Borrowed Light

We need encouragement like this.

8 Ways You Might Be Losing People in Your Sermons

Yep.

A Whole New Site

Challies has redesigned his site. I like it. This article explains a few changes.

She is Beautiful

I love to hear things like this. I hope we learn to talk this way more often.

This is hilarious and this guy has some serious storytelling skills:

5 Reasons Why Our Small Groups Stopped Doing “Book Studies”, And I’m Glad

September 23, 2013Mike Leake 16 Comments

For the last couple of years our small groups went through various books. We’ve been through Crazy Love, Radical, Jesus + Nothing = Everything, and a few other books. I believe that people have benefited from these books. It also has helped to create a reading culture in our church.

But we’ve stopped…

Before we launched our Spring semester of small groups we made the decision to can the book studies. Our main reason was a conviction that what we need more than anything in our church is for people to deal directly with God in His Word. Therefore, our small group material is a recap of the morning sermon with a brief commentary on the text and 8-10 questions (prepared by yours truly).

Our people have loved it. And it has breathed new life into our small groups. Here, I believe are 5 reasons why:

Easier to have open groups. In the past, when a new person/couple attended our church it was awkward to invite them to a small group, especially when we were six weeks into a book study. Now, there is no hesitation. We’ll just be talking about that morning’s sermon. They are as prepared as anyone else in the group.
It creates better sermon listening. It’s not really a “quiz” in our small groups—but I do believe that people tend to listen better when they know they’ll have to talk about what they heard. Our small groups cause people to own that weeks sermon for a longer period of time.
It teaches people to go directly to the Word. Rather than being mediated through books, authors, etc., this helps people to deal directly with what God says. Hopefully, this trains people to ask what God thinks about a situation before we ask what our favorite Bible teachers say. Furthermore, this teaches our people to ground application in the proper context of God’s Word.
It gives people a whole theology. One of the benefits of verse by verse preaching is that it causes us to deal with the whole counsel of God. That gets circumvented if we pick and choose which books we are going to go through each semester. We will always pick the ones that we are comfortable with. Doing small groups this way causes us to discuss uncomfortable topics and in turn to teach the whole counsel of God.
It’s harder to dismiss. If somebody doesn’t like a point that an author makes it can be easy to dismiss them. In fact, we’ve seen people dismiss entire books based upon not liking the way that an author writes. It’s a tad more difficult to say that about God’s Word. If you don’t like the way something is written or what it is saying you have to deal directly with God.

There are several other benefits that we’ve seen to doing our small groups this way. The involvement of our members has been greater. People spend their weeks reading God’s Word more than reading other books. I’m sure that I could think of even more reasons.

Going through book studies might be helpful for your church. It might be something necessary for the season that you are in. For us, though, at First Baptist Jasper, canning the book studies has been one of the greatest blessings for our church. I’m glad we did it.

Be Peculiar: It’s What We’re Called To Be

September 20, 2013Nick Horton

And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Acts 9:4-5 (ESV)

Saul (Paul) was on his merry way to persecute, jail, or kill Christians in Damascus. He was not content to limit the scope of his terror to Jerusalem. He presided over Stephen’s martyrdom, giving approval as the text says. He had zeal, but it was without knowledge. Saul pursued the church, in his zeal for righteousness as a law keeping Pharisee, thinking he was in fact accomplishing a great work for God. That is, until Jesus showed up. Jesus identified himself personally with the very church Saul was persecuting. Jesus confronted Saul and converted him. He would take this instrument of terror and use him for the furthering of His own glory in the church. Friends, He still does the very same thing today.

What is the Church Anyway?

In these modern times many are asking the question; what role does the Church play? Christians fear the loss of the Church’s prominence in society. The culture is shifting quickly away from biblical morals. (Though, I would suggest that recent events are but the fruit of seeds planted long ago–and now watered heavily). Is the Church now supposed to accomplish certain social justice activities? While good, that is not the mission of the Church. Is the church supposed to make everyone feel better? Be better people? Certainly not. The Gospel is not Prozac for the soul.

The Church exists because of God’s Word

No. The Church exists because of the Gospel. The church is the assembly of the redeemed. Sinners saved by grace, testifying to the glory of God in the salvation offered through Jesus Christ. The church exists to magnify Him, to testify to Him, to bring the glory due His name. Jesus so closely identifies with the Church that persecution of it is personal to Him. We are adopted in to His family, the body known as the church, and He is jealous for us. God’s word has created God’s people. We, brothers and sisters, are the Church, and we live to proclaim His glory to all the nations.

“But take heart; I have overcome the world.“

The United States, and the nations, are becoming increasingly hostile to the Gospel. The advance of gay marriage is hastening a showdown over religious liberty. It is possible that the country founded on moral principles, including religious liberty, will outlaw religious liberty. What will the Church’s response be? When the Saul’s of this day come to our doors persecuting brothers and sisters and hauling them off to jail, will we wilt? One thing is reasonably certain, the increased hostility to the Church will cause the exodus of “nominal” Christians. Those who claim Christ’s name but none of His truth will find the water a little too hot and leave through their former “country club’s” doors.

As they leave, let us remember our calling to go into all the nations, teaching them to be Jesus’ disciples, and baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We exist as a church to proclaim the Gospel. We are called to be faithful to God and His Word. This doesn’t mean we are called to success in the world’s eyes. We are not called to a heretical prosperity gospel. We are not called to comfort. We are not called to pragmatism. We are called to come and die. Die to self, die to sin, and live for God. We proclaim this news to all the world; that God is glorious and merciful. He is also holy and will judge sin. But Jesus Christ has made atonement for the sins of all who would trust in Him. This message, and the change that Christ has made in our hearts will make us peculiar. We should be a people set apart and different. Our pursuit of holiness and obedience to Christ should mark us as different from the culture. If you can’t tell the difference between you and the world, I urge you to examine your heart. Is there repentance and faith there?

This is the church. This is our calling. This is our mission.

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” 2 Corinthians 13:14