THE URGE TO REBUKE

BY STEVE DUNN

Sooner or later most pastors are seized withe urge to rebuke.  Being nice is not good enough.  People are hearing messages clothed in graciousness and adorned with gentle prodding and they are not even remotely under conviction.  The Holy Spirit may be knocking at the door but the music of their denial is too loud to hear it.

Those of us entrusted with the Word of God know fully well that rebuking is one function we are to carry out.

"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,  so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." - 2 Timothy 3.16-17

We all know preachers who thrive on beating up on their flocks--who critique, criticize; who ignore any dimension of goodness and withhold encouragement.  And then we know of pastors who preach around every short-coming, rationalize away their peoples' sins, and affirm peoples' goodness to point of enabling mass denial.

When you see the need for rebuking and summon up the courage to do so, here are some things to remember as you craft that message,

1. Make sure your rebuke comes from the Word of God and is appropriate to the situation. The rebuke should be for ignoring God's standards and expectations--not your personal prejudices and your culture's world view.

2. Make sure that your motivation is God's prompting not your frustration or impatience.  "Quick to listen, slow to anger, slow to speak."

3. Don't rebuke a whole congregation for a few people's disobedience.  Too many pastors fight personal battles from the pulpit.

4.Always provide a clear way to apply and embrace the truth.  Problems without solutions tend to provide frustration or worse.

5. Remind the people that you are speaking the truth in love.  You are on their side and your rebuking them because they will not be able to be the persons God created and redeemed them to be. (Ephesians 2.10)

Do you have other words of counsel?

© 2016 by Stephen L. Dunn.  You have permission to reprint this provided it is unchanged, proper authorship is cited, it is in a publication not for sale, and a link is provided to this site or to www.drstevedunn.com. For all other uses, contact Steve at sdunnpastor@gmail.com 

PREACHING ON HOMOSEXUALITY

An Interview with Jim Nicodem

BY PREACHING TODAY

PreachingToday.com: We all know that homosexuality is a culturally and politically charged issue, but you chose to do a 3-part series on it, why?

Jim Nicodem: In part because of what you just said. It's a very culturally charged issue. We know that people are facing it with friends, or hearing about it in the news. This is an issue that's not going to go away. We want our people to be able to think biblically about some of the important issues that we face in our culture. And it struck me that the longer the church puts off the conversation, the harder it's going to be to talk about it because it's going to become a very adverse climate in which to try to present God's truth. So now is the time to sort out what your church believes and where you hope to go on this issue.

What was your overall goal or goals for the series?

I had two major goals. First, I wanted to teach what God's Word says about homosexuality, and our response to people who are struggling with sexual identity. It used to be that everybody knew that the Bible says homosexual behavior is wrong, but now one of the greatest challenge to this position is coming from within the circle of those who call themselves evangelicals, people who are saying, "We've misread the Bible on this, the Bible doesn't say homosexual behavior is wrong; you need to read it in its context and it says something different." So we needed to take a look at what the Bible says.

How do we have frank conversations about what God's Word says about difficult subjects and yet still keep our front door thrown open wide?

 

Second, I wanted to lay the groundwork for ministry to people in the LGBT community. We are the church that welcomes people who are exploring the faith, no matter what their background. So we wanted to discuss how do we love people who are struggling in this area of their life, How do we make sure that we have the biggest welcome mat possible in front of our church door that says no matter what the issues are that might separate us, we want you to come and investigate a relationship with Christ?

How was this 3-part sermon series received? What kind of feedback did you get—positive, negative, people storming out? How did that go?

You never really know what's going on inside of people. I heard a pastor say once they didn't call their doctrinal position of the church "what we believe" but rather "what we teach," because he said you can't guarantee what people choose to believe even though you teach certain doctrines. Same with an issue like this. Do people have a biblical understanding of the topic now that we have taught it? Time will tell. Has there been a heart change? How do you measure heart change? How do you measure whether people are open and loving toward those who hold a different position or who come struggling in this area. I hope that we have both a biblical understanding, and that there has been a love for people in the LGBT community that has been cultivated by this.

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Jim Nicodem: