Preaching Essentials- Lenny Luchetti

Martin Luther King Jr. and My House of Representatives Prayer

2012-01-16T14:34:00.000-05:00

Today we remember the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Although I have not endured the intense suffering of African Americans, I resonate deeply with King as a pastoral theologian. His vision for the human race, I am realizing, has shaped my vision for the church and world in significant ways. I realized his influence upon my life when several years ago I was invited to open the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Meeting with prayer. Here I was in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg, PA with the opportunity to offer a bipartisan prayer in the name of the bipartisan Christ. As you read below the prayer I offered at the Pennsylvania State Capitol, you will note the prominence of themes such as liberation and selfless service, themes that intersect the Gospel and the life of Martin Luther King Jr.

“Almighty and loving Lord, we thank you for the freedom we so thoroughly enjoy, the freedom that crosses party lines and is the foundation of this great country we live in. We thank you for the pursuit of freedom that drove our mothers and fathers to this land, a pursuit that even hundreds of years later sustains us still. We thank you for the ultimate liberation that you, according to your Word, offer to every person regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, and political party. There, in Your word, we read that “it is for freedom that Christ has set us free” and “the one who the Son of God sets free is free indeed” and the words from Jesus that are written on the ceiling above us “you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

Lord, from every mountainside let your freedom ring in our hearts; and may freedom ring in this place as these representatives seek to make decisions that will preserve and prolong the freedom we so deeply crave and appreciate. Lord, would you ignite a fire in the hearts of these public servants so that they remember why they began to serve in the first place and so they continue to serve the public called the great state of Pennsylvania. As our State Representatives meet would You give them the wisdom they need to discern your good, pleasing and perfect will and then would You give them the courage and fortitude to pursue your will with passionate persistence for the good of all the people who live in this keystone state.

Might our eyes see your glory today as these public servants follow the ultimate example of public service- Jesus Christ. Christ is the epitome of selfless service for, in his own words, he came “not to be served but to serve” by laying down His life for all. Lord, your son’s selfless service was fueled by his deep down desire to see people set free from the things in life that bind us. May these servants of the people be driven by the same compassion that was in Christ, so that decisions about finances and policies today will enable people to be even more free tomorrow. We know it’s a tall order, a sobering responsibility, but to borrow from the Battle Hymn we pray that “As Christ died to make people holy, let these [Representatives] live to make people free, while God is marching on. Glory, glory, hallelujah.” Amen.”

Preaching in the Wesleyan Tradition

2012-01-11T13:32:00.001-05:00

Asbury Theological Seminary has a new online resource for ministers called Seedbed. The developers of the site interviewed me and asked me to write a few of my thoughts on "Preaching in the Wesleyan Tradition." Check it out if you are a preaching geek like me: http://asburyseedbed.com/feed/preaching-in-the-wesleyan-tradition .

Sermon: Fig-Leafing It (preached at College Wesleyan Church)

2012-01-05T17:16:00.003-05:00

Topics for Preaching Workshops

2012-01-05T11:08:00.002-05:00

One of my life-plan goals for 2012 is to increase my investment in those who are investing in the local church. To that end, I am offering the following workshops to support pastors in their quest to preach the Gospel of Christ with theological substance and contextual relevance:

-Preaching as a Spiritual Discipline

-Developing a Preacher Growth Plan

-A Process for Birthing Sermons Today

-10 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Preaching

-Narrative Preaching in a Story-Shaped World

-Creativity and Imagination in Preaching

-The Trajectory of Preaching in the 21st Century American Church Context

-The Character of a Preacher

-Re-Marrying of Preaching and Theology

-Biblical Exegesis for the Sermon

-8 Practices to Improve Your Sermons

-The Beautiful Variety of Sermon Forms: One Size Does Not Fit All

-Delivering the Sermonic Baby

-Sermon Feedback and Evaluation

-Relevant Preaching: Knowing Your People, Place, and Personality

2012 Comprehensive Resolutions for a Well-Lived Life

2011-12-30T11:20:00.001-05:00

Here is my life plan for 2012. Several years ago, I began the process of developing a one-page life plan that included spiritual, relational, service, intellectual, and physical goals to guide me in the year ahead. Perhaps the categories, goals, and objectives below will intersect with your hunger for more faithful relationships and more fruitful service. Enjoy!

Spiritual Goal
To develop the capacity to look for the presence of God and to listen for the direction of God
·         Read through the bible in one year
·         Journal a prayer to God every Sunday that reflects my looking and listening for him
·         Retreat for 2-3 days in winter to be with God

Marriage Goal
To develop spiritual and emotional intimacy with my spouse
·         Worship, pray, and plan with my spouse every Tuesday evening from 8:00-10:00
·         Go on a date with my spouse twice each month
·         Get away for an overnight with my spouse in the summer and the winter

Parenting Goal
To prepare my children for a life lived to the glory of God
·         Lead a meaningful devotional time during dinner
·         Pray over children every night before I go to bed
·         Spend 2 hours alone with each one of our three children monthly
·         Minister as a family through a periodic service projects

Service Goal

To encourage, equip, and empower my students and ministers to be faithful to and fruitful for God
·         Contact 3-5 students each week to encourage, equip, and empower them for life and ministry
·         Develop and deliver courses, workshops, seminars, and articles/blogs that will foster ministerial faithfulness and fruitfulness nationally and globally
·         Attend a conference annually that will assist me in achieving this goal

Friendship Goal
To develop deep friendships with 2 people for support and accountability
·         Initiate monthly lunches with 3-5 people who can potentially become significant friends
·         Consistently pray for these friends and the friendships

Intellectual Goal
To increase my capacity to think critically and constructively in the areas of biblical theology and homiletics
·         Research and read one of the most in-depth books from both fields above
·         Summarize and analyze each of the books via my blog
·         Read 3-5 books on homiletics or exegesis annually

Physical Goal
To develop healthy exercise and eating habits
·         Do a cardiovascular workout (running, racquetball, basketball) 4x/week
·         Do push-ups and sit-ups 3x/week
·         Eat fruits or vegetables with every meal
·         Do not eat after 7:00 pm

Ten Resolutions for Preachers

2011-12-27T15:36:00.000-05:00

1. I will preach sermons that are not only practically relevant but also theologically substantive.

2. I will read 3-4 books this year primarily to enhance my preaching.

3. I will solicit the help of a preaching coach to help me analyze my preaching strengths and weaknesses.

4. I will view one of my sermons every two months for self-analysis.

5. I will listen to or view the sermons of an ecclectic group of preachers, not for imitation but for emulation.

6. I will experiment with several different sermon forms that I have never tried before, while maintaining faithfulness to the biblical text and to the contemporary context.

7. I will take 1 or 2 personal retreats annually to prayerfully discern the preaching needs of my congregation and to sketch out a sermon plan.

8. I will recruit a creative team to help me develop sermons and to offer substantive feedback after those sermons are preached.

9. I will regularly incorporate spiritual disciplines like prayer and fasting into my sermon preparation process.

10. I will preach not to impress people with who I am but with who God is.

Sermon Series Outline: On the Trinity

2011-12-05T09:32:00.000-05:00

Week 1
Faith in the Holy Trinity

Sermon Title:

A Sending and Sharing Community

Scripture Focus: - John 16:5-16

Key verse, John 16:15 - All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.

Sermon Introduction:

You may want to begin with a story about how you resemble or bear the likeness of one of your family members.

We are called to bear the likeness of the God who said, “Let us (meaning “Trinity”) make man in our image, in our likeness” (Gen. 1:26). When God created humanity he clearly had in mind that we would reflect His nature, His “likeness”, to the rest of the world. In order for us to portray God’s likeness through our lives we must explore and reflect upon the nature of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then, we need to have the courage to honestly answer the question, is my life and my church community really a reflection of the Godhead three in one?

Sermon Content:

READ THE TEXT – JOHN 16:5-16]

1. The sending and sharing nature of the Trinity To us (v. 5-7, 14-15)

Jesus describes the sending and sharing nature of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in this passage. In verses 5-7 Jesus says that the Father has sent the Son who will send the Spirit to disciples. God is a sending God, a God on the move who does not stay in a holy huddle but actually moves in and amongst the world He created and loves. And we humans benefit from His self-extension toward us. One of the marks of the Trinity, then, is that of sending.
God is not only a sending God, but a sharing God. He is a God who not only goes out but who also gives out. He doesn’t come to your heart empty-handed, he brings house warming gifts. In verses 14-15, Jesus says that the Father shares with the Son who shares with the Spirit who shares with disciples. The Trinity shares among each other in a way that extends to us. The mutual love within the Trinity does not turn Father, Son and Spirit inward creating an unhealthy clique but outward to the cosmos and, primarily, His human creation. God’s love is not centripetal but centrifugal; He comes out to where we are to invite us into Himself. Simply put, God invites human beings into Trinitarian love and purpose if we dare to enter in.
Illustrate how God’s nature as a sending and sharing God has impacted you or someone you know. How has God come to you or shared with you or someone you know?

2. The sending and sharing nature of the Trinity Through us

Our lives, relationships and mission should be shaped by and reflect the Trinity. The sending and sharing nature of God to us must pass through us as a benefit to the world. In the same way that Abraham of the Old Testament was blessed so that “all peoples on the earth will be blessed through [him]” (Gen. 12:3b), those caught up in Trinitarian love are called to go and give what we have received from the sending and sharing God. We are called as the church to embody the sending and sharing nature of the Trinity not by staying in a holy huddle but by moving out further and further into the world to benefit the people of our world. A truly Trinitarian church is one in which the disciples love people and God so intensely that it pushes them not inward but outward toward the ends of the earth in the name God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Sermon Application:

Where is the sending God calling you? The Father sends the Son who sends the Spirit who sends the Church into the World. Go to some location or to some person God is calling you to in order to reflect Trinitarian love.

What is the sharing God calling you to give? The Father shares with the Son who shares with the Spirit who shares with the Church who shares with the World. Give generously of something you have to someone who needs what you have in order to reflect Trinitarian love.

Conclusion:

The sending and sharing Trinitarian God has established the Church to be a going and giving community. A truly Trinitarian church refuses to withdraw or hoard. God is calling us to go and give. Will we? “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’” (Is. 6:8).

Recite with the congregation the Apostle’s Creed, the church’s historic statement of faith in the Trinity.

Week 2 – The Father

Sermon Title:
The Accessible Generous Father

Scripture Focus: - Matthew 7:7-12
Key verse, Matthew 7:11b “How much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

Sermon Introduction:

Share about a person you know who always seems to be accessible and/or generous with their time and/or other resources.

God the Father is like that. A popular view concerning Father God is that He is the wrathful and inaccessible deity within the Trinity. But the passage of Scripture we’ll focus on today challenges this misconception.

Sermon Content:

[READ THE TEXT – MATTHEW 7:7-12]

1.      The Accessibility of Our Heavenly Father (v. 7-8)
In verses 7-8 Jesus is building a case for the accessibility of the Father. Although the Father is transcendently above and beyond us, He is immanently among and beside us. Although the Father is altogether greater by far than anything He created, He is accessible and available to interact with His creation. Many people think God is aloof, far removed from the pain and plight of the human condition, but this could not be further from the truth revealed in the Bible. There we read that God “is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27). The Father who gave us Eden, who gave us His Son, and who gives us Himself in so many ways is quite willing to give good gifts to those who ask, seek, and knock.

2.     The Extravagant Generosity of Our Heavenly Father (v. 9-11)
Jesus not only highlights the accessibility of the Father, He highlights the extravagant generosity of the Father. The divine irony of this passage is that Jesus, the one telling the people that the Father wants to give good gifts to His children, is Himself the greatest gift given by God the generous Father to His children. The extravagant generosity of God is Jesus the Son. The Jewish people of Jesus’ day were asking for liberation, freedom, hope, and restoration, but instead of giving them the political, temporal freedom they thought they needed (i.e., a stone or a snake), God goes one better and gives them eternal, ultimate freedom from sin, death, and lifeless living. One popular misconception is that the Father is the wrathful side of God and the Son is the loving side of God. However, if it were not for the love of the Father we would not have the Son.

3.     The Way to Make Our Heavenly Father Proud (v. 12)
This passage about the nature of the Father ends with a challenge to treat people well. The Father is pleased when His children do to others as we would have them do to us. We cannot pay the Father back for His kindness to us, but He wants us to pay His kindness forward to others.

Sermon Application:

We have a heavenly Father we can be extremely proud of. Are we making our Father proud of us by doing to others as we would have them do to us? The Father saw our human need and gave to us what we needed most and He calls us to put ourselves in the shoes of others and do for them what they need the most. What can you do this week to pay the extravagant generosity of the Father forward to someone in need? Who in your life is waiting for you, dying for you, to do unto them as you would have them do unto you? Now, to borrow from Nike, Just do it!

Conclusion:

I want to give us a chance to get beyond our misconception of God as an angry, aloof, and inaccessible Father and see Him as the accessible generous Father He truly is and wants to be in our lives. Let’s spend a few minutes asking, seeking, and knocking, making our requests known to our heavenly Father. We may not get exactly what we ask from the Father, but we will get what we need more than anything- we will get Him.

Find a creative way to invite people to prayerfully ask from God what they need the most. Perhaps people can also be invited to submit their special need anonymously in some kind of prayer box with the promise that the pastoral staff, board, or prayer team will pray for these requests.

Week 3 – The Son of God

Sermon Title:
The Identity of the Son of God

Scripture Focus: - John 1:1-14
Key verse, John 1:14a - The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

Sermon Introduction:

Share about a time when you mistook a person for someone else or when someone mistook you for another person.

Throughout the 2000 years since Jesus Christ walked the earth He has been misidentified; mistaken for someone else. Some claim that He was just a good teacher, nothing more. Others claim He was a magic healer, that’s it. Some have claimed that Jesus is fully human but not divine. Others have claimed He is fully divine but not human. Not many, but a few have asserted that Jesus Christ never even existed.

John, the apostle who spent three years of his life with Jesus, begins his Gospel tackling the question of Jesus’ identity.

Sermon Content:

[READ THE TEXT – JOHN 1:1-14]

1. The Son of God is Divine

a. The Son of God (Word) is Pre-Existent: John starts his Gospel with “In the beginning was the Word” (v. 1). He sets the record straight about Jesus’ ultimate identity as the Pre-Existent Son of God who was always with God the Father. John uses the very same phrase “in the beginning” that is used to begin the book of Genesis as a way of proclaiming that before the world began, the Son of God who became incarnate in Jesus Christ was.

b. The Son of God (Word) is God: Not only was the Son of God with God in the beginning, but according to John, the Son “was God” (v. 1). Jesus is not just a profound prophet, wise teacher, or good guy- He is the divine Son of God in the flesh. He is fully God. Proclaiming that Jesus Christ is anything less than divine is missing the mark on who He is and insulting Him.

c. The Son of God (Word) is Co-Creator: We often think of God the Father as the sole creator of the universe. However, in verse 3 John notes about the Son, “through him all things were made.” The Son, and even the Spirit (see Genesis 1:2), had a vital role with the Father in the creation of the cosmos.

Transition: We usually save the punch-line for the end of the story, but John begins his Gospel with the punch line- Jesus is the Son of God who is God. Then, in the rest of the Gospel, John sets out to support his claim theologically and historically. Claiming that Jesus Christ is anything less than God diminishes His deity.

2. The Son of God became Human

a. The Son of God “became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (v. 14). John is saying that the fully divine Son of God at a moment in real historical time became fully human in Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Imagine leaving behind your divine privileges and powers in order to become one with your human creation. Imagine demoting yourself to a low level job in order to give higher status to those at that level. Athanasius, the early church theologian, put it this way, “Jesus became what we are to make us what He is.” This is not say Jesus became human to make us divine, but He did become one of us and one with us to make us sons and daughters of the Father. The divine Son of God took upon Himself all of the pain, heartache, angst, and struggle of humanity in order to redeem and restore humanity to its divinely designed status as sons and daughters of God.

Sermon Application:

There are only two possible responses to the Divine-Human Son of God
Rejection: There were and are those who will not recognize and receive Jesus as the divine human Son of God (v. 10-11).
Reception: There were and are those who recognize and receive Jesus as the divine human Son of God, and therefore, become children of God (v. 12-13).

Are you among those who reject or those who receive Jesus Christ as the Divine-Human Son of God incarnate? (Give a creative invitation for people to receive Christ and become sons and daughters of the Father. Perhaps people can put their name on a cross in your sanctuary. You may also want to connect the invitation to the conclusion below).

Conclusion:
Conclude this service with the Sacrament of Communion, the act by which people recognize and receive Jesus Christ as God in the flesh. Introduce the sacrament with the words of John, “to those who receive Him, to those who believe in His name, He gives the right to become children of God.”

Week 4 – The Holy Spirit

Sermon Title:
Hospitality and the Holy Spirit

Scripture Focus: - John 14:15-21

Key verse, John 14:15 – If you love me, you will obey what I command.

Sermon Introduction:

Offering hospitality is not just a matter of baking cupcakes and providing a bed for someone to sleep in. It may involve food and lodging, but hospitality goes much deeper. Hospitality means creating space for and welcoming another person to enter into your life. Illustrate how someone in your life provided that kind of hospitality for you or someone else.

Most of us want more of the Holy Spirit in our lives, but in order for this to happen we need to make room for the Holy Spirit by offering the hospitality of obedience.

Sermon Content:

[READ THE TEXT – JOHN 14:15-21]

1.     The Giving of the Holy Spirit (v. 15, 21)
It is significant that this passage describing the Holy Spirit is sandwiched between Jesus calling followers to “obey” his commands (see verses 15 and 21). Obedience to Christ’s commands is the evidence that we love Him. Our love for Christ opens us up to the giving of the Holy Spirit to us. There appears to be evidence that suggests the level of our commitment to God determines the level at which God invests the Holy Spirit in us. (see 2 Chronicles 16:9 and Galatians 6:7). Human obedience is, in essence, the welcome mat of hospitality for the Holy Spirit. Obedience creates space for the Spirit in our lives. And this is good because we need the Holy Spirit.

2.     The Purpose of the Holy Spirit (v. 16-17a)
Why do we need the Holy Spirit? Jesus tells His followers that the Holy Spirit’s purpose is to serve as their “Counselor.” The Greek word for counselor is paraclete which literally means helper. “The Spirit of truth” (v. 17a) is another description Jesus assigns to the Holy Spirit. The purpose of the Spirit, then, is to help disciples align their lives obediently with the truth of God’s will and word. This connects perfectly with what Jesus says about the Holy Spirit in John 16:13, “He will guide you into all truth.”

3. The Nature of the Holy Spirit (v. 17b-19)

Jesus’ first disciples knew, from their reading of the Old Testament, that the Holy Spirit comes upon people. However, Jesus radicalizes this when He says that the Spirit “will be in you” (v. 17b). God places Himself within those who love Him and obey His commands. This indwelling Holy Spirit is the gift that helps followers wait in hope for the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise when He says in this passage “I will come to you….you will see me….because I live you also will live” (v. 18b-19). The Holy Spirit within followers of Christ enables us to live faithfully obedient lives until Christ returns.

Sermon Application:

The more we experience the indwelling Holy Spirit in our lives, the more we encounter His comfort, help, and guidance in the life of truth. The Holy Spirit is given more and more to those who love Christ enough to obey his commands. Our loving obedience to God opens us up to a greater outpouring of His Spirit in our lives.

Of course, disobedience has consequences as well. Disobedience stifles the movement of the Spirit in our lives. In light of this, identify one or two areas of your life in which you have been withholding obedience from God. Name them specifically. Decide today that you will do whatever it takes to obey what Christ has called you to do or abstain from doing.

You may want to give people some time to reflect on these areas during a song from your worship team or choir.

Conclusion:

If we are going to experience the spectacular nature of the Holy Spirit not just upon us but in us, and if we are going to experience the purpose of the Holy Spirit which is to help disciples live lives of truth, then we must make room for more of the Holy Spirit by offering the hospitality of loving obedience.

You may want to end the service with a special prayer time for those who want to commit to loving obedience in the specific areas of their lives noted in the application section above.

To Kingswood College Students

2011-12-05T06:39:00.000-05:00

Dear Kingswood College Students,

Thank you for participating in the Unchained Challenge by reading through Luke’s Gospel with me. I pray that the chains of ego, lust, self-centeredness, fear, regret, and shame have fallen off of us because, to borrow from Paul to Timothy, “God’s word is not chained” (2 Timothy 2:9). I pray that the Word of God would shape you, inspire you, and equip you to serve the purposes of God in your generation. If our preaching and teaching ministries are going to liberate people, we must be unchained by God’s unchained word.

Praying for you as you roll up your sleeves and meet the needs of the world in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Unchained Challenge- Luke 22

2011-12-02T09:01:00.002-05:00

Scripture: Luke 22:19 And Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

Observation: In the hands of Christ, the ordinary becomes extraordinary. Bread, after it was broken, becomes his body. Brokeness is necessary for the ordinary to become extraordinary. A childless old man named Abraham is broken and becomes the father of a great nation. An on-the-run deceiver named Jacob is broken and becomes Israel. Hebrew slaves are desperately broken and become the chosen people of God. In the hands of God, ordinary fishermen become extraordinary fishers of people. In the hands of God, Simon becomes Peter and Saul becomes Paul. In the hands of Christ, the ordinary becomes extraordinary when it is broken.

Application: My life and abilities are pretty ordinary, but in the hands of Christ my ordinary life becomes extraordinary. Like he does with the bread, He takes me, breaks me, and gives me to the world. And when he does this, I become more nourishing, more extraordinary than I would be had I not been broken. The valley of brokenness has done more for my soul than the mountain of success.

Prayer: Lord, take my ordinary life into your hands today, break me by your love, and then give me to the world in a way that gives my ordinary life extraordinary impact. Amen.

Unchained Challenge- Luke 21

2011-12-01T08:44:00.000-05:00

Scripture: Luke 21:17 Jesus says “All people will hate you because of me.”

Observation: It’s hard to believe that a man of love such as Jesus was hated. Everything he did was motivated by love for God and for people, and he never seemed to compromise his devotion to either. Jesus was hated, along with his earliest followers, because he challenged the power structures of the world. He challenged the Sadducees, who were charging exorbitant exchange rates and jacking up the prices of sacrificial animals for poor peasant Jews seeking to worship in the Jerusalem temple. He challenged the Pharisees, who were more enamored with legalism than love and put heavy burdens on people because of it. He challenged the Zealots, who tried to fight the power of Rome with the violent methods of Rome, which entailed murder. He challenged Rome, by proving that he, not Caesar, is Lord.

Application: I spend a lot of time thinking about how I can get people to like me, instead of how I can get people to hate me. This makes me avoid conflicts that I should initiate, run from battles I should fight, and lean into my comfort zone instead of God’s call to courageous commitment. Today, I hope for the grace to defend the rights of the poor and needy in a way that might cause me to be hated by the power brokers of oppression. Today, I will pick fights that may leave me as the scapegoat but set others free. Today, I will do my best to resist what is comfortable and live by the courage that is inconvenient.

Prayer: Lord, help me to live the kind of life that so glorifies you and liberates the oppressed that people hate me because of it. Amen.

Unchained Challenge: Luke 20

2011-11-30T08:17:00.000-05:00

Scripture: Luke 20:23 [Jesus] saw through their duplicity.

Observation: Luke tells us here that Jesus was fully aware of the tendency of the “teachers of the law” to be duplicitous. In the context of this verse these teachers are trying to appear sincere in their question to Jesus about taxes, but their ulterior motive is to trap Jesus not learn from him. Later in the chapter (vv.46-47), Jesus describes the duplicity of the teachers of the law in more detail. They may appear to be spiritual but they are motivated by pride and greed. They are two-faced, double-lifers who seem more focused on impressing people than glorifying God and helping people.

