Some weeks the Sunday sermon comes easily. Other weeks, well….it’s tough. This week has been one of those tough weeks for me. I have probably already invested over ten hours of time in a twenty-five minute sermon and I’m still not sure exactly what I’m going to say. That is ridiculous. Worse, I am not really quite sure why it happens. I suppose there are a variety of reasons. Some weeks it is because the text I believe I am supposed to preach is a difficult one. Other weeks there is stuff going on in my own life or in the life of my church which makes preaching like walking through a minefield; every step must be taken gingerly. Some weeks my well is just dry; my creative gauge is on zero, especially after I have been preaching for 6-8 weeks straight without a break.
More often than not the problem is what is called “paralysis by analysis.” I read, meditate, and pray over a text so long that it starts saying a whole bunch of stuff to me; far more than I could ever cover in one sermon. Then there are the times I find myself thinking more about how to actually present the sermon, worrying about my illustrations, PowerPoint slides, etc…more than the content of the message itself. Tons of stuff is going on between my two ears, but little of it will actually make it out of my mouth come Sunday.
Usually when I get in these modes I do one of two things. I do a brain dump and write down everything I am thinking (usually pages worth) and then I eventually get on a track that I can sustain and which is logical and comprehensible. The other thing I do when I get “stuck” is I just get up and walk away from the task for a while. These times I believe God is telling me I'm just not ready to write the sermon yet. When I come back to the task, usually after sleeping on it, it comes into focus more clearly.
The Bible is a great book and its depths will never be fully plumbed by preachers; not in a million years. Still, crafting 45-48 sermons worth listening to a year is a daunting task. I thank God for His inspiration and pray He will always find me a willing vessel.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
I Love My Church
I love my church - I mean the people. I know this sounds weird on the heels of last night's late-night post (this one is even later!). But tonight at the Christian Life and Witness class at FBC Cumming, NewSong had what had to be the largest group there (except for FBC) I'm certain of that. The people who were there really care about lost people. People at our church are hungry for Jesus - and hungry for God's Word. I sat next to Michael Smith and he spent the whole time underlining every verse the speaker mentioned. Michael also handed me his "counselor" application before the event was even over. He is ready to help someone come to Jesus! I'm excited about what God is going to do in Forsyth County and at NewSong through this event. I love NewSong. I love my job. I love the Lord Jesus.
Yes, pride is a sin - but I confess it. I was proud tonight; proud of my brothers and sisters in Christ. All of them, from all 25 churches that were there - God bless you!
Yes, pride is a sin - but I confess it. I was proud tonight; proud of my brothers and sisters in Christ. All of them, from all 25 churches that were there - God bless you!
Monday, April 27, 2009
Devote Yourself
Okay, it's 10pm on Monday night and I'm tired from a long day (but a great one!) and it is time now to sit down and consider what to write for my newsletter article which is due tomorrow, but before I do that I want to blog. I'm enjoying blogging more than newsletter writing lately...I don't know why, I am confident not many people are reading this - but it doesn't matter.
At any rate, one of the ways I prime my creative pump is by reading other blogs, especially ones by other pastors. I made my usual round tonight (you can see the ones I read on the right side of my blog, further down). But... (boy this is taking a long time to get to my point)...But... I ran across something by Pastor Steven Furtick tonight that really struck me as important. I don't particularly like Steven Furtick to be totally honest. He didn't make a favorable impression on me when he spoke at a Catalyst event I attended last October (boy, here I go again digressing....) But to make a long story short (ha ha) - what Furtick said resonated with me. I've got it below with a few comments interspersed and with my own take on a few things he covered.
Furtick reminds us that in Acts 2, 3000 people were converted to faith in Christ in one day and became believers. Acts 2:42 begins the description of the strategy for discipling this bunch of new Christians:
"They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer."
Did you catch it? They devoted themselves. Who devoted themselves? The new believers did! Nobody devoted them to the teaching. They had to do it for themselves. The apostles did the teaching - they laid it out for the people - but burden of discipleship rested primarily on the new believers, not the leaders of the church.
