What is the Gospel?
August 4, 2013 Leave a comment
I recently wrote an article for the Toledo Faith and Values web site. I seek to clarify what the word “Gospel” really means. You can find it HERE.
Each Sermon Better Than The One Before?
August 3, 2013 2 Comments
“Pastor, your sermon today was the best I think I’ve ever heard you preach.” I receive such a compliment with mixed feelings. Yes, I’m glad the person got so much out of the message. On the other hand, I don’t want to be preaching to impress people. I’m also immediately prompted to think, “So does that mean I have to top this week’s message next week?” That’s pressure I don’t want to have to live with.
True, I want to continue to grow as a proclaimer of God’s Word. I hope I’m better at the task this year than I was last year, and that I’ll be better at it next year compared to this year. However, I’ve had to guard myself from the trap of trying to make each sermon better than the last one – it’s unsustainable.
The reality is that a great sermon to one parishioner is just an average sermon to another parishioner. Everyone is different, at a different place in their spiritual walk, and God speaks to everyone differently.
I want every message I deliver to be good, but I’m not necessarily aiming at it being better than last week’s (unless I feel I really bombed). We try to prepare tasty and nutritious meals in our home, but I don’t remember what we had for dinner a week ago Tuesday, though the food was nourishment for our bodies. I don’t expect my parishioners to remember every sermon I preach (I sure don’t), but my prayer is that I’m providing consistent spiritual nourishment.
I want to take the apostle Paul’s admonition to the young pastor Timothy to heart. “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction.” (2 Timothy 4:2) Faithful, not flashy, preaching is what I want to aim for.
Preach What You Know
July 19, 2013 Leave a comment
I’ve been to several writer’s conferences and have read a number of books on writing. One suggestion that’s frequently given is to write about what you know. That’s why my novel Kathryn’s Fountain needed little research and why I was able to get into my characters’ heads.
Kathryn, the novel’s main character, is an elderly woman who lives in an assisted living facility that’s an old Victorian-styled house. As a pastor I’ve visited countless elderly people like Kathryn. The facility in which I had Kathryn live was inspired by a real house of an historic nature transformed into an assisted living facility in which one of my elderly parishoners lived. I wrote about what I knew.
I’ve discovered the value of adopting the writer’s adage to preaching: to preach about what I know. By this I mean I must have experienced the sermon impacting my own life before I can expect it to impact the lives of those to whom I’m called to deliver it. I must be my own congregation of one to whom the message is first delivered.
Every so often someone tells me that they have a sermon they’d like to preach. Usually they’re not serious. What they mean is that they have something to say that they think others should hear. They don’t really want to speak from behind a pulpit but on a soapbox.
I have come to understand after 38 years of preaching that if I’m picturing a certain person in the congregation who needs to hear the message, I’m preaching with the wrong motive, attempting to straighten someone out. I’m preaching from a bully pulpit, trying to deliver a message to a person in a public setting instead of talking to them privately. It’s the coward’s way, because I find it easier to confront a crowd than to confront one person. And more often than not, that person isn’t in the congregation that day!
I have also come to realize that my best sermons are those with which I have grappled most on a personal and often painful level during the preparation. No one should get more out of the sermon than me! As the Lord’s under-shepherd I must first let Him lead me on the path of righteousness for His name’s sake before I can lead His people to green pastures and still waters.
“I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour.” (Revelation 10:10)
Transition
July 14, 2013 Leave a comment
I don’t usually make specific reference to the church I serve, but we’ve started a 2 1/2 year transition process for my retirement and for my successor, Joe French, to take over the helm as Sr. Pastor. I thought you might like to see a recent article about this process. You sometimes see a transition plan for large churches, but after being at Mayfair-Plymouth for over 37 years it seems such a process would be a good idea for us too, though we aren’t a large church, especially after we saw God putting it together. You can check out the article HERE.
Finding Peace in This Your Place
June 15, 2013 1 Comment
I’m always intrigued when I read the bio of a best selling author on the flyleaf of his book. Often, the details are brief, usually neglecting references to any family. The most common detail to be found is the place, or places, where the author lives. Why should that be of interest to the reader? For some reason it is.
These thoughts about our place in God’s grand scheme of things are inspired by a book review of Where Mortals Dwell, written by Craig Bartholomew. The review is by Jake Meador (Christianity Today, November 2011). I haven’t read the book, but the review got me to thinking about my place in life.
