Wondering What To Preach 2011?

Funny thing is that for some pastors that question is way too late to be asking now and for others it is still way too early.

Personally I am in the process of tweaking and moving some things around based on the calendar.

If you are in the process of wondering I would like to point out on interesting feature of this year's calender.  Resurrection Sunday (Easter) falls on the sixteenth Sunday of the year.  May I suggest that message a week from each chapter of Mark will land you at the Resurrection on the Resurrection.

Now, you may not want to rush through Mark's gospel at that speed, but it allow your folks to get the feel of the "Straightway" Gospel.

Just a suggestion.  (But it will be some years before you get another chance.)

You preached that before!

It is quite likely that you have members of your church that mark the texts that you have preached. It is not uncommon for one of them to come to you with a bit of a wagging finger and say "you have preached that before."

What church members fail to realize is that passages of Scripture are not disposable. In their minds, use it once and you cannot use it again. Might as well rip it out of your Bible.

This past Sunday, I again had one of those conversations with a church member. The church member happened to be my wife! Once again, I explained that I may have preached from that text before, but that it was in fact a fresh sermon. I had not even looked at any old notes.

But she had. In fact, she had notes from both sermons in her Bible....and the sermons were nearly identical!

At this point, I was a little embarrassed. Had I really, unintentionally recycled an old sermon?

It is my preaching goal to have my sermon echo the spirit and content of the text. Here, several years apart, I had come to the same text, prayed over it, examined it from every angle I could, tried to understand the Spirit's design for the passage and then developed two extremely similar preaching outlines.

As I thought about it, the text hadn't changed so why should the sermon? The more I thought about it, the better I felt about both the messages.

Musing About Negativity

My inbox this morning contained an email from some ministry vendor (interesting pairing of words) with the following subject "Just When You Feel Like Giving Up".

I can't tell you anymore about the email because I immediately deleted it. I am not sure why a ministry vendor is so certain that such a greeting was sure to resonate with me. Of the thousands of others who received the same email this morning (thanks Yahoo for the spam filtering) there likely were some to whom that connected.

But there were likely just as many who would have responded to a subject title such as "Just When Yourself to Greater Impact" or "Just When You Were Ready to Change the World". So why did they pick the negative? Why cater to gloom?

Some time ago a minister friend made an interesting observation to me. So much of our preaching is directed to the person whose life is falling apart. To the prodigal in the pig pen. But does not the gospel speak to the needs of all people, including the bigwig in the corner office. To the rich young ruler.

I wonder how often we have falsely narrowed the preaching of the gospel by only expecting the Eeyore crowd to be interested. Remember, Jesus is not just better than depression, He is better than success! Ask Zaccheaus. Ask James and John. Ask Paul, Luke and Lydia.

Story of God (Continued)

Just wanted to provide an update on our Sunday night sermon series, the Story of God. The series was inspired by the concept of chronological Bible storying.

I wanted to introduce our folks to this ministry strategy that is used so prevalently by missionaries and nationals around the world. I also thought that we had quite a few in our church that would benefit from this narrative overview of God's Word.

So this past September we launched the Story of God series with the plan to go from "one end of the Bible to the other" in the current school year.

This evening we covered the Judges. This sentence addresses one of the major difficulties of the series. We are covering huge chunks at a time! Following the service I received a compliment that made me cringe. "I love how you can preach through the entire Bible without even opening your Bible."

It is true, our overview of Judges covered so much ground this evening, we never landed actually landed in a particular text. I felt guilt the entire evening (which the previous comment only intensified).

If I have a defense, it is that CBS is designed for nonliterate or low literate cultures. The nature of the approach is by definition storytelling. It is not designed for verse by verse exposition.

And I do feel that there are at least a handful of people who are feeling the pieces come together as we move through the Story of God.

Yet, did I really preach if I never opened my Bible?

C.S. Lewis' musing about ministry.....

I came across this quote on JD Greers' blog yesterday. It may be my new favorite ministry thought of all time.

C. S. Lewis, called by many to be the most original expounder of Christianity in the 20th, once said something like, "I never really cared a wit about saying anything new or original, just to be as clear as I could on what Christians have always believed. Somehow that sounded original."

A Prayer for Preachers

Heavenly Father

As we preach this week, may our words come from Your Word, may our thoughts come from Your Holy Spirit and may the results accomplish Your Purpose.

May we settle for nothing less than simply revealing You in the midst of this world.

Amen

Jeremiah 30 -- Hope for the Embattled Preacher

"Write these things down." That is God's Word to Jeremiah. This is interesting because to this point, all of the oracles Jeremiah has been given have been spoken words.

Even a cursory reading of the text demonstrates that these spoken words have not been well received and understandably Jeremiah has at times been wearied by the process of preaching to unresponsive people.

The funny thing is, a preacher rarely gets the response he believes the message deserves. In his hours of preparation and study the preacher has often been powerfully taken by the Word of LORD that has been revealed to him. It is not unusual to emerge from the study with the conviction that this week's message may be the most important or most timely message you have ever preached. You can not wait to break these words for your people. (If this is not happening in your life, I pray it will this week.)

But then we preach...and await the floodgates of response.

And at times nothing visible ever happens. Even when there is a trickle of response we are deeply grieved and puzzled that there was not more. Jeremiah knew the feeling well. In fact, he didn't seem to know any other feeling. (The stadium crusade with countless streams of people coming down the aisle would have been unfathomable for him.)

But God told Jeremiah, "write these words down."

It was a powerful reminder to Jeremiah (and to us) that we don't always just preach for today. God was telling Jeremiah that even though the people were not ready to listen then, a time was coming when his words would be heard, needed and deeply cherished. His preaching was not in vain. The Word would not return void.