Application: On my worst days I can be pretty duplicitous. Although I may begin the day or the ministry task with a desire to glorify God, if I am not careful, I can quickly shift toward trying to impress people with who I am. Of course, they are never as impressed with me as they are with GodJ I may start out with pure motives to help someone but if I am not careful, my pure motives can turn into the kind of self-absorption that causes me to consider “what’s in it for me”? Academic achievement and ministerial success can become trophies on our fireplace mantle instead of markers of God’s unfathomable grace. Today, I will aim to be one-willed in my motives to glorify God and love people.

Prayer: Lord, make my life a standing stand of your grace that points to you. Amen

Unchained Challenge: Luke 19

2011-11-29T10:15:00.000-05:00

Scripture: Luke 19:44b Jesus says, “…you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”

Observation: Jesus says this just after the people praise him upon his entry into Jerusalem. “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord” (v.38), they say. As I read this chapter it initially seems that the people did recognize “the time of God’s coming” to them in Christ. But upon further exploration it appears the people were expecting Jesus to align with their desires for a political, Roman-annihilating Messiah. Jesus, however, did not fit their messianic mold. And, because of this, these same people just a few days later shouted not praises to Jesus but “crucify him!” The people did not recognize “the time of God’s coming” to them because Jesus did not fit their messianic profile.

Application: While I am tempted to criticize the Jerusalem Jews of Jesus’ day, I am fully aware of my propensity to miss the “time of God’s coming” to me. I find myself waiting for God to show up over here, but he shows up over there. I am waiting for God to show his power this way, but he shows it that way. I am waiting for a powerful, warrior-like Messiah to beat the tar out of the “Romans” in my life, but instead I get a humble, peasant Jew who forgives his enemies and mine. During the season of Advent, a word that means “coming,” I am trying to abandon my preconceived and preferential messianic profile so that I don’t miss Christ when he comes to me in his way and in his time.

Prayer: Lord, I will wait and watch for you to show up in any place and in any way that you decide. Please give me an ability to discern your coming so that it don’t miss the joyful surprise of it. Amen.

Unchained Challenge: Luke 18

2011-11-28T09:29:00.000-05:00

Scripture: Luke 18:11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men- robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.”

Observation: Pharisees were the religious cream of the crop, and they knew it. Lots of people didn’t tithe, but the Pharisee did. Many people didn’t even try to keep the Torah, but the Pharisee did. The Pharisee was willing to make religious sacrifices that few were willing to make. But at some point Pharisees became motivated, many of them, not by love for God but by arrogant competitiveness. They were notorious for comparing themselves favorably to the sloppy sinners around them, which caused them to believe they were God’s gift to, well, God. Once they started to think they deserved God’s grace and mercy, the life-transforming power of God’s grace and mercy could not invade their lives.

Application: On my best days, I realize how undeserving I am of God’s grace and mercy. But, there are those days when I think of myself more highly than I ought. Usually, this arrogance surfaces when I compare myself to those around me who are not as committed or contrite as I am. I may go beyond the standard of robbers, evildoers, adulterers and tax collectors, but do I live up to the standard of Christ? This is the question that haunts and humbles me, bringing me back to the reality of my dependence upon God’s grace and mercy. Today, I will compare myself to the standard of Christ, which will help me avoid the Pharisee complex and keep me humbly dependent upon God.

Prayer: Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner. Remind me today that I am sinner saved by grace and that there but for the grace of God go I. no matter how good I may appear to be I will never ever outgrow my need for you to make up what I lack. Amen.

Unchained Challenge: Luke 17

2011-11-27T08:48:00.000-05:00

Scripture: Luke 17:3b Jesus says, “If your brother sins rebuke him, if he repents forgive him.”

Observation: Jesus spoke into a fragmented culture. Jews and Romans hated each other. Pharisaic Jews despised the Jewish Sadducees. Zealots, another Jewish sect, allowed their ethnic pride to become an excuse to kill Romans and Jews who collaborated with the Romans. The rich and poor were divided as well. Into this fragmented world Jesus throws a command that has the power to build a new community of radical accountability and forgiveness. “If your brother sins, rebuke him; if he repents, forgive him.”

Application: We live in a fragmented world too; this fragmentation slips into the church so that even she becomes divided into camps based on age, ethnicity, income, and political affiliation. In other words, the dividing lines among the people of God in Jesus’ day are not all that different from the divisions among people in the church today. If we can just learn to lovingly rebuke each other, instead of gossiping about or avoiding each other, the fragmentation would stop. If we could learn the habit of forgiving those who hurt us, and let go of grudge-holding bitterness, the church would be united not fragmented. The way to foster the kind of intimate community that reflects Christ is to love the people around me enough to lovingly rebuke and graciously forgive them.

Prayer: God, thank you for loving me enough to rebuke and forgive me…very, very often. May I be willing to do for others what you have done for me so that the world might know that you have sent the Son to be the savior of the world. Amen.

Unchained Challenge: Luke 16

2011-11-26T08:18:00.002-05:00

Scripture: Luke 16:15b Jesus says, “What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.”

Observation: This saying from Jesus is contained in a chapter that focuses on the “detestable” things we humans sometimes crave. We often covet, or “highly value,” things and people more than we crave God and his will. Our desires and God’s ways are, at times, extremely incongruent. The things we value can become obstacles to God’s best work in and through us.

Application: Black Friday shopping, which some endured yesterday, in many ways epitomizes how what we value God detests. I understand that Black Friday bargains enable shoppers to get “bigger and better” for less. But there is a dark side to “Black” Friday. We are driven to purchase more than we need, to competitively keep up with the possessions of those around us, and to feed our consumeristic cravings, even if we have to literally trample on others to do so. The desire to “keep up with the Joneses” and to “get mine” could need be more counter to the Gospel of sacrificial love. It seems so odd that the Black Friday “get mine” mentality comes one day after we “give thanks.” These two days, I think, depict how what we highly value is often detestable to God.

Prayer: Lord, help me to value what you value and to detest what you detest. Amen.

Unchained Challenge: Luke 13

2011-11-23T10:25:00.000-05:00

Scripture: Luke 13:12b Jesus said “you are set free from your infirmities.”

Observation: Jesus came to set people free from illness, despair, regrets, sins, and the burdens placed on them by the religious leaders. The ministry of Jesus brought dignity to those who had lost it. The crippled woman was viewed as an outcast and sinner. “Surely she did something against God that brought that illness upon her,” thought the theologians of that day. Yet, Jesus saw past popular opinion to the deep need in this woman to be set free not only from her illness but the hopeless despair it caused her for nearly two decades.

Application: On the eve of Thanksgiving day I am struck by the power of this verse. This saying from Jesus captures the story of my life. He has set me free from sin and despair by giving me the dignity of discipleship. Jesus saw past the popular opinions about me and loved me in such a potent way that my chains began to fall off. His love is disarming and chain-breaking! Although I am not as free as I can be, I am more free than I ever have been because Christ has set me free!

Prayer: Lord, thank you, thank you, thank you for breaking the chains that had wrapped themselves around my life. May the gratitude that wells up in me toward you lead to even greater freedom and the dignity that comes from a deepening relationship with you. Amen.

Unchained Challenge: Luke 12

2011-11-22T07:38:00.000-05:00

Scripture: Luke 12:35 Jesus says, “Be dressed, ready for service and keep your lamps burning”

Observation: Jesus possessed a sense of urgency about the kingdom of God that drove him. He was a man on a mission to redeem and restore the world. Service to God, the master, is more important than the preservation of our possessions. There is no “union break” or “retirement” from God’s service. Jesus is suggested that we never “clock out.” Jesus was always on mission, even when he sat by a well in Samaria exhausted. He calls us to live with the same kind of urgency- “be dressed, ready for service and keep your lamps burning.”

Application: I have a tendency to coast a bit in my service. I have a propensity to forget the urgency of the Gospel. And when I do forget and begin to coast a bit, my lamp stops burning. I walk past opportunities to serve God’s purposes. I walk right past people in need of hope. As I switched from pastor to professor I wonder if it’s even more tempting for me now to talk about service instead of serving. Today, I will be dressed, ready for the opportunities God brings my way to serve him, and this readiness will keep my lamp of passion burning for God.

Prayer: Lord, keep me lamp burning. As I draw close to you, open my eyes to see and seize those opportunities to serve your purposes in the world. Amen.

Unchained Challenge: Luke 11

2011-11-21T07:30:00.002-05:00

Scripture: Luke 11:34 Jesus says, “Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good your whole body will be full of light.”

Observation: Jesus says that what we take in through the eyes will impact everything else about us. When we look lustfully at things and people, it will adversely affect the rest of us. When we look compassionately at people in need, it will do our body good. When our response to what we see is jealousy or condescension, life is darkened. When prayers of praise and petition flow in response to what we see, our lives are lit up. Jesus looked at the world and everything in it with holy, selfless, and compassionate eyes. And he is “the light of the world.”

Application: Perhaps I can’t help what I see, but I can dictate the lens through which I view what I see. Instead of seeing a provocatively dressed woman and lustfully possessing her I will decide to selflessly pray for her. When I see one of my ministry friends experience fruitful success I will not burn with jealousy but celebrate with gratitude.

Prayer: Lord, when I am content with your love, I don’t need to covet or lust with my eyes. Today, help me to live so in step with your Spirit that my eyes become an avenue through which I seek your kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven.”

Unchained Challenge: Luke 8

2011-11-18T08:39:00.002-05:00

Scripture: Luke 8:37 Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear.

Observation: The people of the Gerasenes encounter the power of God in Christ to heal a demon-possessed madman and instead of welcoming Jesus they want him out of their region. Maybe the people are comfortable with the way things are. When a powerful person like Jesus shows up, things change. And who likes change? The people understand one thing- if Jesus stays on the scene of their lives it will necessarily entail change for everyone. People who are sick will get well. Sinners will turn to saints. The greedy will become generous. The status quo will be replaced with status go. I think of Beaver’s description of Aslan, the Christ figure, in Narnia… “of course he isn’t safe, but he is good.” If it is safety we are looking for then we probably don’t want to invite Jesus into the town of our lives.

Application: As I get older (but not that old since I am still in my 30s for a little longerJ) the more I hunger for safety and status quo. I really have to fight this urge. If I really want Jesus to enter more fully into the “region” of my life I must abandon my quest for safety and ease. Every time I resist the changed Jesus is trying to initiate in my life, it’s like I am asking him to “leave.” Lord, today I invite you to come in and upset the status quo of my life so that I become more fully the person you made me to be.

Prayer: Come into my heart, Lord Jesus, there is room in my heart for thee! Amen.

Why Are Pastors So Lonely?

2011-11-17T10:36:00.000-05:00

Pastors are among the loneliest people in the world. Today, in the Spiritual Formation course I teach at Wesley Seminary, me and my students explored the reasons for this. Feel free to comment and add to the list. The first step toward solving the problem is insightfully analyzing it.

Why are pastors among the loneliest people in the world?

The pastoral role can prevent authenticity
Pastors have been burned before by friends in the church
Pastors don’t have or make time for friends outside of the church
Many pastors struggle with depression which leads to isolation
Pastors don’t want to come across as a clique-ish
Pastors don’t have a right to pick and choose friends when we have to love all
Pastors are afraid people will see the real us beyond the role
Friendship takes energy we pastors don’t seem to have

Why do pastors need friends?

Pastors are prone to self-deception
Pastors need someone who cares for our soul the way we care for our people
Pastors need friends to help us de-robe and not take ourselves so seriously
Pastors need people who commend our strengths and challenge our weaknesses

Unchained Challenge: Luke 7

2011-11-17T07:19:00.000-05:00

Scripture: Luke 7:13 When the Lord saw her (the widow) his heart went out to her and he said “don’t cry.”

Observation: A woman has lost her husband and now her only son to death, which means she lost her hope and source of income. She is grieving and wondering how she will provide for herself. Many women in her position would be forced into prostitution or servitude to “make ends meet.” Despite his busyness, going from town to town to preach and heal, Jesus notices the woman. He “saw her and his heart went out to her.” This widow lost the men in her life, but she still had one Man who loved her. Jesus gives the man “back to his mother” (v.15).

Application: I am comforted by Jesus’ ability to see and care for me and others in the midst of grief and pain. But, I am also challenged by Jesus. Do I really see the people around me who are hurting in a way that elicits active compassion in me? Or, do I walk right past people looking at but not really seeing them? Today, I am going to slow down and see the people around me who are hurting. I will allow my heart to feel for them in a manner that leads me to act on their behalf.

Prayer: Lord, give me the eyes and heart of Christ to see the people around me who are grieving and hurting. And please give me the grace to act on their behalf in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Unchained Challenge: Luke 6

2011-11-16T06:37:00.000-05:00

Scripture: Luke 6:30b Jesus says, “If anyone takes what belongs to you do not demand it back.”

Observation: The words of Jesus in this chapter are extremely challenging, especially his words above. Let’s remember that Jesus’ audience was primarily Jewish peasants whose land and freedom had been taken by the mighty Romans. What wasn’t taken by the Romans was taken by the Jewish aristocracy which controlled the Temple finances and drained the pockets of the people. These words of Jesus, then, have a bit of a sting when read in the context of first century Palestinian realities. There were Jewish zealots in that day who tried to fight Roman power with power. These rebel Jews tried to take back what Rome and the Jewish elite had taken from them. Jesus says “do not demand it back.”

Application: The American way seems to be “tooth for tooth” or in some cases, “you take my tooth and I will take your teeth.” There are sayings that have been ingrained in me that run counter to Jesus’ command: You got to fight for your rights, claim what is yours, look out for number one. It seems that the American Church, at times, tries to synthesize American values with Jesus’ teaching. However, on many points they are like oil and water; they don’t mix. Sometimes I wonder if my faith is based more on American Churchianity than Biblical Christianity. By the power of God’s Spirit, today I will align with the values of the Christ I claim to follow, the Christ who tells me not to demand back what is mine.

Prayer: Lord, forgive me for following the values of culture and my own sense of what is right instead of aligning my life with the values of a kingdom not of this world. Please give me the wisdom to differentiate the divergence between your way and the way of the world. And give me the courage to swim upstream and obey your counter-cultural values. Amen.

Unchained Challenge: Luke 5

2011-11-15T07:42:00.002-05:00

Scripture: Luke 5:b (Peter to Jesus) “But because you say so, I will let down the nets for a catch.”

Observation: Jesus is always asking us to do odd things. He asks the disciples to feed a crowd of thousands with just a small amount of food. He commands us to love not only our friends, which is hard enough, but even our enemies. And in Luke 5 he asks seasoned fisherman who caught nothing all day and who are almost finished cleaning their nets to “put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” What could Jesus possibly know about fishing? At any rate, Peter’s response is commendable. He does the ridiculous, seemingly senseless thing Jesus asks him to do. He obeys Jesus’ odd command because Peter trusts him.

Application: Sometimes I am tempted to play life safe within the bounds of my own logic and convenience. What if Christ asks me to put out my fishing nets at a time and in a place that seems unlikely to yield fish? Ten years ago it seemed God was calling me to lead a church that was demoralized and stuck. There were other ministry opportunities that seemed to make more sense, but I knew God was calling me to this problem-infested but potential-filled church. “Because you say so” I went. That church, in time, became the kind of church I always dreamed of leading. And I almost missed it because it didn’t make sense for me to go there. I wonder of God is calling me to do something odd and unlikely today. If he does, will I muster the grace to respond with Peter “because you say so, I will.”?

Prayer: Lord, give me the grace to follow you wherever you lead and to do what you call me to do no matter how odd it may be. Forgive me for playing life safe and, too often, missing out on the boat-load of fish you have for me. Amen.

Unchained Challenge: Luke 4

2011-11-14T08:19:00.002-05:00

Scripture: Luke 4:39 So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them.

Observation: Peter’s mother-in-law is sick with a severe fever. Once Jesus comes on the scene, he heals her. Immediately after being healed, she gets up and serves them. She doesn’t take a nap, sit around and chat, or let people wait on her; she serves! Perhaps she is so overwhelmed with gratitude for being made whole that she can’t help but do something for others. She is served by Jesus and that compels her service to others.

Application: I am challenged by this story. First of all, I am challenged to have more compassion for my mother-in-lawJ Seriously, the question that haunts me is, why do I serve? There are lots of mixed reasons for serving people in Jesus’ name. I confess that sometimes I serve because of how it makes me feel about myself, how it makes me look to others, or how it obligates God to “bless me.” Today, my motivation to serve God will be the same as it was for Peter’s mother-in-law. I will remember how God has healed me and that will motivate my service. He has healed me from addiction, past pain, and debilitating insecurity, inferiority, and inadequacy. I will allow his healing love to motivate me to get up and wait on the people around me.

Prayer: Lord, when I pause to remember and reflect upon the many ways you have healed me, I can’t help but want to serve others so that they too experience your healing power. Today I will serve you not out of obligation but appreciation. Amen.

Pastoral Ministry Shifts

2011-11-13T16:30:00.000-05:00

I began pastoring a local church as a senior in college at the age of 23. For the next 15 years I served consecutively as a solo pastor, youth pastor, assistant pastor, and lead pastor in a variety of contexts before joining the faculty of Wesley Seminary last year. As I reflect upon my years of pastoral ministry, it seems there are a few God-initiated, ministry-enhancing shifts I stumbled upon along the way. My perspective on pastoral ministry changed significantly since I was a 23 year old “wet behind the ears” pastor in that rural and loving congregation who gathered in a fly-infested, mildew-scented sanctuary. The following shifts fostered the kind of faithfulness that facilitated fruitfulness (alliteration almost always appears arrogantJ):

Methodology to Spirituality: The best way for parents to produce healthy kids is to cultivate a healthy marriage. The same principle applies to the pastor; the best way to produce healthy Christians is for pastoral leaders to cultivate a healthy, intimate relationship with God. Most pastors will respond to this with, “thanks Einstein!” However, many pastors seem more enamored with the work of the Lord than the Lord of the work. We can easily become more infatuated with ministry methodology than authentic spirituality. The people who have had the most positive and profound impact upon my development in Christ were not methodological storm-chasers, but spiritual God-chasers. Don’t get me wrong, we must explore and incorporate best ministry practices and methods into the life of the churches we lead. However, method-rich but Spirit-poor leaders don’t seem to build churches that build God’s kingdom. At some point I began reading more books to enhance my soul than I was reading to increase my effectiveness. Oddly enough, this made me more effective. Go figure!

Programmer to Architect: I used to focus entirely on programming the church. “Get the right programs for children, youth, and adults and you get the right church,” I assumed. The pastor is the programmer who picks from a menu of programming options that are working in other churches and incorporates them into his or her particular church. A good program may provide an immediate boost but rarely any lasting change. A decade into ministry I came to the conclusion that lasting change comes not from programming the church but architecting the culture of the church. I shifted from a focus on finding programs to facilitating a culture that aligns with the values of Christ. Once the church discerned and developed a Christ-aligned culture, which for us entailed significant ministry to the poor and addicted, we sought programs that reinforced that kind of culture. Pastors are called first to architect the culture before they program the church, or we end up putting the cart before the horse.

Church to Community: I used to think that God called me to pastor the people who attended the church. Most of my time, therefore, was spent on the church campus developing campus-based ministries that would bring people to our campus. Then, the incarnation of Christ began to “get under my skin” a bit. God didn’t sit back and wait for us to come to him. Instead, he came to us as one of us. He came to our campus, onto our turf. INCARNATION! I also began to dig into Wesleyan Christianity and discovered John Wesley left the “campus” of the Anglican Church to go onto the turf of the poor, drunk masses of England. He insisted “the world is my parish” and “there is no holiness but social holiness.” It suddenly clicked for me. So, the amount of time I spent outside of the church increased. I began meeting with community leaders on their turf to explore ways to “do good” together. We participated in community service projects. Our budget began to reflect care, not just for our campus, but for our community as we invested more money in feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and helping the addicted. In time, some of our most persistent evangelists were unchurched people in the community who said “go to that church, they care about people, they will help you.”

Powerful to Empowering: For some reason I assumed that if anything good happened in the church I led, it would be because of my insight, giftedness, or power. Although I quoted Ephesians 4:12-13 annoyingly, usually arm-twisting people to serve in ministries I decided should be important to them, I wasn’t empowering “the saints” to do what God was calling and equipping them to do; I wasn’t giving them a “voice.” About a decade into ministry I became captivated by the concept of Trinitarian ministry, pastoral ministry that flows out of the implications of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What does it look like for me as a pastor to relate to my people like the Father who honors and elevates the Son, and the Son who submits to the Father, and the Spirit who reminds us of the Son? My role as a pastor is to elevate, honor, and submit to the members of my team. I got the impression that the church is at its best when all the people of God are empowered to do what God has designed and called us to do. And, it made my job a lot less stressful.

Which shifts have you already made? Which shifts do you need to make to more faithfully and fruitfully serve the purposes of God as pastor?

Unchained Challenge: Luke 3

2011-11-13T07:45:00.000-05:00

Scripture: Luke 3:4 “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him’.”

Observation: Luke uses the quote above from Isaiah to describe John the Baptist’s ministry as a mission of proclamation, aka preaching. John came to preach during a dry desert-like time for the Jews. The Jews were being oppressed by the Roman government. They Jewish race was demoralized and desperate. Many of them were poor and all of them under the thumb of the Roman government, except those who sided with the Romans against their own Jewish people. John’s preaching was primarily aimed at raising people up who have been brought low by life. John was called to preach in a way that would help demoralized Jews see themselves not through the eyes of their Roman oppression but through the lens of the rule and reign of God.

Application: I believe God has called me to preach in a way that elevates those brought low. Good news sets captives free. A preacher is called to be a “voice calling in the desert” that helps hopeless and hurting people to see “God’s salvation” in Christ. I want to preach in a way that causes a hopeless case to become hopeful, a racist to see people as God’s creation, a legalist to find love, an addict to get clean, etc.

Prayer: Lord, when I am tempted to use preaching to bring people low or beat them up, remind me of this verse. When I cry out in the desert of life’s dryness, please empower my voice to set captives free by the power of Christ.

Unchained Challenge: Luke 2

2011-11-12T09:39:00.000-05:00

Scripture: Luke 2:40 And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him.

Observation: I am not only struck by this verse, but by the entire section (Luke 2:8-51). There are three words that jump off the page at me throughout this chapter- grace, Spirit, and wisdom. It seems that God graces certain people with the presence of his Spirit which brings wisdom. God favors the shepherds with his grace and they immediately possess a wisdom that enables them to recognize Jesus as the cosmic King. Simeon and Anna, two saintly seniors, experience the grace of God and “get” the identity of Jesus as the promised Messiah. Jesus experiences the gracious favor and Spirit of God so that he grows in “wisdom” (2:40, 52). The bottom line is that God decides to grace certain people with his Spirit of wisdom that gives these graced ones eyes to see what they could never see on their own.

Application: I have some significant decisions to make in the weeks ahead. I am so desperate for God’s gracious Spirit that brings wisdom. I think of James 1:5 and hunger for wisdom from God. Today, and the days to follow, I will express to God my lack of wisdom and need for it consistently. Maybe, he will decide to grace me with the wisdom to see and know, just like he did with some shepherds, seniors, and the Savior!

Prayer: Lord, as I lean into your love, would you give me the grace to discern your “good, pleasing, and perfect will.” I am afraid that my eyes are sometimes blinded to what you are “up to” in the world and in my life. Give me the wisdom to see and the courage to respond to your will. Amen

Unchained Challenge: Luke 1

2011-11-11T09:50:00.000-05:00

Scripture: Luke 1:25 Elizabeth said, “The Lord…has taken away my disgrace among the people.”