The job of church leaders is to create and sustain processes and systems that responsibly enable people to grow in their faith after receiving Christ. At NewSong this is the LOVE, GROW, SHARE process. But if a new Christian (or even existing ones) are not willing to devote themselves to teaching, community, and service, this does not mean the pastor or leaders of the church have failed in discipling them. It could be any number of things. For instance it might mean the person is not a truly regenerated born again believer. The speaker talked about that at the Christian Life and Witness Class tonight. There are plenty of people who sit in a pew every Sunday that "know all the verses but don't know HIM." They don not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. A new nature should produce an insatiable appetite for the things of God. And that’s an appetite only God can create - not me, or Jordan, or Griffin, or McKenzi, or Justin, or our Elders.
I think if I hear one more person say they left "thus-and-so" church because they "weren't being fed" I'm going to throw up (my comment). Biblical discipleship is not about spoon feeding people. According to Acts 2:42, it’s an all you can eat self-service buffet where you get your own plate, refill your own drinks, and you clean up after yourself (Furtick).
Devote yourself!
At any rate, one of the ways I prime my creative pump is by reading other blogs, especially ones by other pastors. I made my usual round tonight (you can see the ones I read on the right side of my blog, further down). But... (boy this is taking a long time to get to my point)...But... I ran across something by Pastor Steven Furtick tonight that really struck me as important. I don't particularly like Steven Furtick to be totally honest. He didn't make a favorable impression on me when he spoke at a Catalyst event I attended last October (boy, here I go again digressing....) But to make a long story short (ha ha) - what Furtick said resonated with me. I've got it below with a few comments interspersed and with my own take on a few things he covered.
Furtick reminds us that in Acts 2, 3000 people were converted to faith in Christ in one day and became believers. Acts 2:42 begins the description of the strategy for discipling this bunch of new Christians:
"They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer."
Did you catch it? They devoted themselves. Who devoted themselves? The new believers did! Nobody devoted them to the teaching. They had to do it for themselves. The apostles did the teaching - they laid it out for the people - but burden of discipleship rested primarily on the new believers, not the leaders of the church.
The job of church leaders is to create and sustain processes and systems that responsibly enable people to grow in their faith after receiving Christ. At NewSong this is the LOVE, GROW, SHARE process. But if a new Christian (or even existing ones) are not willing to devote themselves to teaching, community, and service, this does not mean the pastor or leaders of the church have failed in discipling them. It could be any number of things. For instance it might mean the person is not a truly regenerated born again believer. The speaker talked about that at the Christian Life and Witness Class tonight. There are plenty of people who sit in a pew every Sunday that "know all the verses but don't know HIM." They don not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. A new nature should produce an insatiable appetite for the things of God. And that’s an appetite only God can create - not me, or Jordan, or Griffin, or McKenzi, or Justin, or our Elders.
I think if I hear one more person say they left "thus-and-so" church because they "weren't being fed" I'm going to throw up (my comment). Biblical discipleship is not about spoon feeding people. According to Acts 2:42, it’s an all you can eat self-service buffet where you get your own plate, refill your own drinks, and you clean up after yourself (Furtick).
Devote yourself!
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Come Together
I went to a Christian Life and Witness class tonight at First Baptist of Cumming. The event was led by a representative of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. It was great. It was even greater to see so many believers from so many churches come together in one place. There are 24 churches in our local community coming together for an evangelism event that will be held in September. It has been amazing to see us all come together under the banner of Jesus and tonight was the best yet; Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, non-denominational churches like ours, and others all together for the same reason – to win people to Christ.
At one point the speaker asked everyone to call out the name of their church on the count of three. The result was a cacophony of noise; some names were short, others long, but you could not make out any single one. Then he asked us to call out the name of the Savior on the count of three. The result was a clear and resounding JESUS!! – our voices became one. What a great illustration about what can happen when we put aside our differences and come around him instead of remaining isolated and divided in our little “tribes.”
