The Pursuit

Maturity and Preaching

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 | bible, church, deacon, pastor, preaching, questions, sermon, service, synchroblog, teaching, tradition | 4 Comments

This post is part of a monthly synchroblog. The topic of this month’s synchroblog is “Maturity in the Light of our Faith”.

There are at least three parts to preaching. The first part is the preparation for preaching, the second part is the act of preaching, and the third part is listening to preaching. In today’s Christian life it is hard to find a place that does not encourage people to preach and people to listen to preachign. So, today I would like to discuss how each of these parts of preaching reflects on and affects our maturity as Christ followers. I am going to ask a few questions that I’ve thought of… questions that I’m thinking about. I will not answer these questions, I hope to get some conversation going about them.

Preparation for Preaching

I have prepared for preaching, I have attended many Sunday morning meetings where there was preaching, I have attended school where I was told how to prepare for preaching, I listen to preaching on CDs and the Radio, I talk about preaching with my friends and family. I’m not saying this to boast, I’m saying this so you understand where I am coming from. Of course, my experiences may differ vastly from others with similar experiences, but I have a feeling any difference will be purely semantic when it comes to how preparation for preaching reflects on and affects our maturity.

There are usually several things a preparer does when preparing for preaching.

1) Prayer that God will speak to him
2) Study a particular passage
3) Study what other commentators say a particular passage means
4) Study similar passages via a lexicon or other commentators
5) Put it all together for your listeners.
6) Practice, Practice, Practice…

None of these things are necessarily bad or wrong. In fact, if someone came up to me tomorrow and said, “I want you to preach two Sundays from now,” I’d pretty much follow this little outline (give or take a few things). To be perfectly honest, sermon preparation is really just glorified Bible Study - in our context it usually comes with compensation.

My questions are these: Does doing these things make you mature? Does doing these things mean you are mature? Does doing these things increase your maturity?

The Act of Preaching

Recently I saw a video of John Piper called “The Gospel in 6 Minutes“… to be honest it was really the gospel in a few seconds with an illustration and a lot of the word “never” - but that really isn’t my point. In this video John Piper said this, “You never outgrow the need to preach to yourself the gospel.”1 This quote got me thinking about the need to preach to ourselves… and the need for us to preach to other. It made me wonder about how the act of preaching reflects on and affects our maturity. In most traditional churches there is one man who does the preaching, often times called the Pastor. He is usually considered to be very mature. But sometimes, he will ask someone else to preach, perhaps a deacon or a seminarian. To most the act of preaching means that you have reached a certain maturity level. There is a hierarchy built into our thinking - levels of maturity if you will.

This is how I understand the hierarchy:

1. Layman
2. Layman who serves in some capacity
3. Layman who teaches
4. Layman who preaches
5. Deacon
6. Preacher
7. Pastor

I’m not saying that I agree with this hierarchy, this is simply who I understand it. If you were to corner me, I’d have a much different hierarchy, but this is what I believe others traditionally see in the church.

My questions are these: Does preaching make you mature? Does preaching mean you are mature? Does preaching increase your maturity?

Listening to Preaching

As normal church-goers we are always encouraged to listen to “good” preaching (among other things). We are encouraged to order CDs from the big named preachers, listened to Christian radio which has preaching, and even join churches where there are properly trained men to preach. There is actually a hierarchy built into this thinking as well. The more preaching you expose yourself to the more mature you are considered.

Consider this layman:

1. Goes to Sunday morning service
2. Does #1 and goes to Sunday School
3. Does #1, #2, and goes to Sunday evening service
4. Does #1, #2, #3, and goes to Wednesday evening service
5. Does #1, #2, #3, #4 and listens to preaching on the Radio or on CD.
6. Does #1, #2, #3, #4, #5 and watches preaching on TV or DVD.
7. Does #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6 and reads biographies about famous preachers.
8. etc., etc., etc.

By the way, I think this list also leads into the list for the Act of Preaching.

My questions are these: Does listening to preaching make you mature? Does listening to preaching mean you are mature? Does listening to preaching increase your maturity?

