Archive for the 'Preaching' Category

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When pastors feel overwhelmed

Published on September 15, 2010 in Church and Preaching. 2 Comments

When feeling overwhelmed as a pastor, I remind myself that my primary responsibility is to go up on the “mountain” and feed hurting people the Word of God.

It is not unusual as a pastor to interact with people facing horrific problems: Violence, cancer, conflict, divorce.  So many are harassed and helpless.  A pastor can feel so helpless.  And, he is helpless in his own strength!

Facing many such situations in recent days, it is a comfort for me to consider how Jesus responded to hurting people.  Jesus’ central response to hurting people was to compassionately feed them His Word.

The Gospel of Matthew shows that when large crowds began to follow Jesus, His response was:

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain . . . and he opened his mouth and taught them saying (Matthew 5:1-2).

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A bit more detail:

Two passages with nearly identical wording bookend the Sermon on the Mount.  Between these bookends is the Sermon on the Mount.  Matthew’s arrangement of the Gospel shows that the center of our Lord’s response to hurting people was to compassionately teaches.

  • Matthew 4:23-25 records that large crowds of hurting people began to follow Christ.
  • Matthew 9:35-38 echoes the language of 4:23-25.

Compare Matthew 4:23-5:2 and Matthew 9:35-38.

MATTHEW 4:23-5:2

" And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:(Mt 4:23-5:2)."

MATTHEW 9:35-38

" And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”(Mt 9:35-38)."

Why Expository Preaching?

Published on September 12, 2010 in Preaching. 0 Comments

I wish everyone in our church family would watch this one!

Pray that your pastor preaches to the whole choir

Published on July 29, 2010 in Preaching. 1 Comment

Here is a post that will help you better pray for your pastor(s) and his preaching. 

Kevin DeYoung has written about the different sections of the figurative choir that preaching needs to address.  This points to one of most challenging aspects of pastoral ministry and preaching.  We need to constantly address a very wide range of people.

I’m no expert in preaching, neither in its theory nor in the actual doing of it. But one thing I’ve learned is that there are different kinds of people in the congregation who need to hear different sorts of things. Obviously, no sermon can be all things to all people. We must stick with the theme presented in the text. We must preach within our own personalities. Most of all, we must trust the Spirit to preach a better sermon to each heart than the one we deliver.

But still, there’s wisdom in considering what different segments of the church may need to hear. The Puritans were masters at this, often dissecting the congregation into different categories and applying the word accordingly. Early in my ministry I developed a fourfold schema that has served me well. In every sermon I try to remember that I’m preaching to the weary, the wandering, the lazy, and the lost. You may have different categories, but I find these four helpful for keeping my sermons fresh, relevant, and not too lopsided in any one direction.

The Weary

These faithful saints need compassion and encouragement. They are fighting the good fight, but they are struggling in some way. Maybe their kids are wayward, or the test results were not hopeful . . .

Read the rest here.

Where Christianity stands or falls

Published on June 13, 2010 in Preaching. 0 Comments

P.T. Forsyth:

It is, perhaps, an overbold beginning, but I will venture to say that with its preaching Christianity stands or falls. . .

With preaching, Christianity stands or falls because it is the declaration of the Gospel.  Nay more – - far more – - it is the Gospel prolonging and declaring itself.

Does your prayer this morning for your pastor reflect a belief that Christianity stands or falls with its preaching?

Are you ready for Sunday?

Published on May 21, 2010 in Church and Preaching. 3 Comments

Why not spend some time on Friday and Saturday plowing the ground in your life in preparation for Sunday?

We are told men ought not to preach without preparation.  Granted.  But we add, men ought not to hear without preparation.  Which, do you think needs the most preparation, the sower or the ground?  I would have the sower come with clean hands, but I would have the ground well-plowed and harrowed, well-turned over, and the clods broken before the seed comes in.  It seems to me that there is more preparation needed by the ground, than by the sower, more by the hearer than by the preacher.  Charles Spurgeon.

Quoted in the recommended, Expository Listening, by Ken Ramey.

The obvious place to begin in improving the health of a local church

Published on May 16, 2010 in Preaching and Quotes. 2 Comments

Mark Dever:

If a healthy church is a congregation that increasingly displays the character of God as his character has been revealed in his Word, the most obvious place to begin building a healthy church is to call Christians to listen to God’s Word. God’s Word is the source of all life and health. It’s what feeds, develops, and preserves a church’s understanding of the Gospel itself.

Arturo Azurdia: “The efficacious empowerment of the Spirit of God is indispensable to the ministry of proclamation.”

Published on April 24, 2010 in Church, Prayer and Preaching. 0 Comments

Would you pray for the preaching of the Word in your church tomorrow?

The efficacious empowerment of the Spirit of God is indispensable to the ministry of proclamation. Arturo Azurdia

Calvin: The preaching of the Word serves “To make our faith firm and steadfast, even to our dying day”

Published on April 8, 2010 in Church, Preaching and The Red Brick Church. 0 Comments

I am thankful that during my sabbatical I leave our pulpit in the capable hands of men like Mike Wittmer, Bob Bixby, and Jeremy Scott.  I remind our flock that we need to hear the Word preached, even to our dying day.

A quote from Calvin:

But St. Paul tells us that so long as we are in this world, we must continue to profit in God’s school, and have our ears beaten daily with his Word, that we may on the one hand be checked, and on the other hand be strengthened and set forward more and more. . . Therefore God’s vouchsafing to have his Word preached to us even to our dying day, serve to make our faith firm and steadfast. John Calvin[1]

[1] John Calvin, Sermons on the Epistle to the Ephesians, Rev. translation. ed. (London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1973), 377.

A Window into a Pastor’s World

Published on March 27, 2010 in Leadership and Preaching. 2 Comments

“and [pray] also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, Ephesians 6:19

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The point of this is not to complain about my schedule – - I am so thankful God has called me to be a pastor.  Rather, my goal is to encourage our people to pray that the Spirit would work in conjunction with the proclamation of the Word.

For those of you who aren’t “Bricks in the Valley,” my schedule is not a lot different than most pastors.  Would you pray in a special way for your pastor this weekend?  Pray, in particular, that whenever he opens his mouth, Words would be given to him to preach the Gospel with boldness (Ephesians 6:19).

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This morning Allison has a softball doubleheader, but I don’t feel like I can take the time to go the games.  (I have already been at several softball games).  Here’s why:

  • Between our church and a conference, I preached six times last weekend – - so, I’ve been swamped in general.
  • This weekend I am on an ordination council this afternoon which will fill up the afternoon and evening.
  • Tomorrow morning I am preaching from Romans – -
  • Tomorrow afternoon I am preaching at an ordination service (1 Peter 5:1-4).
  • Monday I am leading a funeral service in the suburbs.
  • I really need to get another chapter of the book I am working on drafted.

What Paul faced and what Paul did

Published on March 23, 2010 in Preaching. 0 Comments

What Paul faced (per Will Willimon):

Imagine being asked to stand before a grand gathering of the good and the wise and being asked to make a speech about goodness, beauty, the meaning of life, the point of history, the nature of Almighty God, or some such high subject and having no material at your disposal but an account of a humiliating, bloody execution at a garbage dump outside a rebellious city in the Middle East.  It is your task to argue that this story is the key to everything in life and to all that we know about God.  This was precisely the position of Paul in Corinth.  Before the populace of this cosmopolitan, sophisticated city of the empire, Paul had to proclaim that this whipped, blood, scorned, and derided Jew from Nazareth was God With Us.  (Will Willimon, Proclamation and Theology, page 66).

What Paul did:

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.(1 Co 2:1-5).