Observation: Being barren was a disgraceful lot in life for women of Elizabeth’s day. It still has a stigma for women even to this day. People, maybe even Zechariah himself, looked down upon Elizabeth for her inability to conceive children. But she still “walked upright” (v.6) regardless of the bitterness of being barren and the shame it piled on her. She did not abandon the God she might have been tempted to believe abandoned her. But God took away the “disgrace” of Elizabeth and enabled her to conceive a child who would “prepare the way for the Lord.” Not only would she give birth to a boy, that boy she birthed was the “birth” of Pre-Advent! She is excited and she should be. Mary feels some of the same joy for a similar reason. God “has been mindful of the humble state of his servant” (1:48). Two women, one barren and one obscure, have the shame taken away by the one and only God who could remove it! And this is the Gospel, thanks be to God. No more shame, no more disgrace, that was outside of the bounds of her control. I feel some of the same excitement as I reflect upon the shameful circumstances that have disgraced me and how God took it away.

Application: God is challenging me to be grateful and remember how he has removed my disgrace. Today, when I am tempted to feel the shame of my past or the disgrace of not measuring up in the present to the standards of myself or others, I will resist it by the power of the Spirit. I will not allow my mind to play the tricks on me that will lead me back to shameful disgrace.

Prayer: Lord, there were things outside of my control that disgraced me for too long. I felt the sting of shame that sent me into a downward spiral of insecurity, inferiority, and inadequacy. But then You came near and did for me what I could not do for myself- you took away my disgrace! Jesus Christ, you set this captive free! Amen

Asbury Theological Seminary Features My Work with Wesleyansermons.com

2011-11-02T17:50:00.000-04:00

Check out this article from Asbury Theological Seminary's Alumni Link: http://www.asburyseminary.edu/alumni-elink/beeson-alumnus-puts-wesley-on-the-web

It May Be Time for a Pastor to Resign If...

2011-10-30T16:25:00.000-04:00

...the treasurer is related to the head trustee who is related to the custodian who is related to the board vice-chairperson who is related to the assistant pastor.
...the pianist and organist debate the right key for "Old Time Religion" during the worship service.
...the board members leave the sanctuary when you stand up to preach your sermon.
...weekly offerings triple when you're on vacation.
...your administrative assistant vetoes your bulletin announcements.
...only one member showed up for the "all-church" outreach event but everyone came to the potluck hymn sing.
...even the newborn babies in the church don't seem cute to you anymore.
...several fist fights broke out during the Communion service and the lay care leader sucker punched the pastor at the prayer meeting.
...your house gets egged and TPed (toilet papers) weekly during Pastor Appreciation Month.
...and only if God releases and calls you to another place of ministry.

Preaching What Ifs...

2011-10-25T14:06:00.000-04:00

-What if sermon preparation was more like a spiritual discipline than a rhetorical task?

-What if the preaching event began to feel more like an experiential encounter with God than an informative lecture?

-What if the sermon could be, like Christ, "full of grace and truth" (Jn.1:14)?

-What if preachers became more concerned with being captured by the text than mastering the text?

-What if the sermon preparation process was as holy as the sermon content?

-What if preachers spent as much time exegeting the congregational context as we spend exegeting the biblical text?

-What if preachers learned to vary their sermonic forms to align with the sermon goal and listener needs instead of forcing every single sermon into a point by point propositional box?

-What if preachers learned to communicate as one among and not one above the people?

-What if God through the biblical text really had the lead in the homiletic dance with the preacher?

-What if preachers became less concerned with what people think of us and more concerned with what people think of God?

-What if preaching was driven more by compassion and less by ego?

-What if preachers stopped imitating the delivery style of others and invited the Word of God to be incarnated through our unique, God-designed "voice"?

-What if preaching was less about instructing Christians and more about liberating captives?

-What if preaching began to transform people who transform their community?

-What if preaching the word was joined again with feasting at the table of Communion in the context of worship?

-What if preachers were as theologically reflective as we are rhetorically consumed?

-What if preachers developed a deep reliance upon the Holy Spirit like we had when we preached our first sermon?

-What if the words of preachers painted inescapable, unforgettable, and compelling pictures of God's kingdom in the hearts of people?

-What if preaching was so brutally honest about the bad news that people craved the good news?

-What preaching "what if" would you add???

Sermon Feedback Form

2011-10-05T11:17:00.000-04:00

Content (Logos- What did the sermon say about God and the Gospel?)

• Theology: What did the sermon say about God- Father, Son, or Holy Spirit?

• Gospel: Describe whether or not the sermon captured the essence of the Gospel by dealing with both the problem of human sin and the grace of the divine Son?

• Expository: Could you see clearly how the sermon flowed from the biblical text? Explain.

• Structure: Explain whether or not the structure of the sermon had focus and flow.

• Clarity: In one complete sentence, write the focus of the sermon:

• On a scale of 1(low) to 10 (high) rate the logos of the sermon: _______

Connection (Pathos- How well did the sermon connect with the context?)

• Images: Did any illustrations, stories, or metaphors from the sermon connect with you at a significant emotional level? If so, which ones and how did they appeal to your emotions?

• Relevance: Did the sermon connect with the situations of your life in a relevant manner? If so, how?

• Application: Did you come away from the sermon with a clear sense of why and how to live into the Gospel reality it proclaimed? Explain.

• Passion: Do you think the preacher spoke with passionate conviction? If so, why?

• On a scale of 1(low) to 10 (high) rate the pathos of the sermon: _______

Character (Ethos- Was the preacher congruent with the Gospel? )

• Competence: Do you think the preacher was spiritually and mentally prepared for the preaching event? Why or why not?

• Authenticity: Did the preacher communicate in a manner that was genuinely congruent with her/his personality? Explain.

• Delivery: Did the preacher’s eyes, body, and voice help or hinder your receptivity to the sermon? Explain.

• Love: How did the preacher, through the sermon, evidence love for God and for people?

• On a scale of 1(low) to 10 (high) rate the ethos of the sermon: _______

Words to the Preacher:

© 2010
Lenny Luchetti
Permission is granted to copy and use

A Sermon Preparation Process: Preaching as a Spiritual Discipline

2011-09-20T14:10:00.002-04:00

Helpful Guidelines
• While the model does not describe the spiritual formation of the preacher outside of the homiletic process, it is assumed. In other words, this spiritual homiletic is not a magic formula that negates the importance of the preacher’s formation outside of the homiletic process. The preacher’s accumulated thoughts, habits, influences, and experiences will shape the preacher in profound ways, in ways that move well beyond simply weekly routine of preaching.
• It will be nearly impossible to preach a topical sermon with this model because in a topical sermon the preacher has already decided in advance what the text says and how he will use it. In the topical sermon the preacher is not typically led by God through the text but actually controls and, sometimes, distorts the text since it must fit his topic.
• Refrain from running to book or website illustrations until you have spent adequate time prayerfully reflecting upon the text and your personal experiences that surface from it. Try your best to let illustrative material come from your rich life and ministry experiences and observations.
• A good commentary or two should be consulted but only later in the process to check the exegetical credibility of what you sense God is saying to you through the text.
• Enjoy the homiletic process and try your best to see it as a devotional opportunity to be with the God who called you to preach the Gospel.

Movement 1: What is God saying to the original audience through the text? (Scripture)
A. Prayerful Preparation: Pray a small portion of Psalm 119 slowly and reflectively. Ask God for revelation and insight into His word. Quiet your soul by sitting before the Lord and allowing him to remind you of his love for you and the important calling he has placed upon your life to preach Christ. Ask God to purify your preaching motives and to spiritually form you through the homiletic process to be the “fragrance of Christ.”

B. Text Selection: Prayerfully select the biblical text to be preached. Be careful to avoid assuming that you already know what God is saying through this text, even if you have preached it before. If you assume the meaning of the text and sermon point at the outset, it will stifle the process of allowing God to speak and it will remove the element of delightful surprise from the homiletic process.

C. Exegetical Insights: Read the preaching text several times, praying for God’s guidance, and record your reflections on the following questions that may apply:
• What do you observe about the text as you read it through several times?
• What questions surface regarding the meaning of the text?
• Who is the author and what do you know about him?
• Who is being addressed and what do you know about them?
• What is the historical context (time and place)?
• What light does the literary context (immediate context, book context, canonical context) shed on the text?
• What important words or phrases appear in the text? What do they mean and how are they used (feel free to consult dictionaries at this point)?

D. Playful Imagination: Fast a meal and pray at least 30 minutes for imaginative insight into the text. Read the text slowly verse by verse trying to imagine yourself as an observer of the original scene. Try to see, hear, smell, touch and taste the original scene. In other words, try to prayerfully and even playfully imagine yourself in the original context of the passage through the eyes of the main characters in the biblical text.

E. Theological Reflection: Reflect theologically about the text. How does this text intersect with a Wesleyan theological foundation? How does the text relate to important Christian doctrines like the Trinity, Incarnation, Christology, Pneumatology, Ecclesiology, Creation, etc.? How might events from Church History and the writings/lives of significant theologians (Athanasius, Augustine, Gregory, Luther, Calvin, Wesley) inform your reading of this text?

F. Text Focus: In no more than one paragraph, record what God is saying through the text to the people who originally received it. This is not the sermon point or sermon idea, which would take into account both the text of Scripture and the context of your congregation. This is simply a summarization of the passage’s meaning in its original setting (i.e., Paul is telling the Galatians that it is foolish to look to legalism for what only faith can provide.)

G. Commentaries: Read 2-3 reputable commentaries on your passage. How do these commentaries confirm or challenge your reflections? What do they add to what you already observed about the text?

H. Internalize the Word: Memorize the preaching text (or at least a main portion of it).

Movement 2: What is God saying to me through the text? (Prayer)
A. Lectio Divina: Prayerfully read the text using lectio divina. As you do, consider the personal implications of the text for your own life. Consider what God is saying to you through the text. How does the text apply to your relationships with Christ and others? How does it confirm, challenge, or comfort you? What does it reveal about who Christ is and who you are?
• Lectio: Read the text slowly several times inviting God to impress upon you the word, phrase, or sentence from the text that he most wants to speak to you. Record these words.
• Meditatio: Reflect on this word or phrase from the text and consider its intersection with your life and with other passages of Scripture. What do you sense God saying to you through this text? Give God some time to speak this word of truth into your life. Be still and let the words from Scripture fill your heart and mind.
• Oratio: Write a prayer of response to God in light of what He has spoken to you. This prayer can be one of thanksgiving, confession, or intercession, to name a few. Note any changes or commitments you will make to God as a result of being confronted, convicted, comforted, challenged or confirmed by this biblical text.
• Contemplatio: This final step takes one beyond words and into intimacy with God that allows the person to actually experience the grace of the Scripture reality being studied. Don’t focus on words or even the sermon, but simply enjoy intimacy with God, resting in His presence as you reflect and worship in images and not words. What do you picture? What images is God allowing to surface?

B. Prayer Walk: Take a prayer walk around the church campus, your neighborhood, or in a nearby park or woods looking and praying for God’s glory and for His kingdom to come “on earth as it is in heaven” through the sermon. Also, keep an eye out for physical illustrations that highlight the main thrust of the biblical text.

C. Retro Reflection: Prayerfully and honestly reflect upon why and how you chose this text to preach. What is behind your choosing of it? Are your motives for choosing this text pure? Is there some past, present or future concern that preconditions you to choose this text and/or skews or enhances your reading of this text? What part did God play in your choosing of this passage? In what ways did the meaning of the text surprise you?

Movement 3: What is God saying to the congregation through the text? (Fellowship)
A. Intercessory Reflections and Applications: Spend at least 30-60 minutes praying through the church directory and any special congregational prayer requests, incorporating the preaching text into the prayer time as often as possible. Reflect on how the text might address the joys, sorrows, hopes, hurts, sins, and dreams of people in your congregation, in particular, and of humanity, in general, and pray accordingly. Prayerfully consider how God wants to guide, comfort, or confront the church through this text. What changes might God want to initiate in your church through this text? Be careful to let God’s desires for the church, and not merely your own desires and ambitions, determine the application of the text to the congregation you serve. Don’t force the text to say more or less than it really says. List the possible sermon applications that result from this intercessory prayer time.

B. Initiate Contact: Initiate contact, by phone call or visit, with 2-3 congregants for spiritual care and directing. If possible, select congregants whose lives may be profoundly addressed by the biblical text and sermon for the coming Sunday. Depending on the circumstances, you may not want them to know that the coming sermon applies to them. This, however, does not prevent you from offering spiritual care to them.

C. Human Feedback (optional): In staff meeting, read the text and ask staff members to reflect upon how the text might intersect with their lives. Ask them to express how the text challenges, comforts, convicts, instructs, etc. (If you don’t have a staff, you can do this with a group of pastors, your family, or your friends). Record their reflections, but ensure anonymity. If you want to share one of their reflections, get their permission first.

D. Sermon Function: You have already written out the focus of the biblical text, answering the question “What did God say to them (the original recipients).” You also reflected on the question “What is God saying to me.” Now, prayerfully consider and write out, in one sentence, the main function of the sermon that will connect the meaning of the text with the context of your congregation. Reflect on the question “What is God saying to us (the congregation).” This is a crucial step in the homiletic process that will hold all the parts together as one whole.

E. Illustrations: What stories, images, analogies, people, current events, songs, movies, tv shows, statistics, sports, jobs, animals, etc. might illuminate the sermon function? Have fun brainstorming and listing everything that comes to your mind, even if it seems a bit odd at first. Some of the best illustrations come from our past experiences or from the stories of people in our lives. Make sure the story does not detract from but works to illumine the Word of God.

Movement 4: Prayerfully Put It All Together
A. The Big Picture: Prayerfully complete the “Putting It All Together” worksheet by going back through your notes and listing the most significant reflections that answer the following questions: What is the main sermon function around which everything else will revolve? What are the most significant exegetical insights that highlight the text focus? What other significant theological or personal reflections have surfaced? What illustrations illumine the meaning of the text? What applications accurately flow out of the text and challenge the congregation to embody the reality of the text through their lives and community?

B. Prayerful Pause: Spend 15-30 minutes prayerfully asking God to guide you in ordering the parts of the sermon so that it will most glorify Him, clearly communicate the sermon function, and spiritually form believers. This is where preachers tend to rush things. We have all the parts we want to throw in the sermon, but we must remain prayerful as we consider whether or not all the parts really fit and how they should be ordered into a seamless flow. Think of the parts of the sermon as a recipe in which some ingredients must come first to prepare the way for later ingredients. Pray for guidance and wisdom on this often overlooked element in the homiletic process.

C. Outline It: Since the hard work has been done, it’s time to have fun with the sermon parts, putting them together in a seamless flow. You should have more than enough spiritual sermon fodder than you will actually need. Develop an outline of the parts (i.e., exegetical insights, illustrations, applications, personal and theological reflections), including a one sentence idea for both your introduction and conclusion. Try to maintain conversation with God and keep in focus the intersection of the biblical text with its original audience, your life and your congregants’ lives throughout the process.

D. Title It: While the title should have attention-grabbing appeal, it is even more important for the title to be a memorable reminder of the main thrust of the sermon, it’s function.

E. Manuscript It (optional): Fill in the outline with a word for word manuscript, allowing your language to paint a picture of the Kingdom of God embodied by the people of God. Do it as if every word choice was a devotional act of worship that comes from a heart of deep love for God and for people.

Movement 5: The Main Event
A. Prayerful Practice: Prayerfully meditate on and practice the sermon in your study or home, not for eloquence but to spiritually reflect upon the message to be shared. Speak it aloud 1-2 times, as if you were preaching it to yourself (since the sermon must impact you before it impacts anyone else).

B. Personal Prayer: Pray at the sanctuary altar for personal purity, love, humility, and the ability to incarnate and communicate the sermon through your own life.

C. Intercessory Prayer: Do a prayer walk around the sanctuary, praying for the peoples’ receptivity to God’s Word and spiritual formation through it.

D. Develop Prayer Teams (2 or more people): Maybe you can delegate the recruiting of these prayer times to someone in your church who is passionate about prayer and its importance. The following teams of people should be recruited and empowered to pray:
• Pre-Sermon Prayer Team: to pray with the preacher before the sermon
• Sermon Event Prayer Team: to pray during the sermon
• Post-Sermon Prayer Team: to be available for prayer with people after the sermon (if no one needs prayer, this team can pray for the impact of God’s Word)

My Top 12 “Must Reads” for Preachers

2011-09-02T13:59:00.002-04:00

Here is a list of the books that have most significantly enhanced, changed, corrected, and confirmed my preaching convictions and habits. They are listed in no particular order. Some are mentioned because of how they shifted homiletic thought in some ground-breaking ways. Others are listed because they are helpful for the nuts and bolts of preaching. Some focus more on the science of preaching and others on the art of preaching. Some are primarily concerned with the theology that undergirds preaching and others with the practice that guides preaching week to week. All, I hope, are worthy of your valuable time.

-The Witness of Preaching by Thomas Long

-Communicating for a Change by Andy Stanley

-Preaching in the Spirit by Dennis Kinlaw

-Biblical Preaching by Haddon Robinson

-The Homiletical Plot by Eugene Lowry

-The Preaching Life by Barbara Brown Taylor

-As One Without Authority by Fred Craddock

-Telling the Truth by Frederick Buechner

-Company of Preachers ed. by Richard Lischer

-Homiletic by David Buttrick

-Designing the Sermon by James Earl Massey

-Preaching Essentials: A Practical Guide by Lenny Luchetti (I hope my book, to be released in May 2012, is worthy to be considered a “must read” for preachers someday.)

Overcoming Leadership Digression

2011-09-01T06:15:00.005-04:00

The Apostle Paul drafted a letter, which we call 1 Timothy, to a young pastor named Timothy centuries ago with a warning that 21st century pastors need to heed. Throughout most of the letter, Paul is advising young Timothy on matters concerning how to lead the church. Timothy was leading the Ephesian Church, a church whose leaders happened to be heretics. So, the seasoned apostle guides the rookie pastor on the importance of teaching sound doctrine and on the selection of church leaders.

An abrupt shift occurs, however, in 1 Timothy 4:7-16. Paul has spent most of the letter guiding Timothy on how to lead others. Now, the apostle focuses his words on challenging Timothy to lead himself. Paul writes, “discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness” (4:7) and “pay close attention to yourself” (4:16). It is almost as if Paul realized at this point in the letter that Timothy has no chance of leading others if he cannot lead himself. A message like this one to church leaders will never become outdated.

When pastoral leaders neglect self-leadership, we enter into a digression that could potentially destroy our ministry. Here is the digression:

The Pharisee Syndrome: The Pharisees of Jesus’ day tended to put a “yoke” on other people that they themselves were not willing or able to bear. In other words, they expected more from those they led than they expected from themselves. This is bad leadership, to say the least. In one of the church’s I served, a lay person came to me with a strong desire to lead. I gave him the chance, but he wasn’t reliable. He would call meetings and then show up late and unprepared, or forget to show up at all. He was hard on others who showed up late and he was hard on volunteers who didn’t do what they promised. I suspect they had learned this from him. In short, he expected more from those he led than he expected from himself. A lack of self-leadership destroyed this person’s leadership influence immediately.

Vision Leak: When Christian leaders neglect the importance of leading ourselves to the waters of Christ’s refreshing love through bible study, prayer, and other spiritually-formative disciplines, we quickly forget why we’re doing what we’re doing in ministry. Neglecting self-leadership causes the leader’s vision for ministry to leak out. When this happens, the leader begins to see ministry as a career through which to build one’s personal kingdom instead of as a vocation through which to build the kingdom of God. The passion for ministry dies and the pastor goes through the motions of ministry robotically, sort of like the guy in the old Dunkin donuts commercial who woke up and rolled out of bed saying, “time to make the donuts.” Doing overtakes being when the pastor stinks at self-leadership.

Dry-Up: As vision leaks and what the pastor does matters more to her than who she is, the pastor begins to dry up. When the Christian leader dries up, that leader has nothing left to give to other people. There have been a few times when I have dried up, due to my inability to lead myself spiritually and emotionally. On several of these occasions I recall seeing one of my church members in Walmart and hiding behind a cereal box or running to the other side of the store to hide from them. I am embarrassed to admit this, since I usually relish the opportunity to minister to someone “off campus.” My inclination to avoid people is a huge red flag that reminds me to get on the self-leadership track, especially in the area of my devotional life.

Act-Out: On the heels of dry-up comes the tendency to act-out. When people are not receiving what they need from our leadership because we are spiritually dry, they will begin to challenge us. Of course, unless we have gotten on the self-leadership track we will begin to act-out toward those who challenge us. While I have never overtly acted out, I have been in board meetings where I envisioned myself overturning the board room table and yelling at particular board members “if you think you can do a better job leading the church, here are the keys to the lead pastor’s office!” Thankfully, I never actually did what I imagined myself doing, but just entertaining the thought was a sobering wake-up call to refocus on my self-leadership.

Burn-Out: I do not believe burn-out is caused by busyness in ministry; it is caused by trying to do the work of the Lord without the Lord. There are few ministry contexts more challenging and busier than impoverished villages in Africa. Pastors in that context are bombarded with the challenge of caring for dozens of orphaned children whose parents have died of AIDS or other diseases. People are starving, sometimes to death. Warlords and gang members threaten to make matters worse. If any pastor is expected to experience burn-out, as commonly defined, it is the African minister. Yet, the African pastors I have known evidence not burn-out but passionate zeal for Christ and the villages they serve. I’m convinced that these pastors maintain self-leadership as a high priority or they would indeed burn-out in no time at all. The pastor who neglects self-leadership will dry-up, act-out, and, eventually, burn-out. The burned-out pastor gives up trying to minister and has not even the energy left to fake ministry anymore.

Fall-Out: Unless the burned-out pastor takes a break from ministry to get some major help in some of the ways outlined below, the pastor will eventually experience the fall-out known as moral failure. Long before a pastor is running off for an affair with his secretary, long before a pastor is embezzling ministry funds for her time-share in Hawaii, and long before a pastor finds himself addicted to pills and alcohol, the pastor has neglected self-leadership. Not only does fall-out destroy the leader, it almost always devastates the community the leader was called to lead. If only the leader would have seen one of the previous red flags listed above and pursued help, fall-out could have been avoided.

It’s not too late for you. Perhaps you are beginning to see the Pharisee Syndrome show up in your ministry as you challenge others to pray and read the bible, though you haven’t done either in weeks. Maybe you’ve had a Vision Leak by slipping out of ministry and into career mode as you find yourself more consumed with the work of the Lord than the Lord of the work. Could it be that you have had a Dry-Up and, therefore, have little energy left to give the people you are called to serve. A ministry Dry-Up, if not treated, will often evolve into an Act-Out causing you to harshly snap at the people you have been called to lovingly lead. If self-leadership is still neglected, Burn-Out will occur leaving you depleted of any spiritual, emotional, or physical energy at all. Unfortunately, being human, you will still have enough energy to sin. Burn-Out, unless confessed and remedied, will eventually lead to the Fall-Out of moral failure.

Whether you find yourself in the early or late digression of neglecting self-leadership, here is what you can do:
Confess it to God. When we voice our confessions to God we are also moving beyond self-deception and telling ourselves the truth God knows we need to hear.
Call in some friends. No matter where you are in the debilitating digression, you will need your spouse and friends to offer both support and accountability. Invite them into your struggle. You will be glad you did.
Consult a counselor. Ongoing professional Christian counseling ensures that you take seriously your process toward health, since you have to pay and make time for it. More importantly, a qualified counselor has likely sat with people in your dilemma many times before and has learned, through trial and error, how to help people like you.
Contemplate the Psalms. If you have gone far down the road in the digression, praying may be too much of a challenge at this point. The good news is that you can pray the prayers of others by reading the Psalms. The Psalms are prayers known more for their honest angst than their theological profundity. Pray them aloud and with emotion when you don’t have your own words to pray. When you do, you will experience soul-therapy.

