Money

A pastor pours his heart into many sermons, with varied response from the congregation. I am lucky to be a part of a church that is often very encouraging and excited about God's word. Praise God!

Have you noticed that topics like prayer, fasting, Bible reading, and worship seem pretty run of the mill to the congregation? I've talked with other pastors and they agree: start preaching on money and they REALLY start to talk! Why didn't I hear sermons on money growing up in the church?

I just started a 3 week series on money. The first sermon didn't step on too many toes, but I did get a lot of good conversation around it. Just wait until message #2 hits the scene (history of the tithe and if we should do it in 2009)!

Sermon #1:
http://www.switchpod.com/p20881.html

What do you think about money and sermons?

Christmas preparation

As I joyfully hung up Christmas lights and ornaments on our tree, I stepped back and was pleased with how festive our house seemed. But then I wondered how full of "Christmas" our house was. Our home seemed packed full of wonderful decorations, and my stomach was full of Christmas cookies, but how was my family coming to a deeper appreciation of being filled with peace, joy, love, and hope that comes from trusting in Christ and growing in Him? Sure the Christmas eve sermon was finished, but how was my church growing in Christ? Our neighbors could see our tree from the street, but how was I showing them the beauty of the best gift of all: the Savior Jesus Christ?

This Christmas, as we listen to ANOTHER version of Jingle Bells and eat even more Christmas cookies than last year, let's focus on the birth of our Savior and proclaim His second coming!

Relevant Preaching

Preaching God's truth in a relevant way can be challenging to do week after week. Preaching the message of the Word is important so I ask myself "How might a particular truth apply to the specific congregation?"

Coming up with relevant ideas can be challenging. Sometimes I use mind maps to brainstorm ideas and have found it to be quite helpful. Below is an example (it is not stellar, I know, but it was quick and dirty from the sermon this week) The example is a mindmap done in the Mind Node software. (Windows users could try Freemind - but I don't know much about it) Do you have any windows-based mind mapping software you use? How else do you get creative in message preparation?

Evangelism

The "Ministry from a firm foundation" series ended with a message on evangelism. I have seen God fanning the embers of desire in the hearts of our members to "reach out" into the community near our church - how exciting!

Last week I screwed the leg of "fellowship" on crooked so I figured this week I would place the leg of evangelism upside down. (I fixed it again for this picture) I did this partly to make a joke and poke fun of myself, but also to illustrate our backward view of evangelism.

It seems to me like American churches still have an idea that evangelism is a program to run to attract people to church. I have heard from many churches that the role of the congregation members is to invite friends to church. It is at church that their friends hear the gospel and get "saved". It is as if the pastor is the one playing the game and the congregation is the cheering squad. They run out and get more cheerleaders to cheer on the pastor in his "soul winning" endeavors. He is, after all, the paid help isn't he? ;)

When I read the Bible I don't see that it is the pastor's job to be the only one to "evangelize" the lost. He is not the only one that gets to be in the game. I read that every disciple of Christ is supposed to proclaim the gospel, not just invite others to hear it at church.

Don't get me wrong, I will preach the gospel from the pulpit every week with the hope that God uses it to save souls. As Pastors it is our job not merely to encourage people to invite their friends to church to hear the gospel, but to encourage and equip those under our leadership to share the gospel themselves.

Fellowship

At our church we continued the series on "Ministry from a firm foundation" with a sermon on fellowship. As I screwed on the third leg I was wondering why everyone was chuckling. It was only after the sermon that I realized I had screwed the leg into the table VERY slanted - it looked horrible from the congregation. (It was fixed before this pic) It made the table seem less sturdy, so I guess it helped with the illustration of a table needing four legs to be solid.

Many Christian churches have a skewed view of fellowship. Many times our events say they promote fellowship but really just foster friendships. I think that relationships and friendship are important, but there is so much more to fellowship than just being friends. We can find friendships in bars, athletic clubs, and sewing circles - so what is so special about our relationship with another brother or sister at church? We have fellowship in the church unlike any other bond because what binds us together isn't just a shared interest or time together, but Christ.

How do you define fellowship? Does ministry you are involved in value friendship more than fellowship?

Revamping the Great Tradition

I am part of a ministry dedicated to planting churches among America's unchurched urban poor. The church model we use here in Wichita is somewhat liturgical. The thinking is that liturgy with its regularity and repetition gives a person from the inner-city both a sense of comfort and a chance for real participation. As part of our weekly service we read the Nicene Creed together. In doing so we have run up against two major problems. First, the simple presence of the term catholic has been difficult for poor Hispanics who have struggled hard to leave Catholicism. No matter how many times we say "catholic just means universal" that word still seems to be a barrier for them. Second, the translation we use is elegant, but terse. It uses several theological terms that require some explanation. Explanation is fine, however, it seems that our translation of the Creed is causing more problems than we can solve.

Solution: A new translation of the Creed. I searched high and low for something like a 'New Living Translation' of the Nicene Creed. I found several translations, however, each one contained both the term catholic and several theological terms that required a great deal of explanation. So I made my own translation of the Nicene Creed. We have been using it our church for the past two weeks. I wanted to post it here and get any feedback you all may have on it. Please please please please tell me what you think.

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth, of everything that exists, whether visible or invisible.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the one and only Son of God, who was begotten of the Father before time. He is God as the Father is God, Light as the Father is Light, truly God as the Father is truly God, begotten, but not a created being. He and the Father are of the same substance. Everything was created through him.

Who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven and took on flesh through the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and thus became fully human. For our sake, he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and he rose again on the third day according to the scriptures. He went up into heaven where he is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. His kingdom will never end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, and life-giver. He comes from the Father [and the Son]. He is to be worshipped and glorified with the Father and the Son. He spoke through the prophets.

We believe in one holy worldwide apostolic church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sin. We anticipate the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come.

Amen.

Instruction

This week continued our series on ministry from a firm foundation. We talked about the use of the Bible as our source of truth. We were challenged from God's word to offer His solutions in a world of questions.

When it comes to using God's word to offer answers to peoples' questions, we are all guilty of using what my wife calls, "Bible Bullets". We take our point of view that is "biblical" and we find verses that support it, some out of context. We load up our guns with these verses and quickly fire at anyone who holds a different view. When we do this, people either fire back or they shut down and their stereotype of "close-minded evangelical" is reinforced.

How do you graciously offer God's truth in your ministry?