We’re not omnipresent like our Maker so we’re confined to occupying a certain place. We can change places where we dwell, moving from one place to another, but it’s still a matter of occupying one space at a time.
Sometimes we don’t like where we find ourselves. We feel more like we’re occupying space rather than having found our place. This is not good.
When God calls a person the call is to certain tasks, but it’s also a call to carry out those tasks in a certain place. We can run from God’s place for us, Jonah did, running from Nineveh. God also on occasion forced His people from their place as a form of punishment; it’s called exile. Although God Himself occupies all places at all times He has a certain place for us at any given time.
My place for over 37 years has been pastor of the church I serve. There have been times when I’ve wondered if God wanted me someplace else, but I’ve always come back to the conviction that His call for me is right here where I now am. If I truly believe God has His call for my life, then I must believe He has his place for me to be, and until it becomes clear it is somewhere else then it must be where I now am.
I’ve used a little self-talk and reminded myself that the grass usually is not greener somewhere else and that I would find the same irritating people in a different church; they would just have different faces and names. We can be tempted to lust but we can also be tempted with wanderlust.
A little more self-talk and I remind myself that I’m to affirm with the psalmist that “the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.” (Psalm 16:6) Yes, I need to practice gratitude and identify reasons to give thanks right where I am. My prayer: Lord, help me to find your peace in this my place. Amen.
The Great Shepherd’s Words, or Just Ours?
June 12, 2013 Leave a comment
Here’s another quote from Lee Eclov’s book Pastoral Graces. Again, a great book, from the heart of a pastor, about the heart of us pastors.
“We have a lot in common with the presidential press secretaries. They are expected to stand in front of an audience and speak for the president. They are to say what the president wants said and to explain as the president himself would. But press secretaries get in deep trouble if they say what the president never intended, if they try to make their words his words.
So it is for pastors opening the Bible in sermons, Bible studies, or counseling. Do you ever get so used to speaking for the Lord that you think your own opinions are divinely inspired? There’s a fine line there, but it is a dangerous thing to flash the badge of divine authority for personal use.” (Pastoral Graces, Lee Eclov, Loc 316)
Pastor of the People or Pastor of Christ’s?
May 29, 2013 Leave a comment
Leadership Journal interviewed Richard Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline (1.5 million copies). LJ asked Foster, “Dallas Willard once told you, ‘You need to decide if you are the minister of the people or a minister of Christ.’ What’s the difference?”
“Dallas knew that I was being pulled in all kinds of directions because of people’s expectation for a pastor. If I’m a minister of the people, then I’m controlled by what the people think and feel. If I’m the minister of Christ, then he is the one who calls the shots, and then I serve the people. Be a minister of Christ, then your work among the people finds its proper place.” (Leadership Journal, Summer, 2011)
When I fly I feel the pilot is serving me by taking me where I want to go. Yet, when he announces to us passengers that there’s a slight delay in departure because the tower says there’s seven planes ahead of us for take-off, I’m not tempted to try and talk him out of waiting. He wouldn’t listen to me anyway. It’s in my best interest, the best interest of everyone, that the pilot listens to the tower and not to the passengers.
I’m to remember, and it’s often difficult, that I’m to please Christ first, not the people in my church; by serving Christ I best serve His people. As I’m pilot to the people, Christ is my tower.
Pastoral Qualifications?
May 25, 2013 1 Comment
I recently concluded the book Pastoral Graces by Lee Eclov. A great book for pastors to read! Here’s another excerpt…
“So far as I can tell, God did not single any of us [pastors] out for this work because He liked our resumes or found us in a talent search. I suspect He chose us because, ever since creation, God finds special creative delight in making something from nothing, ex nihilo.” (loc. 207-213)
The Cost (and Benefits) of Discipleship
May 17, 2013 Leave a comment
I often make up my own “posters” from my photographs, as I’ve done here. Feel free to copy/save and print up as a small poster for your church or for personal use.
Grace to Pastor
May 14, 2013 Leave a comment
I recently concluded the book Pastoral Graces by Lee Eclov. A great book for pastors to read! I’ll occasionally be sharing some excerpts with you, and hope to write a review.
“Since shepherding is a God-given assignment, it is too hard for us. How many times does a pastor think, They never taught us this in seminary? But God gives grace indiscriminately. Years ago I memorized 2 Corinthians 9:8. I have it framed on my wall. ‘And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.’” (loc 131)
A Pastor's Heart 