Lord, help us to see this issue the way you see it… Amen.
At one point the speaker asked everyone to call out the name of their church on the count of three. The result was a cacophony of noise; some names were short, others long, but you could not make out any single one. Then he asked us to call out the name of the Savior on the count of three. The result was a clear and resounding JESUS!! – our voices became one. What a great illustration about what can happen when we put aside our differences and come around him instead of remaining isolated and divided in our little “tribes.”
Lord, help us to see this issue the way you see it… Amen.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Book Revew: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
I just finished A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. What a struggle to read! I don’t know why I have this thing about finishing every book I start, but I do. It is as if there is some great ghost professor somewhere who has assigned me any book I pick up to read; somehow I feel like failing to complete a book I start means that I am a failure. I read a lot of classics so sometimes when I find a book difficult or boring, I research the story, either online or in a couple of books I own. Then I just charge on through it; at least after reading the summary I know what I am reading and why it is supposed to be so important. That is exactly what I did with this 246 page book. I knew about 20 pages in it was going to be a tough read, but I carried on. Why I'll never really know.
James Joyce is one of modern literature's most important authors, yet I’m not alone in finding his work difficult to grapple with. The main character of this book, Stephen Dedalus, in my mind is a highly flawed person with a very sad life. He has problems with bullies, with people who do not understand him or like him, sexual issues, “mommy and daddy” issues, teacher issues, spiritual issues, and more. Life for Stephen appears to be a random succession of cruelty, isolation, injustice and anger. He only finds escape through a few short-lived personal victories, most of which he later regrets deeply.
The way you learn all this is from inside the main character’s head. Using a stream of consciousness technique, Joyce presents the thoughts, impressions, emotions and reminiscences of his protagonist, often disregarding their logical sequence. This is intended to mirror the complexities of the subconscious mind. The book is also highly autobiographical. Joyce, like Dedalus, grew up a Catholic, and even studied briefly for the priesthood before renouncing his faith at age twenty spending the rest of his life living in Paris, Trieste, Rome, and Zurich as a poet and a writer.
Metaphorically speaking (and you can’t read a classic without speaking metaphorically!), the book is a proto-typical coming of age story. It is about how to forge your own identity and to make your own way. Like Icarus (son of Dedalus in the Greek myth) the reader watches as Stephen tries to fabricate wings of his own so he can fly above the tribulations of his life and establish his own life elsewhere. In doing so he rebels against the religious beliefs he inherited, his family and friends, and the deeper, and more complex struggles he faces in society as a whole. He concludes that if he is ever going to find his true soul (in his case, the soul of an artist), he must sever all bonds of faith, family, and country and then spread his wings and go follow his dream.
To be honest with you, I do not recommend this book unless you want to be confused and depressed – or, unless someone assigns it to you to read like my “ghost professor.”
James Joyce is one of modern literature's most important authors, yet I’m not alone in finding his work difficult to grapple with. The main character of this book, Stephen Dedalus, in my mind is a highly flawed person with a very sad life. He has problems with bullies, with people who do not understand him or like him, sexual issues, “mommy and daddy” issues, teacher issues, spiritual issues, and more. Life for Stephen appears to be a random succession of cruelty, isolation, injustice and anger. He only finds escape through a few short-lived personal victories, most of which he later regrets deeply.
The way you learn all this is from inside the main character’s head. Using a stream of consciousness technique, Joyce presents the thoughts, impressions, emotions and reminiscences of his protagonist, often disregarding their logical sequence. This is intended to mirror the complexities of the subconscious mind. The book is also highly autobiographical. Joyce, like Dedalus, grew up a Catholic, and even studied briefly for the priesthood before renouncing his faith at age twenty spending the rest of his life living in Paris, Trieste, Rome, and Zurich as a poet and a writer.
