I was just reading a synopsis of a book on the effect of technology on faith. For example: Reading and writing are individual activities. The technology of writing favors individualism over community, leading us to spiritual disciplines of “quiet time” and “journaling” and a gospel that is primarily oriented to the individual. Printing erodes the communal nature of faith.
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Extent of Application
Some detractors of left wing noodle twisting liberals seem to think that we don’t read the bible over here on Preludium or in other revisionist hot-spots. To the contrary. I am, as we speak (or write) in the midst of putting together a short Lenten study on doing Justice, using Micah as a baseline
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Back to the Bible: Reading Genesis and gathering the Crumbs.
When the Word of God is preached, something happens. God’s Word, inspired by God’s Spirit, pointing toward God’s Son, spoken by a person empowered by the Spirit of God for their calling from God’s Son, to people prepared by the Spirit of God – it’s a recipe for response! At times we can see that response. We get to see the people moved, the individuals gripped, the lives changed. Sometimes we see something at the moment of preaching, or soon afterwards. Sometimes we only see the response over months and years of ministry. At other times we don’t see the response. We preach our hearts out and are devastated by polite niceties. Or perhaps we don’t see the response we long for. Perhaps we get the response of criticism, or argument, or outright attack. Not quite what we had in mind when we prayed for lives to be changed! Nevertheless, let’s be committed to preach for response, even an apparently negative one, rather than playing safe and settling for nothing other than polite platitudes. Obviously any one of us could abuse this post. We could take it as an excuse to wind people up, to create tensions, to lack sensitivity. We must all answer for our own motivations, and of course, we will answer as preachers for how we have taken the opportunity to present God’s Word (2Tim.4:1-2). Let’s not settle for smooth, let’s rather preach the Word with sensitivity to God and to His people, with a prayer-fuelled passion to see Him prompting response rather than apathy, transformation rather than safety.
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Preaching and Response
One of the members of the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion has resigned from that body. The result is a considerable ramp up of consternation and confusing messages, notably a paper by the Anglican Communion Institute (ACI), a message from Stephen Noll on Anglican Mainstream’s pages, and a wonderful piece by Pluralist Speaks, Adrian Worsfold and of course the pithy words of Jim
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President Bishop Anis bows out of the Standing Committee
In case you are new to the Gospel, a couple of things: Welcome! Jesus loves you. Muslims aren’t huge fans of the Jews. To the latter, I don’t mean as in not carrying a foam finger reading, “There’s only one Savior for me.” It’s more like, “I have hated your guts for 6,000 years.
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Jesus turned water into wine, but Arabs are turning it into cash
The Pope is coming to the UK this year and just to ensure maximum publicity, he has announced that Britain has put in place laws which discriminate against the religious. He states that equal rights has gone too far basically it is wrong that Christians cannot discriminate against gay and lesbian people! This should come as no surprise to those of us who know the history of the Catholic Church. Here’s a quote from his speech: “Your country is well known for its firm commitment to equality of opportunity for all members of society
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The Pope – The Bigot
You may have noticed the new tab for Cor Deo at the top of the page. Cor Deo is a mentored study and ministry training programme that I am helping to launch. The name Cor Deo means “a heart for God” and it is our desire to multiply ministry that shares God’s heart by means of a relationally shaped training programme. The basic approach will be to invite 6-12 individuals to join the team of mentors for an intensive full-time training programme from February through to July (starting next year). During this time the team will share a unique study programme between Tuesday and Thursday each week, and then be exposed to a variety of ministry situations by sharing ministry together with the mentors over the weekends. We want to study, grow and serve together.