Before you answer any of these questions, consider these three verses from Scripture:

Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And this we will do, if God permits. - Hebrews 6:1-3

Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature. - 1 Corinthians 14:20

For everyone who partakes {only} of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.- Hebrews 5:13-14

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Here is a list of bloggers who are taking part in this month’s synchroblog on the topic “Maturity in the Light of our Faith”:

Phil Wyman at Square No More with “Is Maturity Really What I Want?”
Lainie Petersen at Headspace with “Watching Daddy Die”
Kathy Escobar at The Carnival in My Head with “what’s inside the bunny?”
John Smulo at JohnSmulo.com
Erin Word at Decompressing Faith with “Long-Wearing Nail Polish and Other Stories”
Beth Patterson at The Virtual Teahouse with “the future is ours to see: crumbling like a mountain”
Bryan Riley at Charis Shalom
Alan Knox at The Assembling of the Church with “Maturity and Education”
KW Leslie at The Evening of Kent with “Putting spiritual infants in charge”
Bethany Stedman at Coffee Klatch with “Moving Towards True Being: The Long Process of Maturity”
Adam Gonnerman at Igneous Quill with “Old Enough to Follow Christ?”
Joe Miller at More Than Cake with “Intentional Relationships for Maturity”
Jonathan Brink at JonathanBrink.com with “I Won’t Sin”
Susan Barnes at A Booklook with “Growing Up”
Tracy Simmons at The Best Parts with “Knowing Him Who is From the Beginning”
Joseph Speranzella at A Tic in the Mind’s Eye with “Spiritual Maturity And The Examination of Conscience”
Sally Coleman at Eternal Echoes with “vulnerable maturity”
Liz Dyer at Grace Rules with “What I Wish The Church Knew About Spiritual Maturity”
Cobus van Wyngaard at My Contemplations with “post-enlightenment Christians in an unenlightened South Africa”
Steve Hayes at Khanya with “Adult Content”
Ryan Peter at Ryan Peter Blogs and Stuff with “The Foundation For Ministry and Leading”
Kai Schraml at Kaiblogy with “Mature Virtue”
Nic Paton at Sound and Silence with “Inclusion and maturity”
Lew Ayotte at The Pursuit with “Maturity and Preaching“

Money and the Church: A Fulltime Story

Thursday, November 15th, 2007 | church, deacon, ministry, money, overseer, pastor, preaching, sermon, service, synchroblog, teaching, tradition | 7 Comments

Today’s post is part of a synchroblog dealing with money and the church. It is a pretty broad topic, and many people are writing about different aspects of “money and the church.” At the bottom of this post you’ll find a list of links of other contributors to this subject. Today, I am going to write about some news I recently heard.

The other day I was speaking to one of our brothers. I asked him how things were going with the church that he met with. He told me about a recent deacon meeting. During the meeting the pastor told them that he was being stretched at all ends and something needed to change. His schedule is pretty cumbersome, he works full-time, he goes to classes (a couple per semester), and he teaches Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings. Apart from that I am not sure he has many other “duties” required of him by the church, but still doing all those things can be quite burdensome, especially when you have a wife and a few children to take care of.

At this meeting he gave them the break down of all his monthly needs/wants; he even made it clear that he would be willing to get rid of some luxuries to lower his monthly costs. He also made it clear that he wants to pastor this group. The deacons were in full agreement, they want a full-time vocational pastor. At the next business meeting, they’re suppose to bring it for all the members to vote on.

A few questions ran through my mind: Is this where God wants this man? What will happen if they vote against this? Will he leave or stay? Are there any other solutions that will free up his time? Is what he expects as a pastor biblical? Is what the deacons expect from a pastor biblical? Is what the rest of the members expects from a pastor biblical?

Paying this person extra money will allow him to quit his secular job. This will allow him to start doing visitations, more counseling, more studying, etc. From what I currently understand about “church,” I see this as a huge waste of money. As many of you know, I do not believe that pastor’s should receive a salary. Mainly because I do not see the majority of their “duties” in scripture. If we want to pay a person to visit, to counsel, and to study, than fine - it’s a free country - but that is not what makes a pastor.

