Should Kids be Allowed in an MLB Clubhouse?
Dan Naulty doesn’t necessarily answer the question but he uses the recent story of Adam Laroche to encourage Christian fathers.
There will be lots of ministry left in the wake of this tsunami.
The Message of Islam vs. The Gospel of Jesus
There is a ton of difference.
10 Lessons on Parenting Little Ones
Hard to believe that my son is eight…glad that this article still applies.
Here is a great summary of 2 Samuel:
I’ve been reading the biography of Keith Green. In one particular section, shortly after Keith becomes a believer, he meets up with a former friend. He rather passionately chastises his friend, who was a believer, for not sharing more of Jesus with him. Keith figured he would have been a believer sooner if his friend Randy had just been faithful. I could relate to his friends response. In the words of Green:
“He said he did try to tell me, but because he wasn’t living out his faith consistently he knew his words probably didn’t have a lot of power. He said he knew actions speak louder than words sometimes. Randy said he was sorry.
Apparently there were areas where Keith’s friend knew the truth but wasn’t consistently living the truth. And rather than be a rank hypocrite he decided to be silent. I wonder how many times pastors shy away from certain points for similar reasons.
I confess that in my ministry there have been seasons when I did not feel I could as truthfully and passionately press home a point because it was something that I myself was struggling with. Don’t get me wrong, I believe Piper is correct that we will always be preaching above our heads. It is not only our former sins which we can preach against. But if a pastor is sinning with his wallet he likely won’t be able to effectively preach on stewardship.
It’s the sin that we are battling and fighting and beating and even painfully stumbling in which we can passionately preach against. If we aren’t doing battle with sin then we’ll just preach against vague sins. The sin will be abstract. It’ll be the sin out there—the safe sins of other people. And when we aren’t battling real sin then we aren’t drinking deeply of real grace.
This is what Martin Luther meant when he said this:
If you are a preacher of Grace, then preach a true, not a fictitious grace; if grace is true, you must bear a true and not a fictitious sin. God does not save people who are only fictitious sinners. Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly. For he is victorious over sin, death, and the world. As long as we are here we have to sin. This life in not the dwelling place of righteousness but, as Peter says, we look for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. . . . Pray boldly-you too are a mighty sinner.”
I’m convinced we cannot passionately preach grace unless we are also pursuing personal holiness. The grace we preach will be a cheap grace. It’s only when we are facing up to the ugliness of sin and fighting it with vigor that we’ll be able to honestly stand before people and powerful preach a grace which transforms.
Choose holiness over silence or hypocrisy.
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Image source: here
I appreciate these seven pitfalls in expositional preaching. Easy to fall into.
The Discernment Blogger Who Cried ‘Wolf’!
This is a well written and balanced article.
The Christian Life Isn’t Meant to Be Effortless
The role of effort in the Christian life is one which people fall off on either side of the horse. Dr. Whitney helps us see what the Scriptures teach.
What’s to Love About ‘Fixer Upper’?
My wife loves this show. And I love seeing how this couple interacts with one another.
The Bible Project just keeps putting out quality stuff. Their latest on The Image of God:
Over the weekend I found a few quiet moments to finish working on a few LifeWay sermon outlines that were due. Every so often I get a chance to write sermon outlines which are based upon the Sunday school curriculum produced by LifeWay. It’s an honor to write and to serve pastors in this way.
But I was thrown for a bit of a loop when, during a brief break, I read this little piece by John Piper: My Pastor Uses Pre-Made Sermons Should I Be Concerned. Piper was asked by a young lady whether she should be disturbed that her pastor is using pre-made sermons. He gives three reasons why she should be concerned. After reflecting on the role of a pastor and preaching, Piper gives three reasons for concern. First, pastors are to give the congregation what they are seeing and feeling from the text. Not what someone else sees. Secondly, it is the pastor’s job to deliver sermons. And lastly, if it is truly his calling and his job then God will supply the gifts to accomplish it.