We do not have any way to know how God's Word is used in the lives of those we preach to. We do not know how God will use those words years down the road. We do not just preach for today.

Jeremiah would likely never see that day himself. But it is likely that several million people read his words this week alone. And people responded.

So as you preach this week, remember we do not just preach for today. But also keep in mind as you prepare this week....you are not just preaching for today!

Preaching the Story of God

Ever since visiting my IMB missionary brother Andrew in Bolivia several years ago, I have been fascinated by “chronological Bible storying”. CBS is a strategy for communicating the gospel, using story primarily for those who are low in literacy and or have very little experience with the message of the Bible. The missionary/church planter will tell the story of God’s Word week by week culminating in an invitation to not just hear about this God, but to know Him through His Son Jesus.

Ironically, I think what attracts me to chronological Bible storying is the fact that I am literate (though this was a topic of debate in the halls of higher learning at one point) and I am very familiar with God’s Word. The truth is, I envy the experience of discovery and excitement that must unfold each week as new truth is unveiled about who God is as people hear it for the first time.

What would creation mean to me if I heard about it as though it were some just released secret? How would I relate to the trials, triumphs and failures of the people of Israel? What would I think of the incarnation of God as Christ…and his death? And then His resurrection! Would I even believe that a guy like Saul could become a man like Paul?

This past Sunday evening I began a new sermon series entitled “The Story of God” which will attempt to use the principles of CBS to help my literate and somewhat Biblically aware congregation be caught once again (or for the first time) by the wonder of God’s story. Working with my fellow staff members, we selected thirty eight key Biblical narratives that we will be sharing between now and the spring.

Here is the list I am using.



How would your list look? What would you include that we did not? What would you drop from the list?

Jeremiah 26 -- The Prophet Preached On

God is not loose with His words, He always speaks with purpose. By this point Jeremiah seems to have noticed this. So when another word comes to him, accompanied with the admonition “do not hold back a word,” he should have known something was up.

The message was typical. A charge against the people and the looming threat of judgment. (When you walked in during the middle of a Jeremiah sermon, you never had to ask the person next to you to catch you up to speed. Ever.) Equally predictable was the people’s response. Except this time the resentment seemed extra strong. As soon as he was done speaking his audience cried out “you shall die!”

Needless to say there was not a long line at media table after that service. No doubt as he was preaching, Jeremiah could feel the seeming brick walk of animosity being built by his hearers. To be honest, I don’t preach well enough to receive death threats, but I have preached some obvious duds. It is not uncommon during those messages to consider jettisoning sections of the message for the benefit of all involved. I wonder if Jeremiah did not face a similar temptation as he watched the anger and resentment growing.

But the LORD had warned him, “do not hold back a word.” So he preached on in the face of adversity. What should not have amazed Jeremiah (or us) is that they crowd waited till he had “finished speaking all that the LORD had commanded him” before they rioted! It was the politest mob in history.

When God gives us a word we must not cower in the face menacing audiences. God is committed to His word being heard. And the reason is simple…“it may be that they will listen, and every one turn from his evil way.” With that as a possibility, the prophet preached on. (The extra nudge from God didn’t hurt either.)

Tim

Note -- Do all of these posts on the judgment words of Jeremiah reflect a blogger angry with his church? Not at all. Jeremiah simply is where I am spending time these days. The biggest impact the prophet has had on me is the priority and power of the Word. The best way I can care the church I love is speak most clearly and apologetically the word I understand that God has given me. I pray that Jeremiah is making me a stronger preacher.

Jeremiah 23 -- The Evil of Empty Words

Every 168 hours the pastor is called to speak a “word from the Lord” to his people. (For most of us with Sunday night and midweek services, it is much more frequent than that.) The question that we should ask is how does God think we are doing with that responsibility?

Through the years He has not always been pleased by the work of the professional proclaimers. For instance, the prophets of Jeremiah’s day have incurred the wrath of God. For one thing, their lives are inconsistent with their alleged calling (v. 11, 13-14). This stirs up the anger of God. As does the fact they speak their own words, not God’s. Even Jeremiah is sternly warned in this passage to only speak God’s words and nothing else. What is most sobering is that in the absence of the good and Godly Word “no one turns from his evil.” The silence is deafening, despite the noise of all the man made messages.

The prophets speak what their hearers want to hear. They steal each other’s words. Why do they offer straw when they could have wheat? Are not His words like fire and a hammer that breaks rocks? God seems to be incredulous that anyone would settle for these words.

Yet these proclaimers could have had a true word – if they had stood in the council of the LORD “to see and hear His word.” If they had stood in the council of the LORD they would have proclaimed His word….and God’s people would have been restored (vv. 18, 22).

Oh, the damage our man made messages have caused. Today is Thursday….and Sunday is coming. May we spend ample time in the council of the LORD!

Opening Words

I wandered into the blog0sphere this summer. The blogs were all the rage leading up to the annual denominational meeting. I was curious. I nosed around and followed the links till I had basically doubled back on myself, arriving back where I had begun. (It reminded me of the old Simpson's bit where Homer's computer declares he has reached the end of the internet.)

I was fascinated by the intellectual discourse and enjoyed getting a bit of a preview of the issues and personalities that would be the focus of the convention. I clicked through the archives of some of the ones I enjoyed the most. Sharp minds to be sure.

However, what I found lacking in the buzz of convention politics, theological debates and megatrend criticism was a focus on the simple work of the pastor.

Preaching, Teaching, Leading, Loving.

These are the things I am called to. These are the things that light me up inside. These are the places I want to become more effective for Christ and His kingdom.

I want this blog to help keep me focused on the things that matter most. If it helps you do the same then I am blessed.

Tim