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Mentored Training – Cor Deo
Our brave men and women need all the inspiration they can muster to fight for us overseas. Some have their family picture in the pocket. Others have voice mails of their loved one on the phone
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Cross Eyed: Well, since the Kingdom doth suffer violence…
HERE ARE A FEW OF MY NEW WEBSITES (1) My updated resume: www.AndrewJackson.info (2) Details on my Islam Seminar: www.IslamSeminar.com (3) Details on my Mormon Seminar: www.MormonSeminar.com (4) I have become engaged in a new initiative writing and producing videos for sermon introductions. You can find more details at www.BibleVideoProductions.com . We have produced video introductions for every book of the New Testament
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Here Are a Few of My New Websites Permalink
We need to preach somewhere between commentaries and sermons. The majority of commentaries are very atomistic. In a sense, they have to be. The writer focuses in on each verse, or sentence, in turn. They try to plumb the depths of lexical, semantic, syntactical and cultural meaning. Once that verse is exhausted they probably deserve a fresh cup of coffee and a break. When they return it’s on to the next verse. Commentators are a real blessing to us and we should be exceedingly grateful for the range and quality of commentaries available. At the same time, let’s be wary that we don’t just preach a commentary (or a compendium of information garnered from several commentators). Our task is not to exhaustively present every detail, neither is it to place historic labels over sections of text.
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Between Commentaries and Sermons
Holy Tweet! Have you read this story on Yahoo! news? According to the AP, “Pope Benedict XVI has a new commandment for priests struggling to get their message across: ‘Go Forth and Blog.’” “The spread of multimedia communications and its rich ‘menu of options’ might make us think it sufficient simply to be present on the
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Priests on the Internet. Don’t call NBC… yet.
What criteria can you use when planning a series in a longer book that you don’t want to last for years? Obviously we’re not obligated to cover complete books in a series, but how might you do that selectively rather than comprehensively? Here are some pointers: Foundation – Know the message, flow and structure of the book . In order to plan a series that selectively represents the whole, you need a good awareness of the whole. 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 (which might be appreciated . . .
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Planning a Selective Series
George Monbiot, a Journalist at the British newspaper ‘The Guardian ‘ has started a campaign aimed at advising members of the public how to carry out a citizen’s arrest on Tony Blair. In case you don’t know Mr Blair is the previous Prime Minister of the UK who did what most politicians do: lie, cheat and basically do everything to fatten the pockets of themselves and their cronies. Blair huffed and puffed and bullied those who stood in his way of charging into Iraq.
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Arrest That Man!
A couple of years ago, Kenneth Copeland made a distinguished list – not the Lamb’s Book of Life, the final 12 on American Idol or even a follower on my Twitter account. No, after decades of proclaiming faith in that noted southern drawl, he bellowed his way on Sen.
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Kenneth Copeland: The government, the sheep, now the lost
As a preacher in a church there is a tension to be faced. On the one hand, every time you stand up front to preach you are answerable to God for your stewardship of the opportunity. Consequently you must feel a sense of the burden of preaching what is needed and what is right for the people. Like parents with a child, sometimes it is necessary to give a certain medicine. It’s not a time to make decisions based on what the child would prefer in that moment. On the other hand we have to hear what listeners say. Preaching is communication, and if the recipient does not receive what the sender intended, then something is not working. It may be that they are hard hearted or don’t know what they need, but on the other hand, we preachers aren’t immune from error either. Perhaps we haven’t realized that our communication is failing to communicate, that our message is not comprehensible, or our application is not connecting. Perhaps we need to hear some feedback that could help us be better preachers. I firmly believe in the preacher’s answerability to God and in the preacher’s need for feedback. These two things are not mutually exclusive, but there may be times when a balance is needed. It’s always easier to label others and stand secure in our own insecurity, but let’s be sure that critique of our preaching is not actually a legitimate cry for something that we could do better, that they would value more and that God would actually be pleased with!
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Finding the Balance Without Scratching Ears
It concerns me when truth and testimony seem to be separate. For instance: There are some Christians that are very strong on the truth issues relating to Jesus – who He is and what He’s done. They are passionately committed to the truth and will not compromise on it. There are some Christians who have a strong peronal relationship with Jesus. Their testimony is sweet and intimate and personal. They have a deep sense of the love of God and communion with Him
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Truth and Testimony
Without hesitation, if you were to ask me, “HiScrivener, what music do you prefer when you need a quick pick-me-up,” I would answer before the first verb came out of your mouth. Sure, I like some old school hip-hop as much as the next (or even Nu Soul), but that’s not it. I fancy some New
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Cross Eyed: Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?