Here is a recent Job Listing I was given for a “Family Minister/Associate Pastor”:

Description:
Needed at First Baptist Church in *****, NC, located in the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina: A loving, passionate and spirit-filled individual who feels called to serve God as a minister for all age groups. This individual will be asked to work with Ministry teams and councils to reach withing the church and greater *****/***** County community by planning, coordinating, promoting and executing a comprehensive program of activities. Enthusiastically develop fellowship, Christian education, evangelistic outreach and visitation.

Requirements:
* Assist the Stewardship Ministry Team in preparing and administering the family ministries annual budget
* Preparing monthly calendar and reports
* Supervision of custodial staff
* Maintain scheduling and supervision of church vehicles
* Oversee construction projects and the furnishing, maintenance, staffing and operation of same
* Attending regularly scheduled staffing meetings and Church Council
* Assisting the Pastor in planning, conducting and evaluating congregational services.
* Must have a seminary degree - be an open minded person with a listening and discerning ear and spirit who is able to take initiative in a Godly way.

I do not think this strays too far from what you would normally find in a vocational pastor’s job description. This particular job is paying “$40,000 to $50,000 (includes housing, insurance, benefits).” The sentence, “A loving, passionate and spirit-filled individual who feels called to serve God as a minister for all age groups,” is probably the only line you will find in there that can be derived from scripture. But aren’t we all suppose to be loving? passionate? spirit-filled? Aren’t we all called to minister to all age groups? If so, why aren’t all the members being paid?

Some questions I thought of when reading this listing: Couldn’t a few people do these jobs for free? Do these jobs need to be done or are they luxury? What could we do with 40,000$ - 50,000$ every year in the community?

What do you think? Is paying a salary for a fulltime position a luxury that the church should forsake?

What happens when you put two taboo subjects together and discuss their relationship with each other? Find out by following the links to this month’s SynchroBlog. Money and Church is the topic. Do you think they belong together? or is it a problem when they meet? Follow the links, and watch the fur fly!

Here’s who’s in so far:

The Check That Controls at Igneous Quill
Pushing The Camel: Why there might be more rich people in Heaven than in your local Church at Fernando’s desk
Sally Coleman at Eternal Echoes
Lord, Won’t You Buy Me a Mercedes Benz at Hello Said Jenelle
Zaque at Johnny Beloved
Walking with the Camels at Calacirian
Greed and Bitterness: Why Nobody’s Got it Right About Money and The Church at Phil Wyman’s Square No More
Wealth Amidst Powers at Theocity
Money and the Church: A Fulltime Story at The Pursuit
But I Gave at Church at The Assembling of the Church
Moving Out of Jesus Neighborhood at Be the Revolution
Money and the Church: why the big fuss? at Mike’s Musings
Coffee Hour Morality at One Hand Clapping
Bling Bling in the Holy of Holies at In Reba’s World
Magazinial Outreach at Decompressing Faith
Money’s too tight to mention at Out of the Cocoon
Bullshit at The Agent B Files
The Bourgeois Elephant in the Missional/Emergent Living Room at Headspace
When the Church Gives at Payneful Memories
Who, or What, Do You Worship at at Charis Shalom
Greed at Hollow Again
Silver and Gold Have We - Oops! at Subversive Influence
The Church and Money at Khanya

Halloween: My experiences - SynchroBlog

Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 | halloween, holidays, synchroblog, tradition | 10 Comments

This post is part of a SynchroBlog with the theme, A
Christian Response to Halloween. More details at the bottom of this post.

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As a child, Halloween was one of my favorite holidays. The bad part about living in Maine during Halloween was that pretty much everyone’s Halloween costume looked like this:

It was always way too cold out to only wear a Halloween costume. The secret trick to get around this was the heated car - jump in the car and move house to house. My Halloweens were always a little different. I did a little trick or treating, just enough to get some candy, but then my parents and I would go to my grandparents house for their Halloween party. My grandfather loved to decorate his house. Every holiday was his time to shine. During Halloween he would get somewhere up to 700 children visiting his house (he counted them). People would drive from all around to visit his house. I’m still not sure what his neighbors though about that :). I remember one year, I went to a haunted house run by the local Catholic church, it was o.k. fun, but not scary enough. Other than that deviation, it was always the same routine from what I remember.