If you find yourself digressing in self-leadership, I pray you will utilize the resources above. Don’t wait until you reach the next stage of digression. Do something now so that the grace of God can make you into the leader He has called you to be for your congregation.

Lenny Luchetti
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Sermon Planning: A Well-Balanced Diet

2011-08-22T07:30:00.001-04:00

The effects of not having a balanced diet can be harmful to the body. If my body does not get one or more of the nutrients from the basic food groups it will not grow and will be susceptible to various health problems. The same is true with the church body. If the church you lead doesn’t get all of the various nutrients necessary for health, it will become imbalanced and prone to all kinds of church diseases.

One of the ways the preacher can facilitate health in the church body is by providing a well-balanced diet of Scripture. A thoughtful preaching plan, then, is necessary. Every preacher has favorite go-to themes, which some might call a soap-box. One of my soap-box themes is obedience. Obedience is a central Gospel theme, but if it is the only food group the preacher provides then the church body will miss out on some other key Christian nutrients like grace, for instance. This imbalance might lead the church to become ill with legalism.

As I reflect upon my preaching over the years, I don’t believe anyone would accuse me of not teaching sound doctrine, except for the one guy who sat in the back pew with his arms crossed all the time. However, I could be accused of not preaching comprehensive doctrine. We preachers, if we’re not careful, can get in the habit of a tunnel vision focus on the 2, 3, or 4 doctrines or themes we most want to preach about. If we don’t catch ourselves doing this, our congregants might end up misguided or imbalanced in their faith. Do we preach about sin and grace, faith and works, imparted and imputed holiness, justification and sanctification, heaven and hell? Do we preach from all the various genres and sections of the Bible or just the passages with which we are most comfortable?

Most preaching pastors spend some time, usually in the summer, sketching out a sermon plan for the year. Here are a few tips to assist you in providing a well-balanced diet for your church body:

• Incorporate a Variety of Biblical Genres: If I had my way, I would preach entirely
from the Gospels of Luke and John. Perhaps you would pick the prophet Jeremiah as the text from which you would preach sermon after sermon, year after year. However, a well-balanced diet requires that preachers provide nutrients from all the genres of the Bible. The bible contains a variety of genres such as poetry, history, narrative, parable, epistle, apocalyptic, proverb, and law. Each has a unique richness that, hopefully, will surface in the sermons developed from each of these literary forms.

• Follow the Christian Calendar: If you follow the Christian Calendar you know that it
journeys down the main roads of the Gospel narrative. The two major sections of the sacred calendar, Advent and Lent, consist of ten weeks total and provide helpful direction for the preaching plan. As Christians we don’t just experience a day called Christmas, we celebrate a season called Advent. Advent is the four weeks preceding Christmas and focuses on the advent, or “coming,” of Christ into the world. Lent is the 40 day period leading up to Easter, the celebration of Christ’s resurrection from death to life. Repentance that leads to spiritual growth is the focal point of Lent. Generally, Advent is a good time to preach evangelistic messages that talk about the hope and significance of Christ’s coming into the world. Lent is the perfect season to preach a discipleship-oriented series of sermons challenging believers to grow in grace.

• Include Major Christian Doctrines and Themes: Classic Christian doctrines and
themes answer the questions that the human race has been asking for thousands of years. Preaching on major doctrines can ensure that our sermons have theological substance, that they say something about God and living in relationship with Him. Here are some of the Christian doctrines and themes that transcend denominations, ministry styles, and trendy topics: creation, sin, grace, salvation, justification, holiness, restoration, sanctification, mission, and worship, to name a few. While I think it’s important to use Christian language when speaking of these doctrines, it is also necessary to articulate these doctrines in a contextual manner. That is, if you are preaching to the youth group on the doctrine of sanctification you had better describe and apply the doctrine in a manner that connects with 21st century American teenagers. If you don’t, you can expect their minds to wander and their fingers to text.

• Explore Urgent Topics: Reflect upon the needs of your people. What questions
are they asking? What struggles are they experiencing? What dreams are they chasing? Jot down all of the topics you can think of tackling through your preaching plan. Here are a few possibilities for your congregation: friendship, dating, marriage, parenting, suffering, sex, finances, leadership, loneliness, depression, etc. Once you develop an extensive topical list, consider distributing it as a survey to the people of your church asking each of them to circle their 2-3 preferred topics. Tabulate the results and see what topics rise to the top of the list. You may want to preach on the 4-6 most important topics to your flock in the summer when people are more likely to skip church.

• Study Bible Characters: The Bible is full of characters whose lives highlight
important themes and doctrines like sin, grace, and redemption. You can find some rich character studies in all genres of the Bible, so be sure to pick characters from the Old Testament (Law, History, Poetry, Wisdom, Prophets) and the New Testament (Gospels, History, Epistles, Apocalyptic). You can travel through and teach lots of Scripture as you delve into the lives of Adam, Abraham, Moses, Ruth, David, Esther, Elijah, Mary, Peter, and Paul.

As you consider the ideas above you will have more than enough genres, seasons, doctrines, topics, and characters from which to build an annual preaching plan. I suspect you might even end up with a two-year preaching plan. Whether you develop a one or two-year plan, I hope this resource will assist you in developing a well-balanced diet for your body, the church body that is.
EXERCISES:
• Begin to sketch out some immediate thoughts under each of the categories above.
• Now, develop a one or two-year preaching plan that provides both a well-
balanced diet of the biblical narrative and addresses the unique needs of your congregation.

© Lenny Luchetti

Jesus Christ Crushes the Stones that Cut Us Inside

2011-08-12T13:45:00.001-04:00

Some time ago I preached a message called The Jesus Factor from the story of the demon-possessed madman in Mark chapter 5. For some reason, I felt drawn to go back and read that sermon today. Maybe I needed to be reminded of the power of God to do for me what I could never do for myself. Here is an excerpt from that message that encourages me and, I hope, will encourage you too.

“A force stronger than the force that had kept the man down set the man free- that force was the Jesus factor! You don’t have to stay in the tombs, you don’t have to keep crying and cutting, you are not trapped, you are not stuck, you are not left for dead in the place of death, there is a force that is greater than all the forces doing their best to rob you of peace and keep you down and that force is Jesus Christ, the name that is above every name, the one through whom all things were made, the alpha and omega, the light that shines in the darkness, the one who is seated on the throne, the one who really is in control, the one who is ridiculously willing to cross into our region to get out of his holy boat and step into our tomb, into the graveyard of our situation and bring life out of death, causing dead bones to live again, he is the author and perfector of our faith and he loves us more than we love ourselves and he can do for us what we could never do for ourselves, and he is for us not against us, and if you let him have you, in time you will find that, no matter what circumstances surround you, you can be at peace in your right mind! Only Jesus can give pervasive peace; drugs, alcohol, sex, success, money, and therapy can only give temporary relief through diversion but when you lay your head on the pillow at night or wake up in the morning if you want the kind of peace that wipes out isolation, the crying and cutting that’s going on in the basement of your soul, then give yourself to Jesus, fall upon the rock that crushes the stones that cut you inside.”

Why I Wrote the Book I Wrote...

2011-07-28T20:22:00.001-04:00

It is finished! On July 12, 2011 I submitted my complete book manuscript, all 180 pages and 43,000 words, to the publisher. Preaching Essentials: A Practical Guide will be released in May 2012. The book consists of 42 chapters averaging about 1000 words each in length. Every one of these digestible chapters concludes with “exercises” that are designed to help preachers cultivate sound convictions and solid habits for the practice of preaching. The book aims to help new and seasoned preachers discover or recover their God-given “voice” for proclaiming Christ. It is written for students beginning their ministerial journey and for veteran preachers seeking renewal.

Some of you have asked why I wrote the book. The reasons are varied. I wrote the book because:

•I went searching for an up-to-date and comprehensive book for my seminary students, a book that would frame and foster the habits and skills necessary for preaching today. While there are some excellent classic and contemporary books on preaching, I did not find the fresh and full-orbed resource for which I was looking. So, I wrote it…primarily for my students who range in years of experience from 0 to more than 20 years.

•It seems as though many books on preaching are written for teachers of preaching and not for preachers. As a teacher of preaching, I highly value those resources that assist me in my professorial vocation. However, the Church needs to resource those who stand up Sunday after Sunday to proclaim the good news of Christ’s love to hope-hungry people. I wrote the book for preachers.

•There needs to be a readable and practical book that can be comprehended and applied to one’s preaching ministry regardless of their ethnic, educational, and denominational background. I wrote the book to be accessible to all preachers and not just a privileged few.

•Listeners listen differently today than they did even 10 years ago. While some of the homiletic habits of yesterday are timeless, some are not. There are relatively few preaching texts available today that seem to faithfully respond to the realities of the contemporary context in which the Church finds herself. I wrote my book for the sake of 21st Century listeners who are starving for some new homiletic containers to hold the unchanging Gospel water.

•I needed to think through and articulate the many disjointed, loosely connected, and random thoughts that have been floating through my homiletic head and preaching practice for nearly two decades. The book forced me to discern and decide which preaching convictions and habits are most essential for the day in which we find ourselves. I wrote the book for me or, more accurately, to help me teach the next generation of preachers.

So there you have it. I thank God for the opportunity to write the book and pray God uses it to form preachers who are faithful to both the ancient text and the contemporary context.

Peace,

Lenny

The Sunday Sermon

2011-06-13T10:43:00.001-04:00

Bible in hand, I walk with palms sweaty and heart pounding to the front of the sanctuary. I look at their faces, some are bored, some expectant, but all hopeful for something bigger than themselves and better than their lives. There goes Ray, whose wife left him 5 years ago because of his addiction to heroine. She took the kids and he took a nose-dive. He shows up at church periodically, seeking a high to intoxicate him enough so he won’t want to get high. What am I going to say to Ray? There, way in the back of the sanctuary is Rosie, the cynical 17 year old who would rather be sleeping on a bed of nails than listening to my sermon. Her parents threaten to take away her car if she doesn’t attend church. Rosie stopped really listening to sermons 2 years ago after she had an abortion. She slouches, crosses her arms, and listens to her iPod, every once in a while muting it to hear if anything I say will make living more attractive than suicide. What do I say to Rosie? There in the second pew with the big smile is Lois. She loves to “praise the Lord,” to use her words, but her puffy eyes and staring into space reveal the heartache her atheistic, verbally abusive husband is inflicting. She would do anything for him, but he treats her like trash. She is fearful and running from the question that keeps haunting her, has God abandoned me? What do I say to Lois?

The words God gave me to share this Sunday morning and the manner with which I say them stand between Ray, Rosie, and Lois and the demons of seductive addiction, hopeless despair, shameful regret, and extreme disappointment that are set on devouring them. What can I the preacher do in moments like these facing demons like these that are suffocating people like these? I have no sword, I have no six-shooter, I have a sermon. A sermon! Words woven together with the fabric of biblical truth and the thread of contextual realities. A sermon! 3500 words spanning 30 minutes to a group of people who are gazing at me, waiting for me, daring me to say something that will make God and his kingdom more real to them than the very real pain and problems that are sure to show their ugly faces again after the Sunday clock strikes 12:00. No one can see it but I’m shaking in my shoes, doubtful that this sermon will be enough to protect these people from these demons on this day.

My sermon looks like an underdog against the demons that have attached themselves to the people I love. What is worse, I am wrestling with some of my own demons like the one on my shoulder who whispers in my ear before I stand up to preach “who do you think you are…you have nothing to offer these people…you are more messed up than they are…do you really think your words, of all things, can make a lick of difference in their lives?” Once I snap that rascal off my shoulder another appears. This one reminds me of my successes in hopes that I will rely more on the power of my words than the power of God through my words. With an even harder flick, I get rid of this demon too.

The preacher stands between heaven and hell, hope-hungry people and the demons we know all too well. Who in their right mind would dare to stand up and speak out with odds like these? Who has the audacity to believe that grace-filled, truth-painting, Spirit-anointed words really can do something good to people whose hopes are hanging by a very thin thread? I the preacher, despite the odds, dare to believe that God just might show up and use the so-so words of this so-so preacher to transform so-so people into disciples who change the world. And so I open my mouth to release the words God has given me, knowing full well that if he doesn’t bring the dead bones of my mediocre words to life they won’t live and bring life to the dead. But God does show up, sometimes in ways I expect to see him but usually in ways I do not. On any given Sunday it’s hard to see exactly what God is “up to” through the sermon. But the cumulative impact of sermon after sermon after sermon, spoken with love to the same group year after year, is much more visible. These people before me seem a bit more faithful, more hopeful, more committed, more reliable, more selfless, more victorious than they did a few years back. The reason? God is here. Though the demons may seem bigger than my words, these monsters are no match for the God who hovers over the deep of the sermon and those who hear it.

Ray, Rosie, and Lois are leaning up in their seats. God is using my words to restore what they lost in the fall. Before the sermon is over I have already decided to give it a go again next week.

2011-05-27T18:28:00.002-04:00

So, here are the 16 students in my Narrative Preaching Course. We spent all day, everyday together this week. We shared reflection, dialogue, and meals together. Each student had the chance to preach a 12-15 minute narrative sermon and receive commendation and critique regarding their sermon. I think all of us would say we learned more about preaching, more about each other, and, most importantly, more about God. One of the things I most appreciated about this group of students was not only their giftedness but, more so, their humble teachability. They came to class not merely to showcase their obvious gifts but to develop them.

For those of you who are wondering what narrative preaching is, here you go...

The parables Jesus preached had a knack for inspiring and surprising listeners. Furthermore, the parables did not always tie up loose ends in the name of practical relevance. Jesus’ parables were structured by a narrative, not linear, logic. This is not to say that the only sermon that will honor the name of Christ is the narrative sermon; but we can conclude that if Jesus, the master preacher, employed narrative elements in his sermons, there has got to be wisdom in utilizing this form.

What a Narrative Sermon Is Not…
A narrative sermon is not merely a few video clips thrown together to support the points the preacher is sharing. It is not necessarily the stringing together of a few personal stories from the preacher’s life to convey a handful of propositional points. Making points and then illustrating them with a variety of personal stories, though not homiletically diabolical, does not a narrative sermon make. No matter how many little narratives are placed within this kind of sermon, it still incorporates a linear logic overall.

Even if the genre of the main preaching text is narrative, the sermonic form may still be more linear than narrative. Summarizing the story about a biblical character, say Moses, through linear points (i.e., Moses Prays with Passion, Moses Obeys with Passion, Moses Leads with Passion) forces a narrative text into a linear sermon that may rob both the text and the sermon of their power.

Sermons with a linear logic flow from the introduction to point one (with proposition, exposition, illustration, and application) to point two (with proposition, exposition, illustration, and application) to point three (with proposition, exposition, illustration, and application) to the conclusion. This form made good sense for a Modern world that, thanks to scientific empiricism, sought to dissect and explain the sum of the whole by reducing it to parts, or points. The desire to know, master, explain, and simplify a biblical text, drove the homiletic machine of yesterday.

What a Narrative Sermon Is…
The structure and goal of a narrative sermon is quite different. The narrative structure is not built with points but with the elements of a good story. Setting, character development, problem, plot, climax, and resolution make for a good story and, I would add, an excellent narrative sermon. The difference between the two sermonic forms is striking:

Linear Logic Sermons
Introduction
Point 1 (explain/illustrate/apply)
Point 2 (explain/illustrate/apply)
Point 3 (explain/illustrate/apply)
Conclusion (or more points)

Narrative Logic Sermons
Setting/Character Development
Problem
Plot
Climax
Resolution

The preaching landscape, especially in the West, has changed. People shaped by postmodernity tend to crave inspiration more than information, and experience over knowledge. This is not to suggest that postmodern people do not want to be well-informed; most do indeed. However, the people in our world and church must first be inspired before they even care to be informed concerning Christ and His kingdom.

Narrative has been the most successful mode of communication for inspiring people across cultures and centuries. Simply put, story speaks to us in a manner that inspires movement toward an encounter with God. The Bible, in its canonical form, really is a unified meta-narrative that tells the redemptive story of God’s saving love for the world. Perhaps this is the reason why the Bible is the number one selling, cross-cultural book ever.

While I have incorporated various sermonic forms in my preaching over the years, the narrative expository preaching of a single biblical passage has impacted my own faith development significantly, not to mention what it might have done for those who have heard those sermons preached. While linear sermons are a necessary and helpful form for communicating didactic information, narrative sermons seem most-suited for transformational inspiration. The church will always need informative teaching but my preaching “gut” tells me that the narrative form has a better track record for opening up the door of didactic desire.

5 Questions to Guide the Development of a Christian Worship Service

2011-05-19T16:44:00.001-04:00

What kind of lighting will work best with the opening song set? What sound equipment do we need to pull off the service this weekend? What videos will most effectively capture the attention of the people? What songs can this worship team play with gusto? How much time should we designate for each element in the service? These 5 questions, of course, are necessary considerations for the person or team planning the worship service. However, these concerns are secondary to more significant considerations for the planning of the worship service. Here are the big picture questions that, if answered, can guide the development of the more detailed and practical components of the service toward God-glorifying worship.

Theology: What will this worship experience reveal about God? There are so many things that can be said about God that perhaps we don’t know where to begin or what to say at all. We must, of course, find a way to say something substantial about God in the context of worship. If the worship service reveals nothing about God, no matter how emotionally therapeutic and engaging, it essentially fails to be a Christian worship service.

Bible: What major part(s) of the biblical story will this worship service rehearse? The Bible contains one complete meta-narrative that moves from creation to corruption to salvation to mission to restoration. Identify the major chunk of the biblical story the service will emphasize. Perhaps it will audaciously touch on all moves in the story.

Anthropology: What realities of the human condition will this worship experience highlight and address? The service might focus on human angst, joy, suffering, peace, hope, sin, or disappointment. The local, national, and global human contexts should influence, to some extent, the vision of Christ the service holds up. We usually call this relevance.

Tradition: What orthodox and historical church traditions and practices will guide us in this worship service? It is vital for those of us who lead worship to keep in mind that Christian worship has been going on long before any of us arrived on the scene, for nearly two thousand years actually. There are rich liturgical traditions and practices that have stood the test of time and can enrich contemporary Christian worship.

Theme and Flow: What is the best way to position the parts of the service so that the theological theme is clear and flows from the gathering of God’s people toward the sending of God’s people? The gathered people of God benefit from a worship rhythm that ushers them intentionally toward an encounter with God that reveals a transformational theological theme.

If you are the pastor of local church or the leader of your church’s worship team, the 5 questions above are worthy of your most prayerful, thoughtful, and creative attention. Of course, there will always be those important practical issues to address as well. But all of the best practices and methods without the thoughtful underpinnings that surface from wrestling with the questions above will fall far short of the potential of Christian worship.

© Lenny Luchetti

Wesley Seminary: Breakfast with My Spiritual Formation Class

2011-05-19T13:57:00.002-04:00

This morning, Amy and I hosted my Spiritual Formation class from Wesley Seminary. Thanks to my beautiful wife, the host with the most, for providing a fabulous breakfast. Thanks also to my students who, along with students from other courses, made my first year of teaching such a joy. These Master of Divinity students are serving as youth pastors, senior pastors, and assistant pastors. These men and women are between the ages of 23 and 58. Some have been in ministry less than 5 years and others more than 15 years. They are a delightful bunch who recognize that just as important as skills in ministry is a heart of passionate love for God and the church.

Wesley Seminary: The Conclusion of Our First Onsite Preaching Course

2011-05-17T16:19:00.003-04:00

Well, I just finished 16 enjoyable weeks with our onsite Master of Divinity students in the preaching course. After listening to 18 sermons (2 from each) from these student pastors, I am optimistic about the future of Christian preaching. They are passionate about God, His word, and the churches they serve as pastor. To be honest, they are also one of the wackiest groups I have ever taught. Of course, you have to be a little wacky to believe that the almighty God might decide to show up through the preacher's sacrament of words to accomplish the impossible in the lives of people.

Preaching: 5 Tips for Building Rapport

2011-05-15T20:22:00.002-04:00

5 Tips for Building Rapport

Aristotle, the Greek philosopher of the 4th century BC, wrote a ground-breaking work on communication theory called Rhetoric. In this book, he notes that it’s not just the logos, (content) of the speech but the ethos (character) and pathos (empathy) of the speaker that determines the level of audience receptivity to the speech. Aristotle highlights for speakers the importance of building rapport with the people to whom we speak. In a day when suspicions run high toward leaders in business, politics, and the church, rapport between the preacher and listeners has never been more necessary.

Whether you are the unfamiliar guest speaker at a community service event or the well-known pastor in a local church setting, there are a few practical ways you can build rapport with any group that you address.

• Commend the Crowd: Parenting experts, perhaps an oxymoron, suggest that parents should be as quick to tell our kids what they are doing right as we are to correct what they are doing wrong. These experts say that commending our kids builds them up and opens them up to receive correction when we give it. The same is true for preachers when addressing a crowd or congregation. We should be as quick to commend as we are to challenge people with our message. If you are the guest speaker for an event this is especially important. Let the people know you appreciate, for example, their hospitality toward you, or the work they are doing in the community, or what they clearly value. If you are the pastor of a local church, find some good things to say about your congregation that relates to the message you are preaching. Remember to be honest (see below), creative, and insightful when commending a crowd.

• Use Self-Deprecating Humor: One of the ironies of public speaking is that, more often than not, the less seriously we preachers take ourselves (within reason) the more intently the congregation listens to our message. The Apostle Paul was quick to admit his weaknesses, even humorously criticizing his lack of eloquence and poor eyesight, in order that the message of the cross of Christ might have prominence. The people to whom we preach are measuring our level of egotism. If they sniff out pride in us, it will most certainly diminish their level of receptivity to the message we proclaim. Self-deprecating humor, done naturally, wisely, and sparingly, gives the impression that we preachers see ourselves not as one above the people but as one among the people of God. Be careful not to overdo it. There is a line that can be crossed using self-deprecating humor that will actually diminish congregational receptivity to your message just as much as prideful egotism does. Our use of humor should not come from a position of insecurity but one of security in Christ.

• Be Brutally Honest: While the Gospel of Jesus Christ is good news, it is bad news first. Before people even reach out for Christ they must face the bad news that we are sinful, broken, and needy and that life is often unfair, lonely, and empty. Unless a preacher voices the painful realities of life that humans know and endure, the hope stemming from the good news that God sent His son Jesus to redeem what was dead and to restore what we lost won’t be received with as much impact. If our preaching tends to sugar-coat the angst and suffering of the human condition, most people will quit listening to our message. They will conclude, “this preacher is living in la-la land and has no idea what it is like to live in the real world…my world.” Preachers are most guilty of this in funeral messages when we are so anxious to console the grieving that we never name death for what it is and say “death stinks!” Of course, the preacher must be just as honest about the good news too, even when the realities of the human condition attempt to veil the hope of the Gospel.

• Demonstrate Passionate Conviction: One of the most essential ways to build rapport with the people to whom you preach is to communicate as if you really believe you have something important and life-giving to say. As our intimate connection to Christ increases, the more passionate love for people and for God surfaces in us. Some preachers can fake passion well; maybe they even write on their sermon notes “scream loud now,” or “pause and cry,” or, my favorite, “strain your voice and whisper so people think you have passion.” I confess there have been times when I got up to preach and felt my lack of passionate conviction about the sermon I developed. Those sermons, as you may know, are hard to preach and perhaps shouldn’t be. I have observed that the messages that incarnate good news worth living and dying for naturally creates the passionate conviction that builds rapport between the preacher and the congregation. Simply put, passion is stirred in the preacher when the sermon has obvious potential to both glorify God and liberate people in significant ways.

