Preaching For Dummies Volume 1

 We have wrung out all that we can get out of our conference. We had our last missionary pastor preach for us last night. Listening to him it made me wonder how we could better train our pioneer pastors to be better preachers. There are basics to preaching. It's not all about being excited and enthused. It means being focused and aimed towards something.

Some guys preach like they are swatting mosquitoes. They are all over the place and never hit anything. They do not follow an outline and they seem to have no notes to preach off of. They say whatever crosses their minds at the spur of a moment. They preach like the people in the audience are illiterate.

I cannot tell you how to make a bad sermon better. But I can tell the difference between and good sermon and a mediocre one. One common issue is they talk too long on point one and when they say my second point it sounds like it will be an hour long message. Point three of a three point sermon ought to be the high point or the climax to your message. Save the best until last. Point one sets the table. It is not the main course.

Preaching is public speaking. You can learn and get better if you try. If you aim at nothing it is sure that is what you will hit. Nothing. You have to talk in a way that people want to hear what you have to say.

"Now therefore, we are all present before God, to hear all the things commanded you by God." Acts 10:33

We are all ready to hear. Do you have anything worthwhile to say?

Built On A Solid Rock

 There will never be another Baby Boom generation. The factors that had to be in place for that to happen may never happen again. Society has moved on from those old ideas and old practices. Just like the post-war economy, the baby boom is relegated to history.

Speaking of the economy, the economic boom that produced the middle class is over and has been over for a long time. There is still an economy. There still is big business. They still build subdivisions. But the time when a single earner could support a wife and three children is s relic of the past. The time when a factory worker could send his kids to college is over.

Since kids today are not getting married or even having sex, is it safe to say that family structure has changed dramatically. Women have become corporate nuns, devoted to the corporation. Men have become stoics, with their emotions under control. This is a world wide phenomenon. We run the risk of running out of babies, and therefore the next generation of people to carry on the dream.

The only thing that hasn't changed is the church. Not progressive churches. But our churches. We still preach the Gospel. We still hold to the Bible as God's word. We still shine as a light in the world. We still hold to the faith once delivered to the saints of old.

So if your world has changed or if your world is falling apart, try our world. Our world is built on the solid rock of Jesus Christ. Before you throw your life away, give it to Jesus. He is the answer.

A Crazy Idea

 Charlie Kirk is reported to have said this. "If Christians don't get involved in politics, politics will erase their right to be Christians."

This sounds more like a scare tactic than a call to arms or a challenge to get involved. But, can I tell you a secret? Faith does not depend on the political climate of a nation. If tomorrow I woke up and following Jesus Christ was illegal, would I backslide and deny the faith? Would I denounce Christ to save my life? Would you?

Charlie Kirk got this all wrong. There are still more with us than there are with them. We are more than conquerors through Christ.

The only thing that pastor Mitchell used to say is do your civic duty and vote. I agree and I do.

Our Mega Church Problem

 Remember when we used to criticize mega church pastors? How you would never be able to talk to them in person. How they were not available for counseling. How they were too big and too busy to just be a local church pastor. They were celebrities and in demand to a wider audience. Yes, we used to criticize mega church pastors. And rightly so.

I used to wonder about celebrity pastors who were on the radio way back when. They had churches and they had supporters. But they were authors and they made films and their interests were far beyond their local churches.

In our Fellowship we have our own issues with big church pastors. They are in demand around the world. They spend a lot of time traveling. They are not on TV or even the radio and seem to have no interest in mass media exposure. But they are hard to get ahold of and they are too busy to take an interest in what goes on at home. Sometimes they become a bottleneck when every decision has to go through them and they aren't here.

We are at a place in our history where we need to find the balance between the needs of the Fellowship and the needs of the local church. We leave the work of discipleship up to the assistant pastors. Counseling is done by the associate pastors. We never know if you will even be preaching on Sunday morning.

I hope that our Fellowship can survive the needs of the big church pastors who sometimes need to be in two places at once. Without them we would not be here. Can we thrive without them going forward?

A Tale Of Ten Virgins

 "Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish." Mat.25:2

Tonight the missionary who preached talked about the five foolish virgins. He talked about them as though they were unsaved or backslidden. I wonder.

First, they were all virgins.

Second, they were all there to meet the bridegroom.

Third, they all had lamps.

Fourth, they all had oil.

Fifth, they all responded to the midnight cry.

Sixth, they all arose and trimmed their lamps.

Finally, it is at this time that we first notice a difference. 

The only difference between the virgins is that five are called wise, and five are called foolish. The word foolish in the original language means foolish. Wise is just the opposite of foolish. So the wise virgins had prepared by bringing extra oil. The foolish virgins did not bring extra oil. Did they not know they would need more oil? Did they think that they had enough oil? Were they evil for not bringing enough oil? They were foolish for not being prepared.

My thought is that the foolish virgins were stupid and did not have enough sense to prepare for an uncertain night of waiting. Or, they were careless and failed to account for how much oil they might need. The wise virgins did think about it and they were prepared. The wise virgins took it seriously.

One thing that I wonder about is that time elapses in the story. This did not happen all at once. Waiting can make us careless.

 Another truth is that opportunities can have time limits. Being ready but too late is as bad as not being ready at all. Once a door is closed that opportunity is gone forever. 

Finally, Jesus ends the parable by telling them to be ready for the second coming of Christ.

"Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of man is coming." v.13

I suppose that there could be a salvation aspect to this story. There comes a time when the time to get saved is gone forever. The time is right up until the time is over. Now is the time to take Jesus seriously.

The Buck Stops Where?

 It's never the teacher's problem when children don't do well in school. It's poverty or poor attendance or phones. Never the teacher's inability to teach. It's never the bosses fault for poor performance on the job. It's the worker's fault. It's the economy's fault. It's the market's fault. Never poor management. It's never the manager's fault when a ballplayer is doing poorly. It's the player. It's his poor work habits. Never the manager.

I wonder how many pastors blame the lack of revival on the people in the pews?  It's the people's fault that nothing is happening. It's God's fault nothing is happening. It's never the pastor's fault.

President Harry Truman is reported to have said that the buck stops here. I think that 99.9% of the time the first place to look for answers is in the leader. The person directly responsible for the performance of the children or the people directly under them. 

It's a poor workman who blames his tools. It's a poor leader who blames those he or she is leading.

Captain Obvious Checking In Again

Captain Obvious checking in again.  It seems obvious to me that conference and regular church services are not the same thing. One is highly specialized to minister to pastors and evangelists and missionaries. The other is more wide ranging to minister to the flock of God involving all ages and types of people. One is to keep ministers on track. The other is to care for the regular folks who will never be in the ministry. 

It may come as a surprise to you that a sermon that works in church is too weak for conference. But a conference sermon can often be too strong for church. "The soup is never eaten as hot as it is cooked" is how the old German proverb says it. It is a sign of maturity for a preacher to know the difference.

Can I tell you a secret? There is a time and a season to life. We think that because we can buy strawberries in the supermarket that they must be in season. They are in season somewhere, but not here. We think that because a new church is experiencing explosive growth that God is moving. So that if we are not seeing explosive growth that revival is over. Don't write Ichabod too soon. It may not be a season for explosive growth now. This is where we walk by faith and endure to the end.

Preaching conference sermons works in a conference setting but it doesn't work on Sunday morning. Just saying.

This is Captain Obvious, signing off.