Metaphorically speaking (and you can’t read a classic without speaking metaphorically!), the book is a proto-typical coming of age story. It is about how to forge your own identity and to make your own way. Like Icarus (son of Dedalus in the Greek myth) the reader watches as Stephen tries to fabricate wings of his own so he can fly above the tribulations of his life and establish his own life elsewhere. In doing so he rebels against the religious beliefs he inherited, his family and friends, and the deeper, and more complex struggles he faces in society as a whole. He concludes that if he is ever going to find his true soul (in his case, the soul of an artist), he must sever all bonds of faith, family, and country and then spread his wings and go follow his dream.
To be honest with you, I do not recommend this book unless you want to be confused and depressed – or, unless someone assigns it to you to read like my “ghost professor.”
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Ramsey Right On
I attended Dave Ramsey’s Town Hall for Hope simulcast tonight at NewSong – I’ll probably be the first guy around to blog about it because I had to leave before the event was completely over. At any rate, I heard what he had to say, in the inimitable way only Dave can say it, and he was totally right on.
What he said in a nutshell was that things are not nearly as bad as people (mainly the media) are making them out to be. A big part of the economic problem is fear, which he reminded us means False Evidence Appearing Real. With a ton of statistics he obviously had available on over-sized monitors Ramsey occasionally glanced down at he pointed out that the current economic situation is not even as bad as the Great Depression in the thirties. In fact, he said, it is not even the worst recent recession we have had; statistically speaking the ones in 73-74 and 82-84 were worse. Of course, “worse” is relative if it is you that are being impacted personally. Ramsey also really took on Washington. He bashed both the Bush cabinet which he said decided to “bail out stupid,” and the Obama cabinet who he pointed out has decided to “stimulate stupid.” Ramsey also gave an economic history/theory lesson as he contrasted Keynesian Economics (John Maynard Keynes) with those of Milton Friedman. No surprise that Ramsey came down on the Friedman side of that equation.
The “hope” we have, economically speaking, according to Ramsey is capitalism and the American consumer. He believes if government will stop “interfering” with the free market and if we as consumers will stop spending what we don’t have and begin taking personal responsibility for our actions, our economic ship will ultimately right itself. For our part (consumers), what we need to do most is to learn how to say (and listen to) the small word “NO.” He was referring to our strong appetite for immediate gratification and our short-sighted financial planning.
Investment-wise, Ramsey was promoting real estate (buyers’ market, and interest rates at 50 year lows) and the stock market (profitable in every 15 year segment since forever ago). As for inflation, he feels it will probably grow, especially if the government continues its suicidal spending plan. The best way to deal with inflation, he argued, is to invest in things that will rise with inflation such as real estate. He also took a shot at those who promote investing in gold stating it is practically at an all-time high due to panicked investors. As for banks, Ramsey said he prefers local community banks and credit unions where he can talk to a real person. As for stocks, he prefers growing, sound companies who have a culture of excellence like Wal-Mart, McDonalds, and Dell Computers (to mention a few stocks he referenced).
All in all it was a very informative and entertaining evening. I’m glad I went and I left feeling more hopeful, which I suppose was the purpose of the event. Kudos at NewSong go to Chuck Braddock, our “go-to” guy when it comes to Dave Ramsey, who spent hours getting everything set up just right (with an assist from Michael Smith). Also, I have got to brag on my homeboy Justin – thanks for working closely with Chuck to help us all enjoy a good event.
What he said in a nutshell was that things are not nearly as bad as people (mainly the media) are making them out to be. A big part of the economic problem is fear, which he reminded us means False Evidence Appearing Real. With a ton of statistics he obviously had available on over-sized monitors Ramsey occasionally glanced down at he pointed out that the current economic situation is not even as bad as the Great Depression in the thirties. In fact, he said, it is not even the worst recent recession we have had; statistically speaking the ones in 73-74 and 82-84 were worse. Of course, “worse” is relative if it is you that are being impacted personally. Ramsey also really took on Washington. He bashed both the Bush cabinet which he said decided to “bail out stupid,” and the Obama cabinet who he pointed out has decided to “stimulate stupid.” Ramsey also gave an economic history/theory lesson as he contrasted Keynesian Economics (John Maynard Keynes) with those of Milton Friedman. No surprise that Ramsey came down on the Friedman side of that equation.
The “hope” we have, economically speaking, according to Ramsey is capitalism and the American consumer. He believes if government will stop “interfering” with the free market and if we as consumers will stop spending what we don’t have and begin taking personal responsibility for our actions, our economic ship will ultimately right itself. For our part (consumers), what we need to do most is to learn how to say (and listen to) the small word “NO.” He was referring to our strong appetite for immediate gratification and our short-sighted financial planning.
Investment-wise, Ramsey was promoting real estate (buyers’ market, and interest rates at 50 year lows) and the stock market (profitable in every 15 year segment since forever ago). As for inflation, he feels it will probably grow, especially if the government continues its suicidal spending plan. The best way to deal with inflation, he argued, is to invest in things that will rise with inflation such as real estate. He also took a shot at those who promote investing in gold stating it is practically at an all-time high due to panicked investors. As for banks, Ramsey said he prefers local community banks and credit unions where he can talk to a real person. As for stocks, he prefers growing, sound companies who have a culture of excellence like Wal-Mart, McDonalds, and Dell Computers (to mention a few stocks he referenced).
All in all it was a very informative and entertaining evening. I’m glad I went and I left feeling more hopeful, which I suppose was the purpose of the event. Kudos at NewSong go to Chuck Braddock, our “go-to” guy when it comes to Dave Ramsey, who spent hours getting everything set up just right (with an assist from Michael Smith). Also, I have got to brag on my homeboy Justin – thanks for working closely with Chuck to help us all enjoy a good event.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Birds
Have I mentioned I’m a birder? No? Well, I am, sort of. By that I mean I’m not a “gung ho” kind of birdwatcher who travels great distances to see birds, or who spends hours behind binoculars watching for birds at home, or even one who spends a lot of money and time trying to attract birds to their yard. Basically what I mean is I enjoy watching them and trying to see how many different kinds of birds pass through our yard as the seasons go by.I have three bird feeders out now along with four hummingbird feeders. Regular visitors to my yard include the Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Carolina Chicadee, Tufted Titmouse, Northern Cardinal, Northern Flicker, Pileated Woodpecker, several species of Fly-catcher (they all look alike to me), Blue Jay, Brown Thrasher, American Crow, White-breasted Nuthatch, some kind of Wren (not sure if it’s a house wren or a Carolina wren), House Finch, American Goldfinch, Eastern Meadowlark, Robin, Eastern Bluebird, and the Mourning Dove. Oh, and of course, lots and lots of squirrels in my feeders!
The photo above is of a Barred Owl that hangs out around our house. In fact, there is more than one. We hear them fairly frequently. If you’d like to hear what an owl like this sounds like click HERE. This particular owl was sitting right behind our house on Sunday afternoon. I had been looking over at a feeder I put out on a limb just below where the owl was sitting when all of a sudden I noticed the owl. They are masters at camouflage. This guy sat there for at least 30 minutes and he kept falling asleep. I had time to go inside and get my camera and come out and take several photos of him. He did not seem to mind. Eventuallly he flew to the ground as if he was going to catch a mouse or something, but when he landed there wasn't anything there. He just flew down from the tree to the ground, swiveled his head around a few times, and then he flew off. I’m sure we'll see him again though, because like I said, we see and hear them fairly frequently.
We have had a few hummingbirds so far – but not too many. It’s a little early yet. In time we’ll have them fighting over the feeders we have situated around the house. I love to watch them set up their little territory and then bomb any intruder that tries to feed at “their” feeder. They are amazing little birds.
All in all, I feel close to God watching birds – actually I feel close to Him any time I’m out in nature. God is so creative and his creation so precious and beautiful!
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