• Scratch Their Itch: Harry Emerson Fosdick, pastor of New York 's Riverside Church, once said “No one comes to church to find out what happened to the Jebusites.” Fosdick was humorously advising preachers to steer clear of our pet issues in order to address the deep questions that the people in the pews (or chairs) are asking. Preachers are often guilty of scratching in places people aren’t itching. When I ask my wife to scratch my back, she doesn’t scratch my belly. Yet, we preachers have a tendency to scratch where people aren’t itching. We commit this crime in two ways. First, we raise questions in the sermon introduction that people aren’t asking. Our rapport is diminished as people start day dreaming about stuff that really matters to them, like what they’ll eat after church. The second way the preacher commits this crime is by promising, usually in the sermon introduction, to scratch a certain human itch and then failing to actually do the scratching. This second form of the crime is worse than the first because it leads to a greater sense of disappointment in listeners whose expectations are built up and then let down. So, a word to wise preachers- make sure your sermon raises and addresses a significant human itch.

REFLECTION:
 Which one of the tips above comes most naturally to you?
 Which one of these tips is most challenging for you? Why?
 What are some other tips for building rapport that you might list?

The Sermon Planning Retreat

2011-03-14T21:20:00.001-04:00

Many preachers have discovered the benefits of a sermon planning retreat. I have too! Some preachers may not be convinced of the necessity of such a retreat or, assuming they’re willing, others may not know where to start in planning for the retreat. In order to convince the unconvinced and assist the willing, we will explore the rationale, requisites, resources, and regimen for the sermon planning retreat.

Rationale
-Connection: Every pastor who preaches needs some time alone with God, to connect with him. This often entails getting away from the hustle and bustle of the church office in order to prayerfully consider the texts and topics through which God may want to speak to the congregation. Setting aside an entire day to say to God, “speak for your servant is listening” rekindles the preacher’s relational connection to Christ and refreshes the soul of the preacher. More to the point, the pastor who frequently retreats to be alone with God for soul refreshment and ministry planning is less likely to burnout and fail morally than the pastor who is constantly running, going, and doing.

-Calmness: The rigors of preaching weekly or, for some, several times each week is enough to cause anxiety and ulcers even for the toughest of preachers. The stress of birthing the sermonic baby week after week can get the best of us. We deliver our baby on Sunday, hoping that everyone in attendance thinks the “kid” is cute, and by Monday we frantically search for another biblical text or topic that will impregnate us in time for labor and delivery the following Sunday. A sermon planning retreat extends the conception and pregnancy period. It allows the sermon some time to grow within us. Furthermore, when we preachers know what topics/texts we will address over the next few months, a measure of calmness replaces some of the anxiety.

-Coordination: One of the added benefits of a sermon planning retreat is being able to effectively and adequately promote upcoming sermons and sermon series’. Knowing what sermons are coming allows you and the church time to coordinate with other ministries, events, and programs within your church and community. You can coordinate your sermon plan with pastoral care. You will likely find yourself in pastoral care conversations in which you let people know that an upcoming sermon will be addressing some of the issues they’re facing. Another benefit of sermon planning is that it has the potential to enhance the worship vitality of the congregation. Your worship planning team will love you for giving them several months of time to creatively coordinate worship service elements around the theme of the sermon.

Requisites:
-Commitment: Schedule a sermon planning retreat on your calendar every four months to begin prayerfully planning for sermons and series that are at least two months out. So, for example, if you are going to plan for sermons beginning in September, your quarterly sermon planning retreat should take place in late June/early July. This will allow each sermon idea or series at least two months to germinate and penetrate your soul and mind. Schedule these four quarterly retreats at the beginning of every year and commit to taking them during work days, not days off. Perhaps you can schedule this full day retreat on a week when you have invited someone else to preach. If you don’t do this, you will find your mind wandering from the quarterly preaching plan and toward the coming Sunday’s sermon.

-Cave: Once you commit to some dates for the sermon planning retreat every quarter, you can hunt for a cave. This is not a literal cave, of course, but a place where you can hide away and not easily be found. Only your spouse, key lay leader, or one other staff member should know where to reach you in case of an emergency. Other than that, keep the location a secret. Find a cave that is relatively free from distractions we cannot control (noisy crowds, extreme heat or cold) or diversions we cannot resist (TV, excellent cell phone reception, email). Book your cave at least one month in advance.

-Contrition: It almost goes without say, but I’m a preacher so I’ll say it anyway- take with you an open humble heart that is ready to encounter and hear from God. God tends to speak most when we put ourselves in a posture to listen. I don’t think I ever came away from one of these retreats without receiving important impressions that resulted from my encounter with God. I didn’t always come away pleased with the progress I made on my preaching plan, but I always came away refreshed by God’s presence. Contrition comes from recognizing that more important than the work of the Lord is the Lord of the work. A sermon planning retreat, I hope, produces a plan for your upcoming sermons. But, at the end of the day, the best preachers are those who encounter and walk with God. A good sermon plan without intimacy with God will do very little for the preacher and the congregation.

Resources:
-Calendars: There are three calendars you will want to bring to the retreat. First, you will want to consult the Christian calendar when planning sermons and series’. Lent, the season leading up to Easter, and Advent, the season preceding Christmas, are two highpoints that present golden opportunities for sermon series appropriate to the themes of these liturgical seasons. Other holy days might be including in your preaching plan such as Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Pentecost Sunday. Be sure to bring your local church calendar too so that you can connect sermons and big events in the life of the church to each other. Occasions such as Baptism, Communion, and Membership might warrant particular sermon texts and topics. In addition to the Christian and Local Church calendars, you will want a calendar that shows the dates of secular holidays. New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving are secular holidays that open up various preaching possibilities. Perhaps you will want to list holy days, holidays, and church events for the upcoming quarter on one calendar before the retreat so that you don’t waste time doing this during the planning retreat.

-Chow: Unless you’re fasting, it is wise to eat a full breakfast before the retreat and bring some snacks with you to keep you alert and energized. Two bananas, a thermos of coffee, and several water bottles do the trick for me. A few sugary sweets can help get the creative juices flowing too.

-Contents: This almost goes without say, but you will want to take a Bible with you, maybe even several versions. In addition, you will want to bring a writing pad, laptop, or some other device upon which you can record ideas for series and sermons. Music that inspires you to worship God can foster creativity. Perhaps you already have a file of ideas you’ve been collecting for sermons and series. If you don’t have this file, you will want to create this on your computer and begin to record the ideas that come to you between retreats. If such a file or document exists, bring it with you on the retreat.

Regimen:
As you consider how to structure your sermon planning retreat consider the following progression:
-Communion: My aim at the beginning of the retreat is to simply enjoy communion with God. This is easier said than done. I need time to get beyond the stress and distractions of life and ministry to center my mind and heart on God. One of the ways I do this is to throw on some tranquil instrumental music and read aloud from the Psalms or words of Christ from the Gospels. The Scripture reading usually leads to spontaneous prayers of adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication (ACTS). It usually takes me about 60-90 minutes to throw off distraction and genuinely experience communion with God.

-Context: Once I connect with God, I spend some time reflecting upon and praying for the people in my congregational context. A congregational directory assists me with this. I want the quarterly sermon to intersect with the deepest needs and questions of the people I serve. Therefore, it’s imperative that I spend an hour prayerfully reflecting on the congregation, as well as the local, national, and global contexts that shape their lives. What is going on in the life of the church that shapes the congregation? What cultural trends are impacting the people? What current events are on the minds of the people? What texts and topics, doctrines and themes, need to be addressed to help the congregation more faithfully love, follow, and serve Christ? You may want to distribute surveys to the people in your church that invite responses to some of the questions above. You can take the compiled data from your congregational survey with you on the retreat. Discernment and prayer regarding congregational needs may take 60-90 minutes.

-Commence: You have spent time communing with God and prayerfully considering your congregational context. During that time, God was surely giving you impressions and ideas regarding your preaching plan. It is now time to begin sketching out some specifics regarding sermons and series. Go ahead and grab the calendar you brought with you. If you are going to do any series, plug them into the calendar first. Then, if you have any stand alone sermons, put them on the calendar. Hopefully, you have four months worth of sermon starters. For each sermon, list a working title, text(s), and a theme sentence which begins to capture what the sermon is about. Add a little more detail to the first two months of the quarterly sermons. Consider listing Christian doctrines, congregational needs, image/illustrations/metaphors, and possible applications that seem to flow out of and connect with the texts and topics of your sermons and series’. This exercise will take the remainder of the 4-6 hours you’ve scheduled for the retreat.

It is time to get started. Schedule your quarterly sermon planning retreats on days you already work. Recruit someone to preach on the Sundays following your retreats so that you’re not distracted by the impending sermon and lose sight of the forest for the trees. Approach these retreats not only as opportunities to plan your sermons but to encounter God in ways that increase your love for him and for the people to whom you preach. Go for it!

My Thoughts on Preaching Another Preacher's Sermon

2011-02-28T07:19:00.001-05:00

As a teacher of preaching for nearly a decade, I have observed that one question inevitably surfaces in every class: Do you think it is okay to preach another preacher’s sermon? I cringe a bit, even though I have come to expect the question. The reasons for my cringing are several. For starters, I know my response is bound to offend or, worse, humiliate someone in the class. Secondly, this issue is too multifaceted and complex for some of the overly simplistic and arrogantly opinionated answers I am tempted to shoot back at my students. Here is, I hope, a reasoned response to the question: Do you think it is okay to preach another preacher’s sermon?

• The best sermons are birthed through preachers who, like good ol’ Jacob of Genesis, wrestle with the angel for a sermon from the biblical text. In other words, the most profound and passionate sermons develop in preachers who have been engaged by God through a biblical text in a way that causes the former to come away personally transformed, limping with Jacob. This cannot happen for the preacher who simply downloads, prints, and preaches another preacher’s sermon. Developing a sermon that is conceived in you by the Holy Spirit through your engagement with the God of the biblical text not only makes for powerful preaching, it makes for powerful preachers.

• Many of us have grown weary, by now, of the word “authenticity.” However, the fact is authenticity matters. God wants to incarnate Christ through each preacher’s authentic voice. The way that Christ is revealed to us through the distinct voices of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, he wants to come to your people through your authentic voice. As a local church pastor, you know your church and community context better than any preacher featured on Sermoncentral.com, Pastors.com or Wesleyansermons.com. God wants to speak to your people through your authentic voice, which is why he called you to the church in the first place. God would rather speak to your people through a sermon from your soul than a downloadable sermon from Rick Warren to his people.

• Wesleyansermons.com, a new resource for pastors which I steer, provides a sermon outline to go with the featured audio sermon of the week. We did this to help you follow the flow of the featured sermon. The outline is there to help us reflect upon how to preach not what to preach. We have made these sermon outlines so brief that they absolutely cannot be preached without prayerful intimacy with God, diligent study of the text, and faithful sensitivity to your particular church context.

• The Wesleyan Church has many pastors who are bi-vocational. Many of these pastors work full-time outside of the church and part-time (read “full-time”) in the church. We applaud these hardworking shepherds. Wesleyansermons.com seeks to provide just a tiny sermonic seed to get bi-vocational pastors, as well as full-timers, started on their way toward the blood, sweat, and tears of sermon development and delivery.

• So, I do not advise, encourage, support, or endorse the preaching of another preacher’s sermon, though I am in support of allowing another preacher’s sermonic seed to get us started in the homiletic process. One more thing, always give credit in your sermon to whom credit is due. In other words, if you use more than just a tiny sermonic seed from another preacher avoid plagiarism and give credit.

Preaching Christ with you,

Lenny

Toward Becoming a Missional Church

2011-02-13T09:14:00.002-05:00

Lots of church leaders are talking, sometimes even arguing, these days about what it means to be a “missional church.” Is this just a clever phrase thrown into conversation by young leaders who don’t want to associate with the Boomer generation of leaders who, presumably, are more focused on attracting a crowd to weekend services than creating a missional movement toward the community? Is “missional church” a code name that means cool, clever, cutting edge, trendy, and emergent? The missional church movement, to the contrary, is not tied to any one generation since it is nearly 2000 years old. What is more, becoming a missional church has nothing to do with being cool or clever but everything to do with being courageous and committed.

There is nothing glamorous about the missional church movement. The impact of such churches may never show up on a statistical report because most churches track only those attendees who come into the church building and not those who go out in service to the community. Becoming a missional church means giving financial and volunteer resources away to the community, even if it means a lean budget for church-based programs. Furthermore, a church that begins to look outward to serve the needs of people beyond the walls of the church will experience an increased level of stress and strain. No, this move toward mission is not glamorous at all. Why, then, would any church decide to go missional? Because the word defines the character of the Father who sends the Son and the Spirit in order to send the Church out into the world to be ‘glocal’ (global and local) missionaries.

Think about it. The Trinitarian God did not stay in His holy huddle of three waiting for us to come to Him. The Father sent the Son onto our turf. The Son “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). Not too long after that, the Father sends out the Spirit to a bunch of fearful Christian Jews who are congregated in another kind of huddle, disconnected from and fearful of people outside of the Christian faith. But when the Spirit comes the Church goes. In other words, from Acts 2 and on, the Early Church gets missional. They start serving the poor, feeding the hungry, liberating captives, and healing the hurting in the name of Jesus. The missional church movement is not some new and original trend; it’s as old as that first Pentecost.

Like the Early Church in Acts, the Wesleyan Church has its roots in the missional movement. John Wesley, like most of his contemporaries, spent lots of time in the church building, so much so that he was disconnected from the desperate needs of people in his community. However, when the Spirit came to “warm” his heart, Wesley went out. He got missional! He began to go out to the poor drunk masses of English society who weren’t welcome in the church, which was run predominantly by the rich Anglican elite. Wesley took the stuff that makes the church, the “church,” to the streets. He got caught up in the missio dei, the “mission of God” in the world, and partnered with God to do what God has always been doing. “The word became flesh and dwelt among us” and any church that is truly “Christian” will incarnate the good news of Christ by venturing out of our safe and predictable holy huddle to dwell among broken people on their turf. “There is no holiness but social holiness,” wrote Wesley.

If you are still reading then you just might be crazy enough to roll up your sleeves and get missional. This is good! Now it’s time to consider some of the practical applications of our theological convictions. While your unique community context will determine the specifics, here are some starter steps toward becoming a missional church:

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: Commit to spending at least as much money on the practical needs of people in your community as you do on your worship service. Monitors and new microphones are important. Cutting edge technology can, in my estimation, enhance the quality of a worship experience. However, a missional church decides that when push comes to shove they will pay the electric bill so that a family of five can have heat in January even if it means postponing the purchase of that much needed monitor. Other missional expenditures might include a food pantry, a clothing drive for the homeless, and an ongoing benevolence fund for people with financial emergencies.

Volunteer Outside of the Church: Every church deals with the challenge of begging, I mean recruiting, enough volunteers to serve in church-based programs (usually children’s ministry!). So, the following advice may seem counter-intuitive. Volunteer a portion of your time through community service organizations that are meeting the real needs of people in the community. Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America, Habitat for Humanity, Women’s Resources, and Soup Kitchens are just a few of the volunteer possibilities that may exist in your community. Get involved in global issues too such as fighting human trafficking in Thailand, offering disaster relief in Haiti, and providing clean water in Zambia. Our sacrificial service in the name of Jesus will proclaim that Jesus is Lord beyond our words. Church leaders, remember to celebrate the service of those who volunteer outside of the church as much as you appreciate those who serve in church-based ministries.

Become a Hospitable Hospital: A low-cost, low-energy step toward becoming a missional church is opening your doors to share space with people meeting community needs. Many service organizations are experiencing a funding crunch due, in part, to our nation’s economic struggles and political policy revisions. Why not invite these organizations to utilize your church building…for free! Invite recovery groups (Narcotics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Grief Recovery) and support groups (Cancer Survivors, Victims of Domestic Violence, Easter Seals) to utilize your church building. This, too, may seem counter-intuitive but it will go a long way in communicating that your church cares for the community. What is more, as people who don’t attend your church show up for a recovery or support group they just might become so comfortable in the building that they venture into your weekend worship service.

Share Resources:The bottom line is that missional churches share their resources (money, people, facility) to meet the real needs of real people in the name of the real Jesus. The church I most recently served grew significantly, in terms of attendance, but that was not the goal. The goal was to be the church in the world by embodying the values of an eternal King who came onto our turf as a peasant Jew. People were attracted to our church not because of some marketing strategy, concert, or elaborate facility. God can use strategies, concerts, and facilities for His glorious purposes. The church I served, however, experienced increased vitality, momentum, and growth simply because we decided to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, and liberate the addicted and afflicted in the name of Jesus. So can your church!

Words are Weighty

2011-01-30T19:12:00.002-05:00

A few years ago, when I was serving as the Lead Pastor of a local church, I experienced a strange compulsion. This compulsion surfaced just after the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which you and I celebrated a few weeks back. Along with many admirers of King, I have a deep appreciation for the power and profundity of his Dream Speech. Influenced by his words, I wrote out a dream for the local church I was leading at the time and called it Our Dream Church.

King, great preacher that he was, knew that words have the power to convey a compelling vision that dives deep into the human soul and stays lodged there. Carefully crafted, prayerfully wrought words have the potential to change hearts, develop communities, and transform the world. This is why we preach the Gospel.

I shared the Our Dream Church speech below in a sermon to my local church several years ago. God, I believe, used these plain old ordinary words to tear down and rebuild our values so that they aligned more with the kingdom of God than the kingdom of the world. In time, this dream became a reality in the life of our church.

While you may not resonate with Our Dream Church, I implore you to invite God to give you His dream for the church you serve and/or the life you live. I pray that as you head into a new year of life and ministry, God’s dream would crystallize in your heart. I pray also that you would have the audacity to put His dream to words and share it with your congregation, family, and friends, no matter how ridiculously far from reality those words may seem.

Words have power. Words shape lives. Words change communities. Words transform the world. This is why so many of us dare to share God’s dream through the words of a Sunday sermon. Here are some of the words God used to shape me and the church I once led:

Our Dream Church
…We have a dream of a church that sees a human being not based upon the level of that person’s income or education but based upon their value in the eyes of God,
…A church that is unashamedly committed to Christ and because of that commitment is radically dedicated to loving all kinds of people with all kinds of issues in all kinds of ways,
…A church that is not consumed by petty deliberations about the color of the sanctuary carpet because she is too consumed by the mission of love Christ has called us to live,
…A church that sees overwhelming needs in our community and world and instead of turning away in fear and defeat runs right toward the needs by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, housing the homeless, and caring for the sick, the addicted, and the depressed,
…A church that helps seekers become servants of Christ, a church that is led not by perfect people but by people perfectly submitted to the Holy Spirit and guided by the Holy Book,
…We have a dream of a church that is not content to simply share a pew together but who are open to share life together, a church full of people who refuse to hold grudges because they’re too quick to forgive, who refuse to gossip because they’re too busy extending grace, who refuse to judge because they’re too busy loving,
…A church where people can worship by clapping their hands, stomping their feet, and raising their hands or being still, bowing their heads, and closing their mouths, a church that sees true religious devotion not as mere ritual but as love for the orphan and the widow, the successful and the struggling, the friend and the enemy,
…A church who measures the level of their success not by how many people show up on Sunday but by how many people are living out Christ’s mission on Monday,
…We have a dream of a church that refuses to put limits on what God can do because she has the fearless, reckless audacity to believe that God has the power to do absolutely anything!

Wesleyansermons.com

2011-01-22T13:34:00.003-05:00

Greetings friends! I want to let you know about a new resource that the Wesleyan Denomination asked me to develop and direct. It's called Wesleyansermons.com and it is designed to encourage, equip, and empower pastors to proclaim Christ in a way that is faithful and effective. Every week, the site will feature a sermon from one of our Wesleyan pastors, along with a one-page outline of the sermon. There will also be a conversation in which I explore with the featured preacher how the sermon was developed and delivered. I will be writing articles every month on topics focused on preaching. If you want to check out the promotional video which explains more about this free resource for pastors, click on the following link which will take you right to the video: Wesleyansermons.com.

Let me know what you think of the site.

Lenny

Holy and Unholy Homiletic Habits

2011-01-10T20:43:00.002-05:00

Last week nearly 2000 leaders within the Wesleyan Denomination gathered for the, rightly named, Gathering in Jacksonville, FL. I had several profound encounters with God throughout the 3 day event. I enjoyed some helpful seminars as well. One of the seminars was entitled, Holiness Preaching in the 21st Century. I appreciated the insightful comments from the panelists. However, when I got the chance to ask a question of the panel, I didn't receive an extensive and satisfactory response. Most of the Q and A focused on holiness in the preacher and in the sermon content. So, as a teacher of preaching I wanted to explore with the group the importance of developing a holy process of sermon development. The question I asked the panel was, "What are some holy and unholy homiletic habits when it comes to developing the sermon?" One of the panelists addressed my question with a helpful insight, but I was hoping for more discussion than my question received.

So, I thought we could tackle the question here. What do you think? When it comes to developing the sermon, what are some unholy homiletic habits other than the obvious plagiarism and laziness? More importantly, what are some holy habits the preacher can and should practice in the sermon preparation process?

Looking forward to your comments,

Lenny

Theology Matters

2010-12-13T06:37:00.000-05:00

Theology is impractical, irrelevant, and inaccessible to real people with real problems who live in the real world. Studying the doctrine of the incarnation is not going to help me pay my bills and overcome my addictions. An exploration of the relationships within the Trinity can’t possible help me with marriage and parenting.

I have both heard and, admittedly, said statements like the ones above. Preachers often boast about how we avoid theology in order to proclaim “relevant messages that really connect.” The arrogant assumption is that theological doctrines, such as the Incarnation and Trinity, are less relevant and, therefore, less important than the concerns that surface in “our world.”

The reflective preacher realizes, however, that theology, “words about God,” will always be relevant. The doctrine of Christ’s Incarnation is God’s way of reminding the human race that we are relevant, at least to Him. Trinitarian theology highlights that God’s fundamental essence is loving relationality between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and, therefore, that the way we humans get to know and experience God is through, you guessed it, loving relationality. Could there be anything more relevant to our lives?

My recently adopted conviction is that the sermon, while it must certainly be directed toward the needs and struggles of the human race, should reveal something about the nature and will of God. If it does not, then the preacher simply becomes a therapist or self-help guru instead of a pastoral theologian who proclaims the Triune God and the Incarnate Christ to a hope-needy human race.

There are two habits that can help the preacher develop and deliver sermons that proclaim the eternally relevant God. These habits involve the asking of theological questions and the reading of theological works. Here are six theological questions that impact preaching, followed by six recommended theological books.

Six Theological Questions for Preacher:
• What does the overall story, or meta-narrative, of the Bible reveal about the nature of God?
• How can the sermon be faithful to what the biblical story reveals about God?
• What does God seem to be doing in and through the biblical text?
• How can the preacher align the sermon with the purposes of God through the text?
• Does the sermon say anything about the Father, the Son, and/or the Holy Spirit?
• Does the sermon present the Gospel by presenting both the problem of sin and the grace in Christ?

Six Theological Books for Preachers:
• On the Incarnation by Athanasius (4th Century): This work will compel the preacher to reflect upon the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ, without ignoring either. Who is Jesus, is the primary question with which the preacher will wrestle while reading this work.
• On Christian Doctrine by Augustine of Hippo (late 4th/early 5th Century): Book IV of this important work deals specifically with “The Christian Orator.” As you read this section of the book you may be surprised by its contemporary import.
• Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas (13th Century): You probably won’t be able to read entirely this massive work, but there are several sections in this Summa (“summary”) that are well worth the preachers time including “Treatise on Gratuitous Graces.”
• Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin (16th Century): Like the Summa, this is an exhaustive theological work. The preacher will want to jump around but be sure to read Book Four: Chapter 3 which is focused on “teachers and ministers.”
• A Plain Account of Christian Perfection by John Wesley (18th Century): Don’t let the title scare you away from this important read. Wesley emphasizes the two loves, love for God and love for people. The preacher who embodies these two loves will proclaim the Gospel with greater impact.
• Church Dogmatics by Karl Barth (20th Century): Barth is not the easiest theologian to read, but Chapter IV “The Proclamation of the Church” is a gem worth reading and rereading. This chapter will, at the very least, guide preachers in formulating theological thoughts concerning what they believe happens in the preaching of God’s Word.