That was pretty much what I did for Halloween as a child and before I was saved.

After I was saved I was much older and had less interest in Halloween. My grandparents were too old to do anything with their house for Halloween so I pretty much did nothing. The church I was apart of did some sort of Halloween party but I did not attend, I think I was too busy or just didn’t care. Since moving to North Carolina I can only remember what one group of Christians did for Halloween, they had some sort of Trunk or Treat thing. It was there as both a way to advertise the Church and to give children a safer place to get candy. I thought about going, but we decided to hang home and hand out candy ourselves. We got a total of zero children. More candy for me!

I have also heard of some places who run Fall Festivals instead of Halloween parties. From what I understand about Halloween, this is basically an attempt to Christianize a non-pagan holiday with pagan roots. Honestly, I have no experience with these either. I have heard hypocritical things about them.

I think I have also heard of a Reformation party in lieu of a Halloween party… but that’s not so much a cover-up as it is a coincidence (since the reformation started on Oct. 31 when Martin Luther nailed his 95-Thesis on the Wittenberg Door).

I told you all of this basically to say this. I had a lot of fun as a child dressing up for Halloween, getting all sorts of candy, going to my grandparents house and seeing all the other neat costumes. If you want to call it a Fall Festival, that’s fine, a rose by any other name smells just as sweet. If you want to provide a safe haven for the local children by doing Trunk-or-Treat, that’s great too. If you want to have a Reformation party… well frankly your a nerd ;). Just don’t get all legalistic! Here’s the thing, Halloween has no pagan significance, not to anyone with any sense. It is about being a fun little kid, imagining your are something else for the day while your parents cart you around to get you some valuable loot. Some people want to dress up like zombies, vampires, werewolves, etc. that’s fine… guess what - those things aren’t real, they are pretend. Others want to dress up as cowboys, ninjas, and police officers, that’s fine too. Maybe you want to dress up your dog like spiderman… well you’re a nerd too, but it’s still probably pretty cute. Decorate your home or not, just do whatever you are convicted of - but don’t try to make other people live by your rules.

Most of all, remember these words, “Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this–not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother’s way.”

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The October 24th SynchroBlog includes 26 people sharing their
thoughts, their experiences, and their expertise on the subject of “A
Christian Response to Halloween” (or at least something remotely
connected to that idea.) Perhaps not all the writers are Christian,
and that is actually even cooler. Please check out these offerings
of love, and gore…uh, I mean lore.

The Christians and the Pagans Meet for Samhain at Phil Wyman’s Square No More
Our Own Private Zombie: Death and the Spirit of Fear by Lainie Petersen
Julie Clawson at One Hand Clapping
John Morehead at John Morehead’s Musings
Vampire Protection by Sonja Andrews
What’s So Bad About Halloween? at Igneous Quill
H-A-double-L-O-double-U-double-E-N Erin Word
Halloween….why all the madness? by Reba Baskett
Steve Hayes at Who stole Halloween
KW Leslie at The Evening of Kent
Hallmark Halloween by John Smulo
Mike Bursell at Mike’s Musings
Sam Norton at Elizaphanian
Removing Christendom from Halloween at On Earth as in Heaven
Vampires or Leeches: A conversation about making the Day of the Dead meaningful by David Fisher
Encountering hallow-tide creatively by Sally Coleman
Kay at Chaotic Spirit
Apples and Razorblades at Johnny Beloved
Fall Festivals and Scary Masks at The Assembling of the Church
Why Christians don’t like Zombies at Hollow Again
Peering through the negatives of mission Paul Walker
Sea Raven at Gaia Rising
Halloween: My experiences by Lew A
Timothy Victor at Tim Victor’s Musings
Making Space for Halloween by Nic Paton

How Do You Pray? - Syncroblog

Monday, August 27th, 2007 | prayer, synchroblog | 10 Comments

Erin Word, Cindy Bryan, and Lyn Hallewell have started a synchroblog with the topic of prayer called How Do You Pray? - They have invited everyone and anyone to participate, so I decided to take part.

