don’t Disregard Distractions

Spurgeon Fellowship Schedule for 2009-2010

Further Thoughts on Successful vs. Faithful and Divine Healing

Faithful or Successful: Shattering the Dichotomy, Part II

John 15:12-17: You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

Spurgeon Fellowship: “Successful or Faithful: Shattering the Dichotomy”