Today is a partial repost from Randy Alcorn’s blog . Today “Sunday, January 24, is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday; marking the 37th anniversary of the United States Supreme Court decision in Roe v
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Truth telling on the sanctity of life
Our friend Linda Graham just got back from Haiti. Here is her awesome story at the airport and at church. Others have written articles about the work she did there, having arrived merely forty minutes before the earthquake struck
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Linda Graham on Haiti’s devastation
Click the title if you cannot see a video box. Share
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Name of Jesus stops robbery
Each new vote brings less notice than the one prior. Forces in opposition have nearly disappeared and many mainline churches have not only endorsed but promoted the practice within the Christian community. HB 444, which would allow same-sex couples and unmarried opposite-sex couples to obtain all of the rights and benefits of legally married couples, was
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Historic Same-Sex Marriage Vote Today
There is a common misunderstanding of expositional preaching in relation to Bible stories. I’ve heard the analogy used of a pot of soup. A narrative sermon is like a pot of soup prepared carefully to be enjoyed by the guests – an experience to be savoured. An expositional sermon is like an explanation of the recipe of the pot of soup. Recognizing the difference between narrative preaching and preaching narratives, let’s engage with this analogy briefly.
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Exposition, Narrative and a Pot of Soup
I was reading through 1 Corinthians today and came across a startling passage… and it is partly startling because I had just visited some of my bookmarked blogs to see what those professing faith in Christ are up to.
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We Must Judge Or Risk Being Counted As Guilty With The Offenders
Click the title if you do not see a video box. Michael Youssef, Founder and President of Leading The Way, offers a biblical perspective on the disaster in Haiti and all the major disasters that impact individuals around the world each day
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Michael Youssef on the Haiti Disaster
Are you oriented toward identifying yourself as a Christian or pro-life? You will be watched at the airport under Obama’s new TSA nominee.
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Christian? Pro-Life? TSA will watch you
I am speaking at a conference that I speak at regularly. Tonight I am preaching a message that I have preached before, but it will be unique. Same conference, but different people. The same program, calling for the same title, same content, same focus, same goal. But it will be different. This group of people are a different group than last time. I have only been around this group for three or four days, but I can sense a real difference, and so do others working at the conference. So as I prepare for tonight’s message I am struck by how I have to put last time out of my mind and not fall into the trap of trying to recreate anything. Tonight has to be tonight, and it needs to be God’s work. Somehow this setting is just reinforcing in me a truth that sometimes isn’t at the forefront of my thinking. Every preaching situation is unique. Even if the message content is the same, the purpose is the same, the program around it is the same, the preacher is the same (although I’ve changed in six months since last time)
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Never the Same
Last night I was in conversation with a good friend and fellow preacher. We were talking about another preacher and how thoroughly he knows the Bible. When my friend asked me why I thought he had become so thoroughly saturated with the Bible, I didn’t need to think long about the answer. Obviously he has read it a lot, studied it and preached it. But there’s something else that I’d like to share here: he reads the Bible like a preacher. That could be a good thing or a bad thing. The wrong way to read the Bible like a preacher – is to always read looking for a message. This means the Scriptures are always handled as a resource for sermon material. It might mean that the Bible bypasses the heart, life and needs of the preacher, moving straight from God to the listeners’ needs. I suppose it could mean forcing every text into a preconceived sermonic form (seeking to alliterate points, force the text into a certain number of sections, etc.) The right way to read the Bible like a preacher – is to recognize the inherent communicative nature of Scripture. Every writer was seeking to communicate effectively. As a preacher it is possible to develop the skill of a homiletical approach to hermeneutics. This means that you read the Bible text as communication – you look for the inherent unity that is there, rather than simply chasing down every tangent prompted by each detail. It means you look for the sense of order and progression in the communication. It means you recognize how the writer is developing each idea – the phases of explanation, elements of proof, and attempts to apply the idea. It means you look for the author’s intent as well as their content, with a sensitivity to the needs of the original recipients.
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Homiletical Hermeneutics