Tuesday, April 1, 2014

DO YOU KNOW THE 4 PILLARS OF GUEST PREACHING

This a repost from Pete Wilson writing this week for SERMON CENTRAL.


Over the past couple years I’ve done a lot of guest speaking at churches. I consider it a great honor to give friends a break who may be out getting some much needed rest. I also learn a ton while visiting other churches. So many different things we’ve implemented at Cross Point over the years have come from my visits to other churches.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to speak at Central Christian in Vegas for my good friend Jud Wilhite. I can’t say enough good things about what this church is doing under Jud’s leadership. Unbelievable!

With each opportunity I’ve had to visit your churches, there are a couple things I’m picking up on. I don’t have this whole “guest speaking” thing down, but here’s what I want to share:
First of all I want to address those of you who do guest speaking from time to time.

To Guest Speakers:

1. Don’t go over your allotted time. Period. I don’t care how “inspired” you feel. You have no idea the issues (parking, service turnover, take down, childcare) you create when you don’t follow the time frame they’ve given you.

2. Don’t make controversial statements the church staff are going to have to clean up later. Your "funny" joke may have cost the pastor hours of meetings. If you feel led to stir the water a bit do it on your own platform, not theirs. They’ve probably spent years intentionally building integrity with their community and attenders. You have the power to put that in jeopardy in one 30-minute message.

3. Respect the methodology of the church you’re speaking in. It’s quite simple. Take time to understand their protocol. If they do altar calls each week then you need to do an altar call. If they don’t, then you don’t. If you like to use outlines but their church never uses outlines, then take a pass and find a way to communicate your message without using an outline. If you can’t jive with their methodology, then you shouldn’t have accepted the request in the first place.

4. Take a moment to give honor and respect to the pastor and staff, but don’t overdo it. I think it’s important to recognize the pastor and his leadership. Say for him what in his humble spirit he would never say about himself. But at the end of the day, make sure you put the focus of the message where it really needs to be, which is on Christ.

To Guest Speaker Listeners:

It’s confession time. While I appreciate your kind words and praise, you need to know something:
I brought my silver bullet. Chances are I gave my “best” message I’ve written in the past two years. If I was assigned a topic, I ignored it and still gave my favorite message in the past two years.
No, seriously, if I was assigned the topic, I still probably had several weeks or months to prepare and work in my favorite illustrations and zingers. Your pastor who pounds out new messages week after week—he’s the real hero, and he’s probably twice the communicator I am.

Friday, February 7, 2014

WHAT'S THE POINT OF WORSHIP

Joe MeKeever has an excellent reflection of worship that will help preachers and other worshipers alike.  With this post, we will try getting back on track with a weekly article. - STEVE



Can we talk about worship?

Here are a few quotes to get us started. I cannot vouch for the authenticity of any of them, having found them in that motherlode of fascinating quotes, real and imagined, solid and made-up-on-the spot, the internet.  Smiley-face goes here…
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1. From actor Brad Pitt:  “I didn’t understand this idea of a God who says, ‘You have to acknowledge me. You have to say that I’m the best, and then I’ll give you eternal happiness. If you won’t, then you don’t get it!’ It seemed to be about ego. I can’t see God operating from ego, so it made no sense to me.”

There is a reason this makes no sense to you, Mr. Pitt.  The Apostle Paul put it this way: “A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. Nor can he understand them, for they are spiritually appraised” (I Corinthians 2:14).

Don’t mean to be harsh in that assessment, but it explains why so many on the outside look at Christian worship and shake their heads. They just don’t get it.

Let me repeat that: They. Do. Not. Get. It.

2. From a blog in which this guy talks about religion. Someone asked him why God wants us to worship Him.  He answered,  “Everyone likes being praised. It’s a huge ego bump, after all. But why does God need it? I mean, what kind of egomaniac needs millions of people all over the world praising his name? Isn’t that a little arrogant?
Short answer: Yes.”
He went on to make a case for God being egotistical.  Oh, and he thought he was being pro-God.
He should spare God the compliment.
Without knowing this fellow, just from this I’d say he’s another one who just doesn’t get the business of Christian worship.
3. From a Catholic website…
“While worshiping God changes us for the better, the primary aim of our worship is not self-improvement. In the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, the liturgy used by many of the Eastern Rite Catholic churches, the priest at one point chants, “For to You is due all glory, honor, and worship, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto ages of ages.”

