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 

PLEASING THE RIGHT PERSON

BY STEVE DUNN

Early in my pastoral ministry, one of my elders gave me a tremendous gift.  It was the gift of honesty. It was early in my ministry at an urban-suburban church that I really was in love with.  The people there had struggled with pastoral leadership that had changed too frequently and I was following someone they had fired. They seemed to really like me and were enthusiastic about my preaching.  Each week after worship I would stand at the door greeting them warmly and receiving their compliments.

But one Sunday, Bob, the elder, lingered in the narthex until everyone had departed.  Then he approached me.  "Pastor, I feel I need to say something."  Bob was always very supportive and had blessed me with consistent affirmation and good counsel.  "Sure, Bob."

The smile left his face and he said to me, "Pastor, I have watched you and I perceive you are a people pleaser."

Talk about being hit with a ton of bricks.  I knew that was not a compliment.

Bob continued.  "Each Sunday I listen to you preach and then I watch as people greet you at the door.  You thrive on their compliments.  Your smile grows larger and larger and you enthusiasm multiplies.  You love what they are saying to you.  You love it when they say 'Great sermon,' 'Loved the message," "I really enjoy your preaching."

I nodded my assent.

"Did you ever think that  maybe that's not a good thing?  That maybe some people should shake your hand quietly but avoid looking you in the eye?  That some should even appear unhappy or angry when they leave?" 

I had not.

"Each Sunday you have people in those pews who are being disobedient to God, who are sinning and are comfortable with it, who are behaving badly, ignoring the truth. If you are really telling them what God needs for them to hear--you should be disturbing them, making them uncomfortable, reminding them of their sin--the sin they are denying."

I thanked him.  It was the best advise I had every received.  When I enter the pulpit I am speaking on behalf of God.  I am delivering his message.  I don't need to be needlessly offensive but I need to be concerned that my message pleases God--not the person listening to it.

Who are you trying to please when you preach?

© 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 

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.

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.

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.

FORMER SINNER OR CHIEF REPENTER?

Former Sinner or Chief Repenter?

This post is from the archives of Dan Masshardt's reflective blog CHOOSE TODAY (a blog often filled with provocative questions).  This topic is worth reflection as you prepare to preach and teach -- as you presume to preach or teach. - Steve
 
Which are you?

Most of the time our sins and shortcomings are evident to everyone else, yet we are still reluctant to confess them to others.

As Christians, and Christian leaders and pastors in particular, we need to confess sin – not everything to everybody, but probably everything to somebody and something to almost everybody. (Did you catch that? :-)

People need to know that we too have temptations and weaknesses. They can become sin.

I’m not very sensitive to others feelings. Sometimes I am selfish and want my own way or I just want to do what I want to do (not activities that are sinful, but the attitude is).

I’m tempted to want to impress people, to compare myself to others. Sometimes (this is bad) I don’t mind when other people fail.

Sometimes I’m amazed at how sinful I can be. As time goes on, we realize that sin goes deeper than we thought. Not only our outward actions, but our thoughts and motivations.

My point? I’m in radical need of God’s grace, not just yesterday but today and tomorrow.

That’s confession. But we also need repentance. Do you want to change? Do you hate your sin? I hate my sin – and God is working on me and in me.

Maybe what’s preventing you from the intimacy with God that you seek is a failure to acknowledge your own sin.

So, do you portray yourself as a ‘former sinner’ or lead by example in being chief repenter?