Piper closes with this:
So in conclusion, God is not calling pastors to be eloquent. He is not calling for the best preaching in the world. He is not calling for the most clever turn of phrase. He is not calling for the most relevant reference to the news or the media or some profound insight into the text that only somebody else can have. What God is calling to every pastor is that every one of us be faithful, authentic in our encounter with the meaning of the text for the sake of our people, delivered with heartfelt passion for God and for the people.
I wholeheartedly agree with Piper. So, this rattled me a bit. Here I am preparing sermons outlines for pastors to use alongside their Sunday school curriculum. Am I helping to foster an environment where pastors aren’t preparing their own sermons? Do I call up LifeWay and inform them that I’m finished? I don’t want to perpetuate pastoral laziness.
I wrestled with this for a bit and here is what I came up with.
Not Plagiarism
I’ve had companies call me up and inform me that they have great news. They have found a way for me to no longer have to spend time on sermon prep. All I have to do is use their pre-packaged material, present it as if it were my own, and then I can spend time doing what I really want to do as a pastor (golfing?). Using someone else’s work and passing it off as your own is plagiarism. It’s dishonest and it doesn’t fit in the pulpit. You’d get fired from a secular job doing this, so why is it acceptable for a pastor.
I had an experience with this one time. I heard a particular sermon from a pastor who I had respected. Then I found that exact same sermon online. I lost almost all respect for this man once I realized he’d been doing this for years and passing it off as his own. How could I trust him? He was presenting himself as something he wasn’t and presenting packaged sermons as if they were his own idea.
If this is what LifeWay was asking me to do, I couldn’t help. What I do for LifeWay is just providing a basic outline. I suppose a pastor could plagiarize, but he is going to have to do some work to get more than 5 minutes out of it.
But what Piper is talking about isn’t just plagiarism. He is talking about taking prepackaged material and even announcing that it comes from somewhere else. He’s talking about using an 8 week series on a popular book or something and then preaching based on that series. That is what he means by secondhand sermons.
I agree with Piper. (Though I might be a little more lenient with an occasional packaged sermon, provided the pastor announces where he got it). And so what am I doing helping pastors preach packaged sermons?
More Than Prepackaged Sermons
Here is why I’ll continue to write for LifeWay when given opportunity. I think Piper is correct but what he says isn’t complete. There is a difference between just preaching a packaged sermon as your own and using the work of another to spark your own creativity. This is what I believe pastors use the sermon outlines on LifeWay for. I know this is why I will occasionally go on the web and even look at a John Piper sermon for ideas.
I believe preaching is a community project. It is not just me and Jesus with an open Bible trying to decide what to talk about on Sunday. Yes, I do the hard labor of wrestling with the text and coming out of the study with a pretty clear understanding of what the text means. I even struggle through figuring out what that means for our people. But my task isn’t complete with this. I’ve still got a couple major questions to answer.
First, I need to make sure that I’m not totally off in my study. If no other pastors or commentaries are making similar points I really need to pause. It doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m wrong but I really ought to preach it with caution. Sermon outlines and even complete manuscripts online can help other pastors see how someone else handled the text.
Secondly, even if I know what the text means and if I have a vague idea of how it applies, I still have to figure out how best to communicate that truth. Piper is correct that God isn’t looking for great eloquence and creativity. But this cuts both ways. It also means that my idea of how to communicate a text may not be the absolute best. Don’t I at least owe it to the congregation to explore other ways to communicate that truth? Yes, we want our people to have us as their pastor giving them the Word. But that isn’t divorced from me seeing how others found effective ways to communicate a truth.
So if you use sermon outlines or manuscripts or prepackaged stuff then heed the words of Piper. Don’t use them as an end. Use them as a means to an end—a way to effectively communicate the truth of God’s Word. Don’t be a lazy pastor. Don’t neglect your fundamental job. But don’t study in a vacuum. See what others have done and come out of your study with your own sermon to passionately preach to the congregation God has entrusted you with.
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