Most of these theological resources can be accessed for free on the internet. As you read these works, be sure to reflect on them in light of the ministry of preaching. Additionally, recognize that all of the theologians above worked out their “words about God” in the context of pastoral ministry.

Theological wisdom can and should shape the mind and heart of the pastor for substantial preaching. When we read theologians who come from outside of our tradition we deepen our thoughts about God and appreciate our own particular theological tradition even more. Asking theological questions and reading theological classics does not only cultivate better preaching but, more importantly, better preachers.

EXERCISES:
 As you prepare your next sermon, reflect on the six theological questions above and respond to each question with no more than two sentences.
 Read one of the theologians above each week in chronological order until you have read them all. As you read, look for preaching wisdom from these classic works.

Some good preaching tips from my friend Arlen.

2010-12-09T20:18:00.005-05:00

Arlen has been a worship leader for so long that he remembers Kumbayah being controversial. Arlen and his wife (Elsa) are the founders of Break Forth Ministries. Together with an exceptional team, they host Break Forth Canada with an attendance of around 15,000 people. Arlen has sold a lot of albums, co-authored a couple books, served as the worship columnist for 'Strategies For Today's Leader, earned a Doctorate in leadership, had a few radio hits, helped to put on 7,000 events, mentored hundreds of musicians, trained over 5,000 worship team members in worship workshops and received many 'secular' and 'christian' awards. Arlen and Elsa are blessed to work with a great team at Break Forth Finland each year (the reindeer tastes wonderful). But, at the end of all these so called "accomplishments" Arlen states that his greatest ones are being married to a wonderful woman who loves him in spite of his weaknesses and seeing three children who love the Lord and serve Christ with gratitude. Arlen states that without Christ's intervention in his life he would be both physically and spiritually dead. It's all grace!

Click on the link below to acces some of Arlen's insightful thoughts on communication.

http://worshipcoach.blogspot.com/2010/12/sermon-tips-to-effective-communication.html

21 Days of Love: John 21

2010-12-06T07:30:00.002-05:00

We come to the end of John's Gospel and one of my favorite scenes. Peter has been out fishing after his three time denial of Christ. As usual, he doesn't catch any fish. Peter has to be one of the world's worst professional fisherman since he hardly ever seems to catch fish. The resurrected Jesus, whom they don't yet recognize, tells them to cast their net to the other side of the boat. Well, they catch a boat-load of fish and realize that the guy on the beach is the risen Jesus.

Verse 8 tells us that while they were about 100 yards away, slowly dragging that large catch of fish in a little boat, Peter jumps out of the boat and begins to swim the 100 yards to Jesus. Peter is so broken by his denial of Jesus and the intense days of depression he has just endured. So, he runs to Jesus with abandon. He abandons his boat, he abandons the lucrative large catch of fish, he abandons his pride, he abandons his comfort, he abandons his fears, he abandons his guilt, he abandons his depression and swims, kicks and reaches, for Jesus.

Lord, when I face those moments of guilt or depression, my temptation is to stay in the boat and feel bad for myself, eat a large pizza, and isolate myself from you and others. Instead, when I'm having Peter moments because of the hideous ways I may deny you, I will swim to you instead of distancing myself from you.

Jesus, I love you and want you more than anything else. In this Advent season, I scream out with all creation, come Lord Jesus come!

21 Days of Love: John 20

2010-12-05T07:23:00.002-05:00

Why is it that no one seems to recognize Jesus right away after he rises from the dead? He is right in front of their face and they don't see him. The saem happens with Mary in John 20. She is weeping because someone has taken the body of Jesus and she has no idea where he is. She was already weepy and now even more so because the body of Jesus is gone. Some guy is standing behind her. The guy is Jesus but she doesn't even seem to notice. The man asks, "why are you crying?" Mary quickly answers this man she assumes is a gardener as if to say, "mind your business and don't interupt my cry unless you can help me find Jesus." Mary still doesn't recognize the man as Jesus even after he speaks. Finally, when Jesus says "Mary" she recognizes the man standing behind her as the one she came to see.

"I call my sheep by name and they recognize my voice" Jesus said back in John 10. There is something about the way Jesus calls us each by name; it's like he knows something about us nwe don't know about ourselves. We sense in his voice a better awareness of who we are than we have of who he is. I am praying for the grace to recognize when his voice is calling my name and to respond appropriately. Lord, give me the ears to hear you calling my name so that I do what you're calling me to do and go where you're calling me to go and become who you're calling me to be.

21 Days of Love: John 19

2010-12-04T11:24:00.002-05:00

Jesus is flogged and mocked with a crown of thorns pressed into his skull and a purple robe of royalty put over his bloody body. He looks as helpless as any person has ever looked. Pilate takes Jesus before the people and says "here is the man!" (v.6). Pilate seems to be saying, if we venture to read between the lines, "look at what you forced me to do to him...Is beaten badly enough...Can't we stop the abuse toward this man with whom I find no fault???"

"Here is the man" sticks out to me for some reason. I think it's because this statement spoken by a pagan Pilate is a summary of the Gospel's power. The pre-existent, eternal Son of God (remember John 1???) became "the man" and as a man was humiliated and beaten badly. "Here is the man" bloody, beaten, and belittled who did not consider "equality with God [as God] something to be held onto but he made himself nothing" (Phil 2) for our sakes.

"Here is the man" is a statement that compels me to, like Christ, go low and jump onto the turf of others, making myself nothing, in order to raise them up to a whole new level of living. That's what Christ has done for me. Today, I will partner with him to do the same for others.

21 Days of Love: John 18

2010-12-03T13:22:00.002-05:00

Jesus is rejected by both the crowd and Peter, I believe for similar reasons. Peter, like the crowd, expected Jesus to kick Roman butt. Peter himself picked up a sword to cut off the ear of one of the Temple soldiers, a Jew in cohoots with Rome. Peter, it seems, was expecting a warrior Messiah and that is not what he got. So, he denies three times that he even knew Jesus, not primarily because of fear but due to disappointment. As far as I can tell Peter wasn't afraid of anyone- even an armed soldier let alone a girl. The crowd asked for Barabbas to be released instead of Jesus. Barabbas, it seems, was someone who violently rebelled against Rome, which would have made him a hero to the Jewish crowd. Simply put, Jesus did not meet the expectations of Peter and the crowd, so they rejected him.

Sometimes, no often, Jesus does not meet my expectations. I'm wanting and assuming he is going to show his glory in a certain way, but he has other plans. He never consults me and often does not align with my will. When he disappoints me I am tempted to forsake him through my various forms of denial. However, I have learned that if I can wait out my disappointment, frequently for a very long time, Jesus will excede my expectations. Thank God he doesn't always meet but often excedes our narrow expectations. I know this sounds paradoxical, but in those moments when I have been most disappointed by my unmet expectations of God I have experienced his presence most profoundly.

So, today, I'm letting go of my expectations for a warrior kick-butt Messiah and grabbing hold of the helpless baby born to peasant parents in Podunkville. I have discovered this odd sort of God, thankfuly, goes well beyond my expectations if I let him.

21 Days of Love: John 17

2010-12-02T07:37:00.002-05:00

According to Jesus' prayer in John 17, and his opinion matters most, the most effective way to make him known is not tracts, or camp meetings, or Christian concerts, or yelling at people on the street corners of a major city. There is nothing inherently wrong with these evangelistic methods, the exception might be yelling at people...I haven't heard that has incarnated Christ lately. In 17:11, 20-23 Jesus' prays for the unity of his followers, that we would be "one" just as he and the Father are "one." Wow, this method of making Christ known is less expensive than producing a concert or camp meeting; it's also less awkward than handing out tracts and yelling at strangers. Loving and being united with sisters and brothers in Christ- piece of cake!

Not so fast...any of us who have been in the church for years recognizes how challenging love and unity in the church can be. Sometimes it is no where to be found. Yet, our loving unity within the church is, according to Jesus, one of the premier ways to make him known to the world. The most effective evangelistic "method" in the first century church was Jews and Gentiles coming to Christ and loving each other for the first time in the history of the world. That's the difference Christ makes- he makes the two one! And the world sits up and takes notice.

Lord, today I will love you by being united in love with your people. Help me to love especially those people in the church I don't like. I will love them because I love you and want to make you known to the watching world.

21 Days of Love: John 16

2010-12-01T12:42:00.002-05:00

Throughout John 16 Jesus is comforting his disciples by sharing with them his access to both the Holy Spirit and the Father. Jesus is clearly chomping at the bits to share the two most significant relationships and resources he knows with his followers/friends. The eagerly extravagant generosity of Jesus has become both a gift of grace to me and an example wanting to work its way through me.

Lord, cultivate in me the generosity of the Christ who was willing to share the Father, the Spirit, and himself with me and for me. I'm convinced Jesus also intends these same gifts to flow not just to us but through us to others. Help me to share my relationship with You, the Triune God, in a compelling and authentic way with those around me. There are other resources you have given me to share (time, money, influence); help me to share those too because of my loving obedience to you.

21 Days of Love: John 6 revisited...

2010-11-30T13:52:00.002-05:00

Hello friends. I did not provide a post for John 6 because I was traveling and didn't have access to internet. Steven Gidley, a junior Sports Management mjor at Indiana Welseyan University, called me on it. So, I asked him to provide the post for John 6. He graciously agreed! Thanks Steven! Here are his thoughts on John 6...I will post my reflections on John 16 tomorrow. Blessings!

Lenny

Post by Steven Gidley:
In John 6 Jesus talks about being the bread of life, but I appreciate most when he talks about the Spirit giving life in John 6:63 and how our flesh counts for nothing. It is so true how we try to do things on are own and never depend on Christ and the blood he shed for are sins. We are tempted to spend our days in the world playing our own religious games instead of allowing Christ to coach us and the Spirit that gives life to consume us. It is so easy to get in a ditch and try to dig ourselves out by our own power instead of leaning on the power of Christ. Today, play the game of life for Christ our coach and allow him full ownership. I am challenged along with you to live in the Spirit, focusing on God rather than earthly things, and giving God all the decisions we must make each day. Have a good day and walk in the Lord today.

21 Days of Love: John 15

2010-11-29T14:07:00.002-05:00

On some days, maybe even most, I experience this gravitational pull away from communion with Christ. Whether it is because I'm busy pursuing good things like service to people or because I'm wrapped up in less than holy pursuits like pleasure, accumulation, comfort, convenience or accolades, I have learned that staying connected to Christ, the Vine, takes lots of intentional energy. Jesus says in John 15:4, "remain in me and I will remain in me." Jesus, perhaps because he refuses to be an overbearing deity, waits for us to abide/remain in him before he abides/remains in us. The power we need to overcome the gravitational pull toward the lesser pursuits of life is found in Christ alone. The only problem is that the power of Christ flows most fully when remaining in him becomes our primary pursuit. You can see our circular struggle. We experience power to pursue him only when we pursue him?!!??!?!? What, then, comes first- our pursuit or the power to pursue him?

John Wesley claimed that it is prevenient grace that makes it possible for us to pursue Christ in the first place. So, even the power to resist other pursuits to pursue Christ comes ultimately from Christ. But it still requires us to submit to his loving lordship. Today, I will submit to Christ's loving lordship and, by his prevenient grace, intentionally remain in him.

21 Days of Love: John 14

2010-11-28T15:42:00.002-05:00

If I really love my wife then I will love her the way she most wants to be loved. There are five possible primary love languages, according to Gary Chapman,and they are: quality time, acts of service, words of affirmation, physical touch, and gifts. Chapman says that the key to healthy relationship is to find out our spouse's primary love language and love her/him in that way. This was a huge wake up call for me early in marriage since I tend to love people the way I most want to be loved and not the way they most need to be loved.

I tend to do the same thing with Jesus. I love him through words of affirmation as I sing songs to him. I love him through the gifts of my tithes and offerings. I love him by spending quality time with him, reading his word and praying. I love him through acts of service done in his name. While Jesus must certainly appreciate all of these expressions of my love, they do not address Jesus' primary love language. Jesus tells us the way he most wants to be loved in today's reading, John 14:15. He says, "if you love me, you will obey me." The ultimate way, then, to love Jesus is to discern his will and do it. Submitted obedience speaks louder than our words, gifts, time, and acts.

Lord, today I will love you through my obedience to your commands.

21 Days of Love: John 13

2010-11-27T09:47:00.002-05:00

I have to admit that I have not always done a good job at loving people in the church. I have been judgmental, impatient, and unforgiving at times. While we don't have to like everyone, we are called to, in Jesus' words, "love one another as I have loved you" (John 13:34). Again, I confess, I have too often missed the mark of this "new command" Jesus gives us in John 13. Remember that Jesus issues this command just after he washed the feet of his disciples, knowing full well they would betray and deny him. And, shoot, he tells us to love others like he loves us. This means that we too must lovingly wash the feet of those who are bent on betraying and denying our worth, our identity, and our potential.

Lord, Jesus Christ, today I invite your love for me to flow through me to others, even those I do not particularly like. Amen!

21 Days of Love: John 12

2010-11-26T08:50:00.002-05:00

Mary anointed Jesus' feet with perfume that was quite expensive, worth the equivalent of a year's wages! Imagine saving up a year's wages, say $50,000, and then throwing it away on the feet of Jesus. It was almost as if Mary did not even consider the enormity of the sacrifice. She was so enamored with Jesus, she gave to him the most precious gift she could give- a small fortune, especially for a peasant Jew.

As I consider Mary's extravagant love for Jesus, I wonder if I am willing to give my most precious possession to him as a sacrifice of love. I'm not even sure what that most precious possession would be. For Abraham it was Isaac, for Mary and Joseph it was their reputation...but what can I surrender to Christ in love for him today.

Lord, show me today what precious perfume I can, in love, pour on the feet of Jesus.

21 Days of Love: John 11

2010-11-25T10:05:00.002-05:00

Yesterday our little hamster, named Philly, died. We managed to care for him about 18months before he went the way of all hamsters. Our kids, at least the 7 and 6 year olds, grieved for several hours- a long time for kids to acknowledge their grief. Our 4 year old didn't seem to even notice Philly's passing until, of course, we buried Philly in our yard.

My 7 year old son, Zach, took it the hardest. He lost his appetite and felt sick to his stomache with grief. When I put dead Philly in a plastic ziplock bag, Zach began crying again. I said something insensitive and stupid like "Don't cry, Philly is okay." Zach shot back, "Philly's dead, how can he be okay?" Good question. I was so desperate to avoid the pain of the situation that I denied it. Zach was willing to face the pain without denying its severity.

In today's reading from John 11, we find Jesus not avoiding but going into the pain of the human condition. His friend Lazarus has died and Jesus feels the pain of those who were affected most by the death, namely Mary and Martha. All throughout this story we are struck by Jesus' ability to sympathize and empathize with those in pain. While he does talk about the hope of resurrection, he avoids sugar-coating the suffering of the human condition like some all-too-happy televangelist or like me with my kids at the death of Philly.

Today, I will love Christ by allowing myself to feel for and absorb the pain of the human condition in a manner that causes me to act on behalf of the Marys and Marthas all around me.

21 Days of Love: John 10

2010-11-24T07:26:00.002-05:00

My goal in these 21 Days of Love posts is to share a succinct application concerning how to lovingly obey Jesus each day. I encourage the IWU students taking the 21 day journey through John's Gospel with me to dig as deep into Scripture as time allows and to post your thoughts with mine.

Jesus says, "My sheep recognize my voice; I know them and they follow me" (v 27). I don't know of a more succinct verse that encapsulates what it means to be a
Christian than this one. There are so many competing voices floating around in my head. There is the voice of my culture encouraging me toward narcissism and apathy. Then, there is the voice that surfaces from within me. This voice tells me to protect myself, to stay guarded, to play life safe, to resist the urge to give all I have to Christ and his purposes. And, finally, there is the voice of Christ calling me to deny myself, take up my cross and follow him. The voice of Christ calls me beyond myself to the needs of others. His voice calls me to risk vulnerability and pain by loving all and loving deeply. His voice calls me to give sacrificially and pray fervently. His voice calls me to optimistically believe in his power and love to accomplish the impossible, at times through me.

Jesus, today I will discren your voice among the voices and follow you lovingly. Amen!

21 Days of Love: John 9

2010-11-23T07:18:00.002-05:00

Ironically, the blind man in John 9 sees Jesus better than the Pharisees who are supposed to see and understand spiritual reality. As the blind man speaks, especially toward the end of the chapter, he reveals his wisdom. He, a supposed sinner, sees the Messiah better than those spiritual gurus who were waiting for his coming. The blind man, and not the Pharisses, worships Jesus (v. 38).

Sometimes pastors (aka. "spiritual gurus") like me can be blind to the very realities we claim to see and know. That is, until a blind person comes a long and shows us the way. Sometimes God breaks through my blindness by speaking through people one wouldn't expect to possess much wisdom. Often, God speaks through my children. Other times, he breaks my blindness through something that unbelievers (aka "sinners") say or do. In short, sometimes we spiritual leaders can become blind and need a blind person (aka "children" or "sinners")to rebuke us and show us the way.

Today, I will watch for what God may speak to me and who God may speak through to break my blindness. When He does, I will do my best to heed it because I love Him!

21 Days of Love: John 8

2010-11-22T14:59:00.003-05:00

In yesterday's blog I shared how I would lovingly obey Christ by believing in his power and promises. Well, just after I posted, I attended College Wesleyan Church where Dr. Joanne Lyon was preaching on, you guessed it, believing in Jesus' promise to do "greater work" through us than we might anticipate from John 14. God seems to be trying to get my attention. Perhaps my cynicism and skepticism is limiting the greater work he wants to do in and through me to redeem and restore the world. God, I'm listening now:-)

In today's reading I was struck by something Jesus didn't say. Jesus and the Jewish leaders are, as usual, caught in a disagreement. They accuse him of having a demon and being a Samaritan in verse 48. Jesus responds stating "I do not have a demon" in verse 49 but he never denies the claim that he is a Samaritan, even though we readers know he is a full-blooded Jew. Why does Jesus not defend his Jewishness and deny the claim that he is a half-breed Samaritan? I believe it is because deep down inside he identifies with people different from him, even Samaritan women as we discovered back in John 4. In other words, he did not see the need to distinguish himself from Samaritans, although they were hated fiercely by his Jewish counter-parts.

Sometimes I can tend toward distinguishing myself from instead of identifying myself with others who are different. It seems to me that if I am going to love Christ I must love what he loves- people, all shapes, sizes, styles of people. Lord, give me a large-hearted love toward the Samaritans all around me so that I see them not as half-breeds who are different but as those who share with me a common human struggle and a common Creator. I will lovingly obey you by lovingly identifying with all of the people you created. Give me grace to do this Jesus-style.

21 Days of Love: John 7

2010-11-21T08:18:00.002-05:00

I can be a skeptical cynic sometimes, like the brothers of Jesus and the Pharisees. Belief in anything has never come easy for me. But in verse 38 Jesus calls me to believe in him, to be different from those first Century cynics stationed all around him and his ministry. Today I will love him by having the audacity to believe him enough to obey him. If I really believe that Jesus is who he says he is and that his promises are trustworthy and true, those beliefs will shape the level of my obedience to him.

21 Days of Love: John 5

2010-11-19T18:37:00.002-05:00

Jesus was quite consumed with glorifying the Father. One gets the sense, when reading John's Gospel, that Jesus did not engage in any ministry unless it both helped the marginalized or broken (ie. the guy waiting for a dunk in the pool earlier in this chapter) and glorifed the Father. In fact, perhaps the two are one in the same- everytime we glorify the Father we dignify the broken and everytime we dignify the broken we glorify God.

Today, I will love Jesus by keeping my motives for ministry in check to his motivation for service: to glorify the Father by giving dignity to the broken. By God's grace and in the power of the Spirit, I will release those motives for ministry that are safe, self-serving, and shallow.

21 Days of Love: John 4

2010-11-18T07:06:00.001-05:00

Jesus, in verses 1-9, exhibits two qualities that I want to imitate out of loving obedience to him today. First, although he is exhausted he initiates a conversation with someone. When I am exhausted, I tend to run from people. I’m embarrassed to admit this but there have been times when I have seen someone I knew at Walmart and, because of fatigue, instead of striking up conversation I hid behind a box of cereal or ran down a different aisle when I saw them coming. Jesus, though exhausted, mustered up the energy to converse with a woman who was in desperate need of a friend. Out of loving obedience to Christ, I will do the same today no matter the level of exhaustion I may feel.

Secondly, Jesus not only overcame his fatigue to reach out to this woman, he also overcame the social “lines in the sand” that the people of his day would draw. The woman is actually surprised that Jesus, a Jewish male, would speak to her, a Samaritan female. Who would be surprised if I, a white Christian 30-something male, reached out to them today? I hope you will lovingly obey and imitate Christ with me today by befriending people who might be surprised by our interest in them.

21 Days of Love: John 3

2010-11-17T08:01:00.001-05:00

John the Baptist says about Jesus, “he must increase, but I must decrease” (v.30). I’d have to look at the Greek to see the correct word order, but in this English translation John focuses first on Jesus increasing. If I (ego) am going to decrease it will be because Christ is increasing in me. To put it bluntly, it is virtually impossible for me to decrease and be “crucified with Christ,” to borrow from Paul, without Christ increasing in me.

It took lots of humility for John to move over, in terms of his preaching and baptism ministry, to make room for Jesus to increase in ministry scope. Yet, the effective minister knows that she is most fruitful when ego is gone and Christ reigns in and through her.

So, I will lovingly obey Christ today by making sure that I don’t seek to outshine him (as if I really could). In other words, I will make sure that in my words, thoughts, and actions I invite him to be more prominent than me so that people come away more impressed with who he is than with who I am.

21 Days of Love: John 2

2010-11-16T05:25:00.001-05:00

Jesus goes ballistic in the Temple courts, chasing away those who were exchanging money and selling goods. The reasons for Jesus’ anger has more to do with injustice than buying/selling in the Temple. The people exchanging money were charging exorbitant exchange rates to people who had to use Jerusalem currency in order to buy an animal to be sacrificed at the Passover. To make matters worse, the people selling the animals to be sacrificed were marking up their prices dramatically. In short, the religious leaders (Sadducees) who ran the Temple were making it nearly impossible, financially speaking, for poor pilgrims to worship in the temple. Jesus’ anger is aimed toward those who are taking advantage of the poor.

Through this passage, I have learned that I can lovingly obey Christ today by challenging injustice, oppression, and greed. Today, I will seek to be a voice for those who experience the injustice of racism and exclusion, among other things. Today, I will drive out of the Temple (the church) anything that oppressively prevents all people from worshiping Christ freely. Lord, give me courageous love.

21 Days of Love: John 1

2010-11-14T15:01:00.000-05:00

In verse 47, Jesus describes Nathaneal as a person “in whom there is no deceit.” Self-deceit is sometimes hard to detect. We are so good at fooling ourselves and others, but Jesus sees into us. Today, I am going to lovingly obey Jesus by recognizing my propensity for deceit and committing to being true to God and the people around me. I will love Christ by being who he has called me to be, without apology or regret. If an occasion surfaces today to be dishonest/deceitful or honest/true, I will choose truth.

What Makes the Church the Church?

2010-11-08T07:50:00.001-05:00

As part of my Doctor of Ministry program, I travelled to Houston, TX with the nine other pastors in my cohort. This learning adventure was called “Church Immersion.” The goal of the trip was to explore as many diverse expressions of the local church in the Houston area as possible in only three days. Needless to say, by the end of the trip our heads were spinning with ideas and questions.