I recently wrote a post over at Life… in the Journey about prayer called What About Prayer? hopefully I will not regurgitate the same stuff, but I am sure I will touch on a few of the same ideas. This post will be more geared towards what I do when I pray.

When I was taking classes as Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary I had a professor read Mark 1:35 to us, which says, “In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.” The class was told that, as future pastors, we should be doing the same. We need to be getting up early in the morning and praying then.

This is NOT how I pray.

What I mean is, I do not have a rigid “God Schedule.” I understand Jesus prayed at this time because he wanted to, not as a prescription for us today, but as a description of what Jesus did in this situation. I do not believe in a legalistic pattern for speaking to God. I see my prayer life as a continuing conversation with God. So, with all that out of the way, this is how I pray.

• I pray when I am hurt, when I am happy, and when I am indifferent.
• I pray with my eyes closed, I pray with my eyes wide open.
• Sometimes I watch others as they pray and consider the words they are saying.
• I pray with my head bowed, I pray with my head straight, and I pray facing up.
• I pray over my food or I don’t.
• I pray in my head, I pray speaking out loud.
• I pray in groups, with groups, and in solitude.
• I pray when something important has happened, is happening, or is about to happen.
• I pray early in the morning, I pray in the middle of the day, and I pray right before bed.
• I pray when I feel urged to do so.
• I pray when someone asks me to do so.
• I pray when I desire to do so.

Most importantly, when I pray, I ask that God’s will be done and I pray that he would glorify his name regardless of me.

This is how I pray.

Grace vs. Works - Synchroblog

Tuesday, July 31st, 2007 | synchroblog | 7 Comments

This post is part of Glenn Hager’s Synchroblog. He asked people to write on the topic: Things I Learned From Church (That Didn’t Prove True And What I Am Learning Lately).

In church I was taught all about “grace.” I was taught that grace is urging people into coming to church, shaming people, adding expectations to people, holding things over peoples heads. I was also taught about works. I was taught that works could not get you into heaven. This included, coming to church, being ashamed, acting as people expected, and responding to manipulation for forgiveness.

First, people were being “urged” into coming to church. They were urged to come early for Sunday School or more frequently for other programs and services. The guilt came in small packages, designed to trick people into becoming righteous in God’s eyes. If you come more often God will love you more. If you do more then God will bless you more. But most of all, doing this would not save you… but do not worry about that, just come to church.

Second, I noticed that when the numbers low that meant God was not happy with us. Most likely it was because the majority was not being faithful to God and giving him back 10% of what was rightfully his. After all, he did give us 100% of what we have… surely we could give him a measly 10% back. Oh, and if you didn’t, that means you are not in his will and his love will not fall on you until you do. But most of all, tithing will not save you… but do not worry about that, just give your 10%.

Third, I noticed that there were a number of people who acted differently than I did. Some thought a Christian cannot even think of the word alcohol or you would be sent directly to hell. Some thought a Christian needed to wear a suit to church. If you did not do this, then you were being a bad Christian, a bad witness, and a bad example. But most of all, doing these things will not save you… but do not worry about that, just follow my lead.

Forth, I also noticed that some people liked to hold grudges. Forgiveness? Why should I forgive you for what you did to me? You have to prove to me first that you have changed, then I might forgive you, we’ll see. Dance puppet, dance. But most of all, trying to win my approval will not save you… but do not worry about that, just relax and let me string you along.

Then I picked up my Bible, talked to God, and I realized something. Grace was something completely different than what I was seeing. I learned that grace is simple, not complex. With grace, there is no guilt, there are no extra-biblical expectations, there are no comparisons, there is no puppet-master. Instead there is admonishing, teaching, loving, and forgiveness. This is what God showed me about Grace and he showed it to me most of all through his Son’s work on the cross.