CRITICAL PREACHERS

 by Stephen Dunn

Over the years I have found that one of the most difficult audiences for a preacher is an audience full of preachers.  Particularly early in ministry I always felt that I was being analyzed and/or critiqued.  The analysis wasn't necessarily critical.  "Is this an illustration I can use?"  "How could I have handled this text in a way that follows with theological persuasion?"  These are questions that preachers, who communicate for a living, find it hard not to ask.  It is a way of improving themselves.

But sometimes preachers are simply critiquing their brothers and sisters.  Very early in my ministry my denominational exec sent me to preach in the pulpit of a local pastor who thought the denomination was too liberal.  He who used that perception to justify teaching a doctrine that was contrary to teaching of the church from which he had been ordained and in his ordination pledge he had promised to defend.  When I got done his comment/compliment was "good doctrine."  I had to ask myself was this actually a compliment, or had I given him justification to continue to ignore the clear teaching of the church.

Such critiquing is rarely motivated out of love for Christ and His Church. Such critiquing also tends to make us poor worshipers and poor hearers of the Word because we do not come to the sermon with the intention of seeking to hear God's word to us.  We come because we are preachers and when we're not preaching we're just there for show instead of sanctification.

Beware of the critiquing spirit captures many a preacher's mind when listening to another preacher preaching. We just might miss the truth God wants to reveal to us when we're not so busy preaching.

TIM KELLER ON WHAT THE BIBLE IS REALLY ABOUT

THE VBS VALEDICTORIAN

If this doesn't inspire you to be a proclaimer .....  Wait til she gets to 3:30 when she really gets into the message

HOW TO KNOW WHEN TO SAY "NO" TO SEEMINGLY GOOD THINGS

How to Know When to Say No to Seemingly Good Things

by Ron Edmonson

Age and maturity has helped me improve at discerning what I can do and should do based on my strengths, weaknesses, passions and dreams. It’s freeing when we become more certain in who God has wired us to be and who He has not.

Still, I’ve learned (through many different seasons) that there are often more opportunities than time in life…even God-honoring, seemingly good opportunities. Recently, I have had to say no to some great opportunities. These were things that I would have clearly thought had to be “God appointed”, but as much as they line with my strengths, passions, and dreams I have for my life, I said “no” to them.

How do you know when to say no to what looks like a good thing…perhaps initially even like a “God thing”?

Here are four things I look for in examining my heart before responding. I say no when:

The decision conflicts with the personal vision God has placed on my heart during this season of my life. I do not believe I’m called to a place as much as I’m called to a Person…through my relationship with Jesus Christ. There are seasons of life, however, where I know He has positioned me in a place “for such a time as this”. I’m in that place now.

My heart doesn’t line up with this decision…I can get no “peace” about saying “yes”. This requires consistent prayer and wrestling with the decision, but the more I practice this discipline the more confident I become in sensing God’s specific will for my life.

When the calling of God on my life says no. This is the overall call on my life rather than a situational decision. For example, I recently had an opportunity presented which would have taken me completely away from church planting, but I know that God has a call on my life to be involved in planting churches at some level.

When my personal strengths and interests don’t match the opportunity and I don’t sense an urgency from God. I have learned that situational or physical limitations aren’t a factor if God is in the mix. He can part waters if they are in the way, so I can do things outside of my strengths, but in my life God does seem to usually work within the experiences and gifting He has granted me. Why would He waste the investments He has made in me? Therefore, apart from a sense that God is challenging me in a direction outside my gifting, I can rest within the place where He has been preparing me.

SHARING YOUR STORY AND GOD'S STORY

Preaching to the postmodern mind involves learning the importance of story. It particularly focuses on learning to tell your story as part of God's BIG STORY.  A person called to proclaim understands the dynamics of story and how to multiply the influence of your story.  This video gives some helpful insights.

NO OTHER FOUNDATION

“I recognized that by itself, without God at its foundation, ministry is utterly futile. Without remaining resolved in steadfast surrender to God, ministers living for the ministry will either leave the ministry, or, what’s worse, the ministry will leave them.”

–Burk Parsons, “Resolved by the Grace of God”

THE PASTOR AND JOB SATISFACTION

This comes by way of Monday Morning Insights

The Pastor and Job Satisfaction

I received an email this morning from a friend passing on an old article written by Eugene Peterson. This first appeared almost ten years ago in Leadership Journal, but its insight and advice is great for a day just like today. Peterson writes…

"Being a pastor who satisfies a congregation is one of the easiest jobs on the face of the earth?if we are satisfied with satisfying congregations. The hours are good, the pay is adequate, the prestige considerable. Why don’t we find it easy? Why aren’t we content with it?…

Because we set out to do something quite different. We set out to risk our lives in a venture of faith. We committed ourselves to a life of holiness. At some point we realized the immensity of God and of the great invisibles that socket into our arms and legs, into bread and wine, into our brains and our tools, into mountains and rivers, giving them meaning, destiny, value, joy, beauty, salvation. We responded to a call to convey these realities in Word and sacrament. We offered ourselves to give leadership that connects and coordinates what the people in this community of faith are doing in their work and play with what God is doing in mercy and grace.

In the process, we learned the difference between a profession, a craft, and a job. 

A job is what we do to complete an assignment. Its primary requirement is that we give satisfaction to whomever makes the assignment and pays our wage. We learn what is expected, and we do it. There is nothing wrong with doing jobs. To some extent, we all have them; somebody has to wash the dishes and take out the garbage. 

But professions and crafts are different. In these, we have an obligation beyond pleasing somebody. We are pursuing or shaping the very nature of reality, convinced that when we carry out our commitments, we benefit people at a far deeper level than if we simply did what they asked of us."

 In a interview in Vision Magazine, Bob Coy, the senior Pastor of Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale tells of when he was about ready to quit his church plant after two years because not much seemed to be happening. Bob said he called one of the people that was overseeing him and said, "Here's what's happening: I have only 40 or 50 people attending, it's been two years here, I am not appreciated or respected for what I have accomplished, and I'm thinking about going back to Las Vegas." The person on the other end of the phone asked him, "Well, do you not want to be there?" Bob's reply was, "Well, ministry is becoming a burden." The response back in his ear was, "If it's a burden, then you need to leave. Representing the work God has given you as a burden is not the Lord; His burden is light. I think you ought to leave. There are some college students here that would love and care for those people." Bob said that this was not really what he was expecting to hear, and it caused him to get a little 'fiesty' in heart. Bob said he thought to himself, "No young college student is going to come here and care for these people. These are my sheep and I'm gonna love them."

Bob Coy continues, "It was a strange thing, because what happened was God was testing me to find out where my heart was at. Was I just looking for a big thing? Was I just looking for the success of a ministry or did I really care about sheep? The beauty of that was that I came back to church the following week, I think, a different man, and I cared more about discipleship, more about love, and cared about taking these people and really investing in their lives." Bob was able to change his mindset from having a 'job' to having a 'profession'.

Where are you at today? Have you had a similar experience (moving from a 'job' to a 'profession')?