We visited a church focused on addiction recovery called Mercy Street, which was co-pastored by my friend Sean Gladding. During the service people stood up and shared how many days they were sober. People clapped and screamed in celebration. At times we couldn’t tell whether we were in an N/A (Narcotics Anonymous) meeting or a church service. The worship experience had a raw realness to it that moved me to tears then and now.

We visited the Lakewood Church, pastored by Joel Osteen. This was a very different kind of church that seemed to be reaching a very different group than Mercy Street was reaching. While Lakewood Church, for a variety of reasons, was not my “cup of tea,” the singing was as lively as I have ever experienced. Our cohort had a chance to visit for a few minutes with Joel and Victoria Osteen before heading off to another very different kind of church.

Our group arrived late to participate in the worship service of the Windsor Village United Methodist Church, led by Pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell. Windsor Village is the largest African American United Methodist Church in the country. As you may have guessed, members of my cohort were the only Caucasians in attendance that day, so we sort of stuck out a bit as we’re hunting for seats about half-way through their service. We were met with warm hospitality and an excellent sermon preached by Kirbyjon in the African American style I have come to appreciate. I can still remember the mantra he used throughout his sermon “stay in your lane!” My cohort spent an hour with Pastor Caldwell hearing him describe the church’s missional heartbeat for community development.

My head still spinning from the diversity of the churches we already visited, we met with Jim Herrington. Jim was the pastor of a mega-church who endured some inner angst over the question, “am I making disciples who are making disciples?” He left his large church, purchased a house in a rough section of Houston, and started a house church. We met with Jim in his living room for two hours as he described his new ecclesiological outlook. He leaves the lower level of his home unlocked so that prostitutes, runaways, transvestites, the homeless, and the addicted can have a warm place to sleep, food to eat, and a community to experience. He invites these “friends” to join them for worship in the upper level of the house.

We also toured Second Baptist Church, which sits on a very, very, very large campus with a full-service café and bookstore. The place was humongous. This church is led by Dr. Ed Young Sr., though you may be more familiar with his son by the same name who pastors Fellowship Church in Grapevine, TX. We met with one of the staff pastors, another of Dr. Young’s sons, in a meeting room almost big enough to fit a football field (preacher’s exaggeration). Despite the size of the church, the sanctuary had maintained a traditional look with stained glass, altar, and a large pulpit. It was, oxymoronically, a traditional mega-church.

I think it was that evening when we visited Ecclesia, a well-known emergent church led by Pastor Chris Seay. This gathering took place in what felt like a Starbucks café. The room was packed with several hundred people, most of them in the 16-35 age range. As the preacher sat on a stool and spoke for about 35 minutes, artists were spread out all over the room painting to their heart’s delight. The room was dark, candles were lit, and the music was melancholic but worshipful.

The six churches I described above are extremely diverse in their approach to worship and discipleship. They are each reaching different segments of people. Mercy Street is connecting predominantly with addicts, while Second Baptist is reaching many of the wealthy elite of Houston. Windsor Village is reaching hundreds of African American families, while Ecclesia is connecting mostly with single white young adults.

While I have my preferences and ecclesiological convictions about what constitutes “church,” I am realizing more and more that when it comes to church, “one size does not fit all.” It really does take all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people. Case in point, the church in which I cut my teeth in ministry back when I first came to Christ at the age of 18 is not the church I would likely attend today. At different points in my spiritual journey different churches appealed to me, mostly based upon the spiritual formation needs I had at the time. I am not a supporter of “church-hopping,” but simply pointing out that as we change so do our ecclesiological needs and preferences. This tendency only becomes detrimental when we allow our needs and preferences to become a non-negotiable “gospel.”

The “church immersion” education opened me up to the substantial diversity that exists within the Church of Jesus Christ, and we visited churches within 50 miles of each other! Not only did I learn to appreciate the diverse expressions of the Church, I was forced to really grapple with some major questions. What constitutes church? Beyond worship styles, architecture, and demographics, what makes the church truly the church? What, if anything, binds all of these diverse churches together?

These are some of the questions we hope our students at Wesley Seminary will be able to answer as they make their educational journey. Students will be exposed to and explore all kinds of models and methods for “doing church.” More importantly, however, students will learn to do this exploration girded with the wisdom of biblical exegesis, church history, and systematic theology. Our aim at Wesley Seminary, then, is not merely to develop students to be pragmatic cherry-pickers, applying to their ministries whatever model or method is effective in some other context. Our goal is higher- to develop ministers whose practice is wedded to and guided by the biblical, historical, and theological foundations that make the church the church. This goal has led Wesley Seminary to join together what has been traditionally torn apart, namely practice, bible, history, and theology. We believe our students will be better-prepared for ministry because of this re-wedding of disciplines that have too often been separated into silos.

So, You're Thinking of Becoming a Pastor...

2010-10-25T14:56:00.002-04:00

There are many people in churches across the world trying to discern whether or not God is calling them to serve as the pastor of a local congregation. This calling is not, in most cases, easy to discern. I remember struggling to figure out whether or not I was called to the pastoral vocation. In addition to praying, I sought the counsel of people who were seasoned pastors. Their advice was helpful to me as I discerned the call. Now that I have had fifteen years of experience as a pastor, those with a potential pastoral call are seeking my counsel. Here is what I tend to communicate to them and will share with you:

3 Reasons not to Become a Pastor
-Egotism: There will be times when our pastoral ego gets stroked. “Great sermon…you are so authentic…you are the best pastor ever” are, let’s be honest, nice to hear. However, if we begin to rely upon these comments to keep us going in ministry we will discover that no amount of affirmation is enough. Ironically, if we seek ego strokes we often find ourselves wanting more and more, even when we are receiving them. What is more, God is ultimately after the crucifixion, and not the stroking, of our ego. Pastoral ministry, in time, is divinely designed to strip us of egotism. And, if we don’t submit to this stripping we will either resign or become a pastoral monster. Resignation is the better choice. Simply put, do not become a pastor to have your ego stroked.

Ease: Lay people sometimes say to their pastor, “it must be wonderful to have a job where you just work on Sundays.” I always shot back, “and don’t forget about Wednesdays too!” Lay people don’t say this to hurt us, but the fact is there are some pastors who do get into this racket for ease. Let’s face it, lazy people can hide out in pastoral ministry for a long time in some churches. However, the pastors who seem to most effectively lead their congregation to embody the values of God’s kingdom in the world are among the hardest workers I know. They care deeply about the local church living up to its calling to make disciples who make disciples. They care about resourcing not just the stuff that happens on the church campus but community development as well. These hardworking pastors lose sleep over these concerns. Some of them get ulcers. Every one of them will be called to go into challenging ministry situations at the most inopportune times, usually after they finally fall asleep at 1:00 am. While pastors must seek to live balanced lives, most long-term effective pastors will admit that leading a local church is anything but easy.

Equity: Do not become a pastor to get rich. In most cases, it is not the most lucrative career choice you can make. Pastoral ministry is a calling and not a career. A calling is chosen for you and a career is chosen by you. Most of us, if we were making the call, would choose a lucrative career. Why not? This is not to suggest that pastors should not be paid for their work; they should be paid a livable wage. But, if making lots of money is your goal, don’t become a pastor. I recently spoke to a pastor friend who said he hasn’t had a raise in seven years and has only had four raises in the twenty years he has served his congregation. What an outrage! My friend is among many pastors who have had similar experiences. The point is, don’t become a pastor to get rich. However, if any local church lay leaders are reading this article, for the love of God and your pastor pay a generous wage to your pastoral leaders.

3 Reasons to Become a Pastor
Commitment: If you are the kind of person who has a hard time making or keeping commitments, I would advise you not to become a pastor. If you do, you will quickly quit and seek out a safer kind of job. There are so many joys in this pastoral line of work to keep us going, but there are also overwhelming challenges. People who lack commitment will quit during the intense challenges and, therefore, miss out on some immense joys of pastoral work. In the apparently non-committal culture many of us live within, “the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are fully committed to Him [and his work]” (2 Chron. 16:9). To borrow from the recruitment phrase of the Marines, God is looking for a few good women and men with the commitment to be pastors. Similar to marriage, pastoral ministry requires a “for better or worse” level of commitment. If you are not completely committed, when the going gets tough, you’ll quit.

Compassion: Several times in the Gospels we read “Jesus was filled with compassion.” The Greek word for compassion is splagchnizomai. The word does not mean sappy love. Instead, it is a deep pain in the bowels that results from empathy toward another person and causes one to act on behalf of that person in need. If you are considering becoming a pastor you must have the capacity to be moved with compassion for people. You might say, “well, I’m just not an affectionate and tender-hearted kind of person.” Compassion for people has nothing to do with personality type. Whether you are more of a thinker than a feeler or more introverted than extroverted, if you are called to be a pastor you are called to feel such deep compassion for people that you are moved to act on their behalf. If you become a pastor you can expect to experience, to some extent, the heartaches, frustrations, and disappointments of the people you lovingly lead. In other words, be prepared for some pain in your bowels!

Courage: Leading a local church through the wilderness of status quo and into the promised land of their potential for missional impact takes lots of moxie. Think about some of the tasks of the pastoral minister. The pastor is expected to go into a hospital room and comfort parents who are watching their six year old son die of cancer. A couple you married comes to your office, without appointment, broken by marital infidelity and seeking your help. Every week on Sunday morning people gather desperately hopeful that you will have the courage to invite God to speak a word to them through you. An influential lay leader is trying to lead the congregation back to “Egypt” and away from the “Promised Land” of missional fulfillment. It will take a significant amount of courage to confront this person in love. Pastoral leadership is not for pansies!

So much more could be said. Faithful pastoral practice is not simply the avoidance of three E’s (egotism, ease, equity) and the embodiment of three C’s (commitment, compassion, courage). These considerations are, however, good guides for the person who is contemplating saying “yes” to this frightening, adventurous vocation called pastoral ministry.

© 2010
Lenny Luchetti
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

What If God Was One of Us?

2010-10-04T08:32:00.000-04:00

What If God Was One Of Us?
In 1995, Joan Osborne asked us to consider, through one of her songs, “what if God was one of us”? Here are some of the lyrics:

What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home

These words may make us cringe. Insinuating that God might be a “slob” just like sinful humanity gets our hackles up in a hurry. Osborne, to her credit, is at least willing to explore what the church has too often ignored. She seems willing to wrestle with the implications of the incarnation of God as one of us.

The truth is that God not only was one of us but, I believe, is one of us and one with us because of his incarnation in the flesh. There is, to this day, an embodied member of the Trinity who looks an awful lot like a first century Jew but with a glorified body. The incarnation not only cost the eternal Son something over 2000 years ago, as detailed in Philippians 2, but perhaps the incarnation of the Son as Jesus Christ has an ongoing cost. Whether or not you agree with my conviction about the ongoing cost of the incarnation, you will no doubt agree that incarnation is costly. God’s willingness to come “from heaven to earth to show the way” by becoming one of us and one with us cost him greatly. And, since we too are called to incarnational ministry, we ministers have a price to pay as well.

What does incarnational ministry entail? For Jesus Christ, it meant laying aside divine privilege to take upon himself all of the pain, angst, sorrow, temptations, and trials of the human condition (See Isaiah 53). He did ministry by getting close enough to the people he sought to serve that he became one of them and one with them. He served primarily through solidarity. Clearly, he gave up much of his privilege and power in order to elevate those without either to a new level of living. He went from heaven to earth, from Son to servant, from eternal King to peasant Jew. That’s incarnational ministry!

Thank God we will never have to travel as far south as the Son did, but we too are called to Jesus-style incarnational ministry. Christian ministers visit those in prison to incarnate good news. We are called to roll up our sleeves not only to serve the poor and homeless but to share life with them. We must be willing to resource under-resourced communities even if it means spending less money on important, but unnecessary, audio-visual worship service enhancements and fellowship hall renovations. We need the courage to be a voice for the voiceless even if it means putting our own reputation on the line. Pastoral leaders use our position and power not to build our ego but to build up the culturally undignified. Incarnational ministry is costly!

There were two internal questions that surfaced in me often during my 15 years as a pastor no matter the context. First, how can my ministry incarnate the realities of Christ and his kingdom? And the second question was, am I willing to pay the price necessitated by incarnational ministry? To be perfectly honest, there were days when I chose to play it safe in the confines of my ivory professional tower. I regret those missed opportunities to incarnate good news. But on my better days, I got it! The more I got it, the more the people I served as pastor began to get it (though some of them “got it” long before I did), and once we got it together there was no turning back. The pendulum had swung and we became a church that existed to make Christ known through incarnational ministry that cost us time, energy, money, personnel, blood, sweat and tears.

Incarnational ministry is costly, but the ultimate price was paid by the God who became one of us.

Are you sure you want to be a Pastor?

2010-09-24T06:30:00.004-04:00

Today will be the last of five intense days of teaching aspiring ministers the art of Christian Leadership and Preaching. This group is quite diverse in age, ethnicity, and perspective. Yet, we share a common love for Christ and the Church. As I think about some of our dialogue from class sessions and meals together, I can't help but wonder if I may have scared some of them away from ministry.

In the Church Leadership class I communicated the following:
-"Leading the people of God to align with the purposes of God is hard, laborious, and gut-wrenching."
-"If you step up to lead people through the wilderness of status quo and into the promised land of missional vitality you will take hits that hurt."
-"When you pastor a church you can't punch out at 5:00 and go home forgetting that Joe ran off for an affair with his co-worker, leaving his wife Jane and their 5 kids, or that 16 year old Brian is addicted to heroine or that 40 year old Sally is being eaten alive by cancer. Though we realize that Christ is the ultimate shepherd and that we are limited in ways he is not, we carry the burdens of the people we serve."

In the Preaching class I communicated:
-"Using words to try and impact lives is like trying to put out a thousand acre forrest fire with a garden hose (Will Willimon), yet we keep dragging ourselves up before the people hoping that the power of God will grace us and grip them with words that lead them into a new reality, a new kingdom."
-"Once we deliver our sermon on Sunday, we experience a few moments of sweet release that comes from delivering our homiletic baby. Then Monday comes and we wrestle with the demons that tempt us to doubt whether or not we really said what God wanted us to say or whether it was even worth saying anything at all since nobody seems to be listening. What is more, in the midst of these battles with the demons we call the 'Monday morning blues' we've got to prepare for another sermon all over again since Sunday is only a few days away."

Yeh, I think I may have scared a few of these aspiring ministers, unless, of course, they are called by God to this vocation. You see, if you're called by God it doesn't matter how challenging, heart-breaking, exhausting, and frustrating pastoral ministry may be. We do it simply out of loving obedience to Him.

In short, pastoring is not for the weak and wimpy. I would also add that, while pastoring is a rough line of work, the joys and delights far outweigh the pains and disappointments. When God uses your pastoral leadership to inch his people closer to the promised land of missional vitality, you will experience the kind of joy that makes pastoring worthwhile. When you sense that God is using the words he gave you to proclaim hope to individuals and renewal to a community, there is deep satisfaction.

Pastoring the church of Jesus Christ is a daunting, scary line of work. But if you're called by God to this vocation, go for it! When you know you're in the place God has called you, doing what he has called you to do, and making a difference while doing it, you'll be glad you said "yes" to God's call to Pastor.

Narrative Preaching

2010-08-22T16:47:00.001-04:00

There has been lots of buzz of late concerning the power of narrative preaching to connect with postmodern people who crave, enjoy, and are moved by a good story, or narrative. Of course, narrative preaching is not new. Some homileticians, including Fred Craddock and Eugene Lowry, have been talking about the power of narrative sermons for more than three decades. However, the presumably more practical and relevant 3-5 point linear sermons have monopolized the preaching scene since the rise of Post-Enlightenment Modernity. Point by point linear sermons can be effective but, despite their promise of practical relevance, this sermonic form has become quite predictable. And, as preachers and listeners alike will confess, predictability can crash a sermon before it even takes flight. Perhaps another sermonic form is needed to captivate, inspire, and even surprise listeners.

The parables Jesus preached had a knack for inspiring and surprising listeners. Furthermore, the parables did not always tie up loose ends in the name of practical relevance. Jesus’ parables were structured by a narrative, not linear, logic. This is not to say that the only sermon that will honor the name of Christ is the narrative sermon; but we can conclude that if Jesus, the master preacher, employed narrative elements in his sermons, there has got to be wisdom in utilizing this form.

What a Narrative Sermon Is Not…
So, what is a narrative sermon anyway? I’m glad you asked. Let me first describe what it is not. A narrative sermon is not merely a few video clips thrown together to support the points the preacher is sharing. It is not the stringing together of a few personal stories from the preacher’s life to convey a handful of propositional points. Making points and then illustrating them with a variety of personal stories, though not homiletically diabolical, does not a narrative sermon make. No matter how many little narratives are placed within these sermons, they still incorporate an overall linear logic.

Even if the genre of the main preaching text is narrative the sermonic form may itself be more linear than narrative. Summarizing the story about a biblical character, say Moses, through linear points (i.e., Moses Prays with Passion, Moses Obeys with Passion, Moses Leads with Passion) forces a narrative text into a linear sermon that robs both the text and the sermon of their power.

Sermons with a linear logic flow from the introduction to point one (proposition, exposition, illustration, and application) to point two (proposition, exposition, illustration, and application) to point three (proposition, exposition, illustration, and application) to the conclusion. This form made good sense for a Modern world that, thanks to scientific empiricism, sought to dissect and explain the sum of the whole by reducing it to parts, or points. The desire to know, master, explain, and simplify a biblical text drove the homiletic machine.

What a Narrative Sermon Is…
The structure and goal of a narrative sermon is quite different. The narrative structure is not built with points but with the elements of a good story. Setting, character development, problem, plot, climax, and resolution make for a good story and, I would add, an excellent narrative sermon. The difference between the two sermonic forms is striking:

Linear Logic Sermons
Introduction
Point 1 (explain/illustrate/apply)
Point 2 (explain/illustrate/apply)
Point 3 (explain/illustrate/apply)
Conclusion (or more points)

Narrative Logic Sermons
Setting/Character Development
Problem
Plot
Climax
Resolution

The preaching landscape, especially in the West, has changed. People shaped by postmodernity tend to crave inspiration more than information, and experience over knowledge. This is not to suggest that postmodern people do not want to be well-informed; most do indeed. However, the people in our world and church must first be inspired before they even care to be informed concerning Christ and His kingdom.

Narrative has been the most successful mode of communication for inspiring people across cultures and centuries. Simply put, story speaks to us in a manner that inspires movement toward an encounter with God. The Bible, in its canonical form, really is a unified meta-narrative that tells the redemptive story of God’s saving love for the world. Perhaps this is the reason why the Bible is the number one selling, cross-cultural book ever.

While I have incorporated various sermonic forms in my preaching over the years, the narrative expository preaching of a single biblical passage has impacted my own faith development significantly, not to mention what it might have done for those who have heard those sermons preached. While linear sermons are a necessary and helpful form for communicating didactic information, narrative sermons seem most-suited for transformational inspiration. The church will always need informative teaching but my preaching “gut” tells me that the narrative form has a better track record for opening up the door of didactic desire.

© 2010
Lenny Luchetti
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

My Last Weekend as Pastor of SWC

2010-06-28T21:16:00.000-04:00

This past weekend Amy, the kids, and I had to say goodbye to a congregation we have come to love intensely. Going through three emotional services, an all-church farewell picnic, and a men's breakfast has wiped me out completely. I hate saying goodbye, especially to someone I really like; I really like (and love) this Stroudsburg Wesleyan Church family.

Swc, we have experienced the beauty, adventure, challenge, and mystery called the local church. I believed in the power and potential of a local church to transform communities in Jesus' name, but now I'm absolutely convinced of it! Journeying with you has been and always will be one of the highlights of my life.

If you would like to listen to my final message to SWC at our weekend services, grab some tissues and click on the following link:

Message: Packing Up

Diversity: Sociological, Political, or Theological

2010-05-16T15:19:00.002-04:00

As I think about the jouney of the church I'm privileged to lead, I rejoice in how diverse we've become. We have many different ethnic and socio-economic groups represented in our church. We have, by God's grace, become a church for all people, although those who don't want us to be a church for all people tend not to stay with us for too long. In any given pew, you may find a white homeless person sitting next to a young black professional couple on one side and a single hispanic college student on the other side. This is a delight to me!

We talk about diversity a lot, but not with political or sociological jargon. Instead, we frame the diversity issue theologically, since that's what concerns us most. Before I show my theological cards, let me see yours. What would you say to someone who asks, What theological rationale do you have to support your preference for an ethnically, generationally, and socio-economically diverse church?

I can't wait to see your thoughts on this!

My New Mission...

2010-04-11T19:05:00.006-04:00

This weekend at Stroudsburg Wesleyan Church (SWC), I announced that I would be leaving them to tackle a new mission for which they and God have prepared me. Telling a church family I love that God was calling me to another place of ministry was one of the most difficult things I have had to do in my entire life. I would rather box a Mike Tyson in his prime or walk on hot coals than do what I had to do this weekend at our services. The full text of my announcement to SWC is below. Or, if you would like to listen to the announcement (about 10 minutes), please click on the following link:
http://www.stroudsburgwesleyan.org/index.php?page=audio_sermons2&audio_id=109

My New Mission:

We have been exploring the lordship of Jesus Christ today and I need to share with you where the lordship of Christ is leading me and my family. About a decade ago I said to Amy, “I would love to invest my life in encouraging and equipping pastors sometime down the road, when I’m old and grey and have something significant to offer.” Over the past few years God has given me multiple opportunities to teach or preach to pastors and I have thoroughly enjoyed those experiences.

Back in August, Wesley Seminary on the campus of Indiana Wesleyan University was established. This is the first seminary of the Wesleyan denomination. The seminary administration began the process of building their faculty for this exciting new endeavor. Because I wanted in on what God was going to do through this new mission of equipping pastors, I filled out an online application, hoping only that I might get an opportunity to be an adjunct professor and teach maybe a course or two each year. The dean emailed me a day later and asked if I would be willing to serve full-time. I was not ready for that question but, after some prayer, decided to explore this full-time possibility. I flew to Indiana for an interview in January and after they conducted a few other interviews, the seminary officially offered me the Christian Ministries faculty position in March. After much prayer, discussion, and the processing of many different emotions, Amy and I have accepted this opportunity to invest our lives in those who are investing their lives in local churches.

Let me explain why we accepted this new vocation. We have a million reasons to stay at Stroudsburg Wesleyan Church (SWC). Amy and I love you; we really do. I cannot imagine any pastor feeling a greater bond with his/her church than I feel with you. You are more than just a church or a job- you are family to us! I have so much fun serving God with you. I shouldn’t even get paid for this. After last weekend’s Easter services, I kept telling people I would do this for free (though I secretly hoped the board wouldn’t find out and cut my pay in half).

I love the team of lay leaders and pastors with whom I get to serve the purposes of Christ. They are some of the best people I have ever known. On days when I may have been tempted to believe that the God-sized dream for SWC was too big even for God, these lay leaders and pastors found ways to lift me up and remind me that with God all things are possible. I cannot imagine there being another church out there like SWC, a church where all kinds of people are treated as equally loved creations of God, a church that exists not to be a country club for saints but a hospital for sinners like me in need of some grace and hope, a church where our common human predicament and our common quest for Christ binds us together despite our diversity of skin tones, socio-economic levels, and ages. While I could list a million reasons to stay at this church that fits me so well, the most compelling reason for me to go, and it’s really the only reason I need, is because I believe that God is calling me to take the lessons you have taught me about the potential and purpose of the local church to the seminary in order to train, encourage, and inspire pastors.