“While God doesn’t need our worship in order to be complete, our worship is still a duty—something that we owe to God. But it is a duty that we can perform cheerfully, knowing that, in doing so, we are participating briefly in the life of heaven.”

Okay, this is thought-provoking. But it still seems to imply that we might be “adding value” to Heaven in some way, and that God is somehow diminished a tad when we fail to worship.

4. From C. S. Lewis–
“A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.”
By refusing to worship God, we detract nothing from Him. By worshiping Him, we add nothing to Him.

So what is the point?

5. From our Lord Jesus….
“An hour is coming and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers” (John 4:23). He adds, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

This leads me to make the following observations about worship…
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a. When we adore something that is perfect and flawless in every way, we are simply showing our intelligence and good taste. We watch someone spend an hour at the museum of art, pausing in front of framed paintings and sculptures to take in each detail, and we conclude this person is cultured, educated, wise, something like that.

When we bow before the God of the universe, we are doing a lot of things, but one is revealing ourselves to be a person of sense.  It makes sense to bow before the God who created this universe.

b. God does not need our worship any more than the moon needs another crater or Mercury could benefit from a little more sunlight.

c. We need to worship. God has built us so that when we bow before Him and humble ourselves, something happens.

d. There are good ways and wrong ways to worship. That’s why Jesus said “in spirit and in truth.” I take “worship in spirit” to mean that our spirits, not just our bodies, are involved. Our innermost being is how He put it in John 7:37-38. And “worship in truth” involves the revelation from Jesus on God the Father, knowing Him, and being known by Him, such as in Matthew 11:27.

The Scripture is overflowing with teachings concerning bad worship, ways not to try to impress God. Psalm 51:16 and Isaiah 1:10-15 come to mind.

e. We worship the Lord for the same reason we charge our phones: We need it.
Worship is “unto” God but “for” us.

That’s what the carnal mind of man cannot comprehend.

Not even all Christians get it.  Laymen in church will pray, “Lord, help us to get something out of the service today.”

That’s close, but still off.

Think of it as a paradox.

When we come to church–that is, when we come to “worship,” however and wherever and whenever it takes place–to “get” and to receive for ourselves, we will always leave empty-handed and frustrated.   We will walk out the door critical of the preacher and the choir and the teachers, all of whom failed to meet our needs.

Sound familiar?

The fault is not with the preacher and the others.  God has not equipped them with the power and ability to change your life and meet your needs.  You are asking from them what they were never intended to give, expecting what they cannot do.

The essence of worshiping is giving.  We give the glory and praise to the Lord, give Him ourselves, our time, our offerings, our prayers, our faithful obedience.  We “present ourselves to Him as a living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1).

We lay ourselves before Him in surrender, to the best of our ability.

And when we leave, we are charged.  We have touched the Lord and been touched by Him.

Oh, one more. I suppose that would be….

f.  We worship poorly and always will in this life.
If we miss this, we leave out a major fact of our worship: It’s difficult worshiping One you cannot see and doing so in ways that don’t always make sense to us.

If we “see through a glass darkly” (I Corinthians 13:12), and “do not know how to pray as we should” (Romans 8:26), it follows that everything else we do in the service of the Lord will be incomplete and partial at best.  “I know in part and I prophesy in part” (I Cor. 13:9).

But we should not let that stop us from worshiping, or doing any of the other things He has commanded.

Just because I cannot do something perfectly should not slow me down from doing what I can.  I’m a parent and a grandparent; not perfect, mind you, but I’ve gladly thrown myself into these roles.  I’m a husband and a citizen, and probably doing both inadequately; but I’m still working at it.  Likewise, I’m a Christ-follower and a poor one. But this is who I am and I will continue by faith.

We live and serve and worship by faith. Because of our love and gratitude toward our Lord, we obey. We may or may not understand, but we go forward.

The Lord is under no illusion about you and me. He knew He got no bargain when He saved the likes of us.  (“He knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust” –Psalm 103:14)

And yet, for reasons known only to Him, He wants our worship.

How very kind of Him to accept this from someone like me.  And you.