One of the things that excites most me about my future vocation is that I get to look pastors in the eyes, pastors who are perhaps discouraged and leading struggling churches, and tell them that the local church really is the main instrument through which God builds his kingdom by transforming lives. I can tell them that with God all things are possible, that God can take the infighting in your church and turn it into energy to impact the community, that God can take an insular holy huddle and turn it into a force of love that cares as much for the people outside the church as it does for the people inside the church. I can tell pastors that when God shows up among a group of people yielded to him in love that absolutely anything is possible. I would have said this to pastors 7 years ago because I believed it, but as a result of my journey with you I can now say it with absolute conviction because I have experienced the wonderful, beautiful adventure called the local church.

Frankly, it’s your fault that I even have this opportunity to invest my ministry in pastors. Because of your daring faith in God and your willingness to courageously follow him, we are the fastest growing Wesleyan church out of the 75 in our district. We are also part of the 1% of churches in America whose growth is primarily among people who were not going to church anywhere else. We are becoming increasingly multi-ethnic, which is something that so few churches are able to navigate. But I love how diverse we are and how our oneness in Christ shines through our different strokes; and I’m convinced God loves it too! Of course, the radical hospitality, worship vibrancy, and missional vitality that constitutes our DNA will continue to guide us long after my departure.

The dream for SWC may have been birthed initially in my heart, but you and I know full well that the realization of the dream is much more attributable to God’s presence here than my presence here. And God is not going anywhere! I’m confident that God will be in attendance even after I’m gone. He won’t be sleeping in or shopping around for a new church. The stuff we’re experiencing at SWC is not because of who the pastor is, but because of who God is. If the culture of SWC continues to be one marked by deep dependence on God coupled with a courageous commitment to follow God wherever he leads us, it won’t make a difference what pastor comes or goes because the presence and power of God will be upon you and He is all you need. The good news for you is, after you release me to the new mission that you and God have prepared me for, God will still be at SWC and so will you. Therefore the dream continues, the momentum continues, the vision “to become a prayerful, diverse, community-involved church family whose passionate purpose is to help seekers become servants of God” goes on! The sad news for me is that I won’t be here to be a part of the great work God is still looking to do, but you and God will be here. And this is good!

There is no getting around it. We love you and will miss you immensely. You have been aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents to our kids. They think they have the biggest family in the world. You have prayed for us and loved us. You have given me one of the greatest privileges one person can give to another- you have let me be your pastor. And this has honored me more than you could possibly know. Not many pastors are able to say to their congregations what I am about to say to you; I have more faith in God because I have journeyed with you; I have more optimism about the potential of the local church to transform the community in which she resides because I have journeyed with you; and while no one really “gets” the Trinity, I think I’m beginning to understand how the church is called to reflect the intimacy and intentionality of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit because I have journeyed with you. Thank you so, so much for all the lessons you have taught me, lessons that have equipped me to go and equip pastors.

There are several informational items I want to communicate concerning the transition. First, you are stuck with me until July. Second, our District Superintendent, Dr. Wood, will be meeting with our board this week to begin the search for a new Lead Pastor. He is a man of great wisdom, who is as excited about what God is doing in our church as we are. He will provide significant guidance. Third, there is solid leadership in place at SWC. We have a pastoral team and board who will continue to provide excellent leadership and care to the church. You will not be leaderless during the search for a new Lead Pastor.

Please pray for the Pastoral Search Committee. Pray that they will be able to discern the pastor God is raising up “for such a time as this” and that they will not settle for anyone less than God’s best for this great church. Pray for me, Amy, Zach, Lia, and Sam, that God will mend the broken heart we will surely experience when we leave a familiar church family we love for a new adventure. Pray that the mission of SWC and the mission of Wesley Seminary would build the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

Jesus Christ is Lord. Thanks be to God.

The Purpose of the Church...in my estimation

2010-03-22T12:34:00.002-04:00

I affirm it is difficult to pinpoint the primary purpose of the church and that the purpose of the church is more multifaceted and complex than we want it to be. But if I had to hold on to one purpose as the primary purpose of the church I would want to hold on to worship. I don't mean worship as simply singing songs and reciting creeds, but worship as a 24/7 lifestyle that comes from the recognition that God is God and I am not. The church must teach people the Who, the why, the how, and the what of worship, but ultimately disciples of Christ must realize how worthy God is of our absolute devotion and how unworthy we are of his love. When this kind of authentic worship drives deeply into the heart of a human being, they will take their growth, mission, and ministry quite seriously.

The biblical story ends with worship, with all nations, tribes, and tongues represented around the throne of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Authentic worship, though it takes on different forms, ties together the Old and New Testaments. Authentic worship opens a person to the coming of the Spirit that empowers that person toward missional engagement with the needs of the world. And remember what Jesus said to the woman at the well? "The Father seeks people who will WORSHIP him in Spirit and in truth."

True worship is where discipleship, fellowship, ministry and mission begin and end.

What do you think?

What is the Purpose of the Church?

2010-03-17T14:36:00.002-04:00

I often find myself wrestling with this question lately. It is part of my personality to want to streamline, simplify, and focus beyond the details to the big picture priorities. I realize that the Church cannot be put into a small box with a singular purpose. Rick Warren, despite what you might think of him or his theology, has helped many people recognize that the Church consists of at least 5 primary purposes- Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Mission (outside the church), and Ministry (in the church).

But, if we had the chance to ask Jesus what he feels is the most important purpose of the Church, how do you think he would respond? What biblical insights support your conclusion? I will give my thoughts after I hear from a few of you.

Attractional vs. Missional

2010-02-23T21:35:00.003-05:00

This debate between attractional churches and missional churches is already getting old. However, I think the debate can be healthy in stretching us to see the value of both points of view. Attractional model churches tend to put lots of resources (energy, money, people, space) into the weekend worship services in hopes of "attracting" growing numbers of people to their dazzling services. Missional model churches, mostly in reaction to the attractional model, tend to put lots of resources (energy, money, people, space) into more missional aims like a food pantry, homeless shelter, recovery groups, community service projects, etc. While decisions will surface that force churches to decide whether they will be missional or attractional, I'm not sure why churches can't be both in most cases.

I would describe the church I presently serve as a primarily missional church. We put lots of our resources into serving the neediest people in our community. When we're faced with the choice of upgrading our audio/visual set-up for the worship service or paying someone's electric bill so their kids won't freeze, we go with the latter. Oddly enough, this missional mindset has actually attracted people to our weekend services. You see, missional is attractional. A church that goes after attracting people may neglect mission to those people, but if mission is put first it will inevitably attract people into the church community.

What am I saying? I'm saying that if a church makes mission to the community its passionate priority, that church will attract more and more people to its weekend services. And, those weekend services should be engaging enough to connect those people to Christ when they attend. The church I serve has nearly doubled in size in the past 18 months. People are asking us what our secret is. My answer? First, God has decided to show up in a profound way among us. Second, we are always finding creative ways to go out missionally to our community and meet the real needs of real people in the name of the real Jesus. Thus, our weekend services continue to attract a growing number of people.

What do you think? Can a church be both missional and attractional?

My Dissertation Defense is Done!!!

2010-01-27T09:23:00.002-05:00

I met yesterday with my dissertation committee, Drs. Mike Pasquarello, Joe Dongell, and Milton Lowe, to defend my Doctor of Ministry Dissertation entitled: A Journey in Preaching as a Spiritual Discipline. The committee was very complimentary of my work and approved my dissertation with only minor editorial changes. So, I will graduate on May 22, 2010 with a Doctoral Degree! Who would have thought that a high school drop-out from South Philly would end up with a doctorate? Not me. But that's just how the grace of God works- in ways that surprise, delight, and, often, overwhelm us.

The purpose of my dissertation project was to create a model for the development and delivery of sermons that would facilitate greater connection and intimacy between the preacher and the Christ whom the preacher proclaims. I contend that too many preachers are either on the verge of burnout or boredom because we have become more enamored with the craft of preaching than the Christ we preach. Homiletics has been hijacked by an over-emphasis on rhetorical technique, so that preachers tend to be more concerned with method, skills, personality, and eloquence than with the power of the Holy Spirit through their person and through their preaching. Exegetical, hermeneutical, and homiletical skills are necessary and important. I believe so strongly in these skills that I teach them to pastors in my denomination. However, if these skills are not submitted to and redeemed by the power of God then preaching will fall far short of its potential to transform lives.

I created a model for developing and delivering sermons that incorporated spiritual disiplines throughout the homiletic process. This was intended to facilitate a preaching practice that felt more like a journey into Christ than a task to be completed apart from Christ. My assumption was that preaching as a spiritual discipline, and not merely as a rhetorical task, would increase preaching joy and Christian ethos (love for God and love for people) in the 12 participating pastors. The findings of my study did, in fact, reveal an increase for participants in these areas.

My dissertation will eventually be available online. I'll keep you posted by letting you know when it's available. If you are interested in seeing it sooner, please email me and I'll send it to you electronically.

Thanks again for your prayers and celebration with me!

My Dissertation Defense Has Arrived!

2010-01-22T13:45:00.003-05:00

This coming Tuesday from 9:00-11:00am I will be defending my Doctor of Ministry dissertation. If all goes as planned, I will graduate this Spring. God has used so many people to get me to this point, people who prayed for me and noted potential in me that I didn't see in myself. Although a victory speech is premature, a thank you speech is overdue. I want to credit the following people for investing in my educational and spiritual journey which, for me, has been one in the same:

Amy, my wife, is the one who encouraged me to apply for Asbury Theological Seminary's Beeson Pastor Doctor of Ministry Program. I thought Asbury would be crazy to award me a full-ride Doctor of Ministry scolarship; Amy thought they would be crazy not to. I love you and always will..."to whom else shall I go"!

The Stroudsburg Wesleyan Church, which I have served for nearly 7 years as Lead Pastor, is my dream church in so many ways. They allowed me to leave for a one year study sabbatical and to return as their pastor after the sabbatical year. Few churches would be willing to do what you did. But, at this point, you have developed a habit of being a courageous, risk-taking church and cannot do otherwise.

My Houghton College and Asbury Seminary professors inspired in me a deep love for learning and piety which, at times I confess, were both sorely lacking. These scholars were as intellgent as any people I have ever met, but their passion for Christ and the Church was their "lead card."

There have been so many encouragers along the way whose perception of my potential was well beyond my own self-perception. Dr. Harry Wood has been more than a District Superintendent to me; he has been a mentor, cheering me on and giving me opportunities to serve in ways that often exceeded my capacity. He has modelled for me what a minister is supposed to do when ministry challenges exceed a pastor's capacity- lean on Christ!

Drs. Charles and Darlene Bressler found ways to encourage me when I was a college student, when I was one of their pastors, and when I became their friend. They are extravagantly generous people whose academic prowess leads them not to become pompous but to love God and people better.

Dr. Wes Oden hired me as an assistant pastor at the Houghton Wesleyan Church and then encouraged me to pursue higher education four years later through Asbury's Master of Divinity program. He encouraged me to leave the church to go and study not because he wanted to get rid of me (I hope!!!) but because he cared about me and my longterm ministry.

I could list so many others, but those above are certainly among the most notable. Please pray for me on Tuesday. I'll let you know how things go!

Preaching Context is Everything!

2010-01-16T14:16:00.001-05:00

There is something other than sound exegesis, solid hermeneutics, and stellar homiletics that makes good preaching good. Truth be told, sometimes the determining factor behind whether or not a preacher gets a hearing has very little to do with the craft of preaching and very much to do with how well the preacher matches the context in which he/she preaches. For example, there are many people who would say that Charles Stanley, shown on TV all over the country, is a good preacher. While I respect the man’s love for God and his conviction that the bible is God’s word, I quickly change the TV station because I’m not into his preaching. Most of the people in Stanley’s church and most of the people outside of his church who love his preaching tend to be 60 years of age or older. Charles Stanley is a good preacher in his context because he matches his context. Andy Stanley, the son of Charles, is one of my favorite preachers. Andy is about my age and most of the people who attend his church are younger than 40 years of age. Andy is a good preacher because he matches the context of people to whom he preaches. Context is everything!

Why do some preachers attract a growing number of people who come hungry to hear their preaching while other preachers face the pain of a diminishing congregation? Not always, but often, it has everything to do with whether or not the preacher fits with their preaching context. It’s not about whether or not the preacher has a good or bad style but whether or not the style of the preacher is contextualized. The Apostle Paul recognized this which is why he preached differently to Greek Athenians in the town square than he did to Diaspora Jews in the synagogue. Paul realized that our preaching gets heard most when our preaching content and style match the people to whom we preach.

The further I go in ministry the more I realize who I am as a preacher. The more I realize who I am as a preacher the more aware I become of the fact that there are more church contexts I wouldn’t match than ones I would match. When I first began my pastoral ministry 15 years ago I would have been glad to serve as pastor to any group of people any place without a thought to whether or not I was a good fit with the church context. Today, I think I’m a bit wiser (though some might disagree…lol) and I realize that there are some churches that I would not fit in terms of my preaching preferences. I do believe that if you preach the Scriptures with passion, and love God and the people you serve with passion, a pastor can probably survive in ministry anywhere. However, I am convinced that a preacher will thrive most when preaching in a context that is congruent with the preacher.

Share your thoughts on this. Would you agree or disagree?

How To Preach Without Notes

2010-01-10T07:07:00.001-05:00

Perhaps I am overly opinionated on this topic, but I am convinced that those who preach with few notes or no notes at all tend to connect better with listeners. There are a few manuscript preachers out there who are excellent because they come across as if they are talking to people not paper. However, preaching is primarily a conversational event not a written or read one. Good content poorly communicated will not be heard by the majority of people listening. Poor content effectively communicated will, regrettably, get a hearing. So it makes sense for preachers who have something to say that is Christ-focused and biblical to say it well. Agreed?

I have rubbed more than a few of my preaching students the wrong way when I have encouraged them to preach with no notes or a slim outline. Public speaking is usually among peoples’ top fears. Public speaking without notes, then, is an off-the-charts fear. So, why would I ask my students and colleagues to give it a try? Because it can liberate us from our deepest fears about speaking and help us connect with our congregation at a deeper level during the preaching event. Here are a couple of ideas that can help pastors preach without notes:

-Prayer: Prayerfully read and re-read the preaching text. This may seem like an obvious first step, but you’d be surprised how many preachers quickly run to commentaries or internet illustration sites without even giving God a chance to speak to them through the text he/she will be proclaiming on Sunday morning. See this step as one that is devotional, one that is aimed at deepening the preacher’s connection to the God who calls us to preach. As you read the preaching text prayerfully ask God three questions: What are you saying to the original audience (i.e., Israelites, Galatians)? What are you saying to me? What are you saying to us (congregation, audience)? Take notes as God gives you certain impressions. After this you can check your reflections and questions with a few good commentaries and dictionaries. But let God have the first word since He may lead you to a new discovery.

-Pictures: As you consider all the exegetical discoveries, illustrations, and applications that flow out of the biblical text you’re proclaiming, think in terms of pictures. Picturesque language will not only help you remember what you want to say but will stick in the minds and hearts of listeners more than vague, propositional language will. As you think of the 7-10 nuggets upon which your sermon will hang, think in terms of pictures. I would also encourage you to actually think of the entire message as one big picture. If there is a picturesque allegory that drives you sermon’s main point, assuming your sermon has a main point, it will be most memorable. I recently preached a sermon on being forgiven and being forgiving. I entitled the sermon “Getting and Giving Mulligans.” You golfers know what I mean by mulligans, but now so does my entire congregation. When they think of forgiveness they will think of mulligans and when they think of golf or Tiger Woods (a media spectacle these days) they will think of forgiveness. Perhaps you will get to the place in your preaching in which you have pictures to describe the 7-10 parts of your sermon outline. I hope you do.

-Placement: Now that you have all the pictures that make up the big picture of your sermon, you are ready to place the pictures in an order that allows for a seamless flow. This is extremely important because a poor thought flow will challenge your ability to preach without notes and your congregation’s ability to remember what you preached. Here is where, I think, lots of preachers drop the ball. I confess that for far too long I neglected prayerful and careful placing of the parts of my sermons. I threw things together haphazardly. As you place the parts try to aim for narrative flow. That is, think of the sermon as the components of a story: setting, character development, plot/problem, resolution, and conclusion.

-Practice: Once you have all the parts of the sermon in an order that flows, you are ready to practice preaching the message. Go ahead and speak it aloud, slowly and prayerfully. As you’re doing this, consider how you want to say certain things. Think about gestures that reinforce what your words are communicating. You may discover through practicing the message that your sermon is too long or too short, that something needs to be cut or added. Practicing the sermon will allow it to stick in your brain so that you can preach without notes. I usually spend about 60-90 minutes prayerfully practicing and reflecting on the message.

When you preach without notes you might forget a few things you wanted to say but you will remember the most important pictures within the big picture of your message. Go for it!

What book, other than the Bible, has had the most profound impact upon your life?

2009-12-29T15:50:00.001-05:00

A Fun Question: What is the oddest Christmas gift you ever gave or received?

2009-12-11T13:47:00.001-05:00

How can you better prioritize your time to make room for God and for people?

2009-11-22T15:19:00.000-05:00

How can you generously give your treasure (finances) to God to be used for good in this world?

2009-11-12T12:57:00.001-05:00

How can you generously give your talent to God to be used for good in this world?

2009-11-03T07:28:00.000-05:00

If a friend asked you the question, "what is God's purpose for your life," how would you respond?

2009-10-23T08:57:00.002-04:00

While Christ loves you as you are, His love is so powerful that it changes those who embrace it. How has the Christ’s love for you transformed you?

2009-10-09T10:56:00.003-04:00

If you could end a certain form of suffering in the world what would it be?

2009-09-28T11:44:00.000-04:00

John 21

2009-09-16T15:13:00.002-04:00

Why are we humans so prone to compare ourselves to other people? We compare ourselves to others in so many areas, including physical appearance, the size and luxury of our homes and cars, intelligence, education, and spirituality. Come to think of it, we are always tempted to compare ourselves to others in just about every area of our lives. When we compare ourselves favorably to others we feel good about ourselves. When we compare ourselves unfavorably to others we feel defeated, depressed and disappointed. Even St. Peter struggled with comparing himself to someone else.

In John 21:18-21 there is this remarkable conversation between Jesus and Peter in which Jesus informs Peter that the latter will be crucified (“stretch out your hands”) and led to a place Peter would “not want to go.” In other words, Peter is told that following Jesus will mean persecution and martyrdom. But Peter has just affirmed his love for Christ three times and can’t back out of following Jesus now. But this doesn’t stop him from comparing himself to someone else, namely John.

After Peter’s future is revealed by Jesus, the fisherman turned apostle asks about the Apostle John, “Lord, what about him?” Peter was hoping, I think, that Jesus’ plan for John was not more appealing than his plan for Peter-martyrdom is not all that appealing, afterall. Peter was comparing himself to John, and Jesus has a bit of fun toying with Peter, saying “if I want John to remain around until I return, what do you care?”. Then, Jesus gets to the point with Peter saying, “you follow me.” What Jesus is saying to Peter is “stop worrying about what others are doing and just concern yourself with following me.”

So, let’s stop comparing ourselves to others, worrying about what others are doing or not doing, focusing on whether or not others are following Jesus, and let’s simply take up our own cross and follow Jesus, without looking back or around to see what others are doing. The next time we're tempted to compare ourselves to others, let's listen for Jesus speaking to our hearts, "YOU FOLLOW ME."

John 20

2009-09-15T16:43:00.001-04:00

If the bible were a myth, especially the story about Jesus’ resurrection, John would not tell us that Mary was the first eye witness to the resurrection (20:1-18). In that culture, women were not considered to be credible witnesses to an event. They were considered inferior to men. Yet, God chooses a woman named Mary Magdalene to be the first witness to the greatest, most life-altering event in the history of the word- the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The fact that John’s Gospel notes that Mary was the first witness, for a culture that would not have accepted her witness, is one of the many compelling proofs that the bible is genuine and written as historical fact and not mythic fiction.

God is constantly surprising us with who he picks to serve his purposes. It’s odd that he would choose Mary to spread the word that she saw the risen Jesus. If I were God, I would make sure Jesus appeared to somebody far more important like Pilate or Ceasar or the High Priest. But Mary? Come on!

But God has a track record of selecting the most unlikely people to serve his purposes in this world. If he can use a former alcoholic, high school drop-out, nobody like me to serve his purposes, he can use anyone. What is God wanting to do through your life? You may deem yourself unworthy of service to God and, in some way, we are all unworthy. The good news is that he loves us and invites us to partner with him to redeem the world, despite our unworthiness. His love, not our adequacies, makes us worthy.

I suspect that God will call you and me, like he called Mary, to embody and proclaim the news that Jesus Christ is alive and well, and that he is the most lovingly powerful force in all the world!

John 19

2009-09-14T21:59:00.001-04:00

On my good days, it’s easy to think about other peoples’ needs. When life is “coming up roses” for me, I want to be kind and considerate to others. I figure, God has been so good to me perhaps I’ll just spread a little of that love to others. However, I do have those dark days, when life is challenging, disappointing, and painful. In those moments I tend to get way too caught up in my own issues, my own quest for relief; I become self-absorbed. When I’m having those self-absorbed, feel bad for Lenny days, it’s too easy for me to stop caring about the needs of others around me. So what if “what’s her name” can’t pay her bills, my life is falling apart. I have enough problems of my own to worry about anyone else.

Jesus, thankfully, does not stop caring for others despite what’s going on in his own life. While he is hanging up on the cross, brutally nailed there for crimes he did not commit, he considers what life will be like for his widowed mother once he is gone from this world. So, with his last few breaths Jesus devises a plan to make sure his mother will be well cared for by John the Apostle in verses 25-27. Here is Jesus with blood gashing out from multiple places in his body and all he could think about was the financial and emotional strain on Mary once he is dead. Jesus is amazing!

I am challenged today to care for the needs of others, even when I feel as if my own needs or wants are not met. Even when the chips are down for me, I want to be used by God to turn the chips up for others in need. It seems to me that one of the marks of Christian maturity is consistently caring for and helping others even and especially when you are dealing with your own unmet needs and disappointments.

John 18

2009-09-11T12:10:00.001-04:00

In this chapter Jesus is rejected by just about everyone around him. First, he is betrayed by Judas, who brings the Jewish police to arrest Jesus. Then, Jesus is rejected by the Jewish religious leaders, who strike him in the face and look for an excuse to execute him. Then, worst of all, Peter denies that he even knows Jesus. Finally, when Pilate asks the crowd which prisoner they want released to them they request that a murderer named Barabbas be set free and Jesus crucified. Jesus is abandoned by everyone around him, the priests, his apostles, and the crowd of Jews he came to die for. Ironically enough, the only one who seems the least bit sensitive to Jesus is a non-Jew, a pagan named Pilate. The most unlikely person to get it at all was the only one who seemed to get it, at least to some extent.

I have found that sometimes those closest to religion, can “miss the boat” the easiest. My sermon this coming weekend is all about how religion can become an obstacle in our relationship with God. It really was the religious expectations of the Jewish people, including the apostles, which caused them to abandon and reject Jesus on his dying day. And, if we’re honest, we have to admit that we often do the same thing. When Jesus does not meet our religious expectations, we tend to abandon and reject him and his will. We do this by allowing what we want to become more important than his will. This is a slippery slope that leads further and further from God.

When Jesus disappoints my religious expectations, I will still submit to him. I will faithfully wait things out and see what happens. If the apostles would have simply trusted Jesus and maintained their faith, they would have seen that Jesus was intending to go well beyond their expectations. They were expecting a political-warrior Messiah who would conquer Rome. Instead, God went one better and gave the world a Messiah who would defeat the greatest enemy of all- death and sin! Thank God for not always meeting, but exceeding our expectations.