Simply Preaching

In a recent interview with Tullian Tchividjian, he recommended that young pastors learn to “Comprehend high and communicate low.”  For pastors and theologians that give their live to studying a library of complicated theological works, this can be difficult.

We’ve all experienced at some point or another being in a conversation with somebody that knows so much about something that it seems like they are talking in a foreign language.

It happens when pre-teens start talking about Minecraft.  A bunch of pre-teens gather around talking about their servers, texture packs, briefing, or something else that I really don’t understand.

Meanwhile you are standing there like, “So you build stuff?"

This happens to me whenever I get my car fixed.  The professionals know so much about cars that an ordinary person like myself cannot understand anything beyond “It is going to cost $500 because it is broke.”

As preachers, we eat, sleep, and breathe theological works.  We love to read books by guys who are dead and wrote brilliantly hundreds of years ago.  We love to listen to other preachers and understand how they proclaim the Word and find out what books they are reading and who they are learning from.

But the people we preach to aren’t in the same boat.  I’m not preaching to seminarians or professors.  I’m not preaching to theological connoisseurs who treat their preachers like tasting a fine-wine; I’m preaching to ordinary people who are looking for a sermon in a language that they can understand with a theology that matters for the life they live.

Martin Luther said it this way:

“To preach plain and simple is a great art: Christ himself talks of tilling ground, of mustard seed, etc; he uses altogether homely and similitudes.  Cursed are all preachers that in the church aim at high and hard things, and neglecting the saving health of the poor unlearned people, seek their own honor and praise…When I preach, I sink myself deep down.  I regard neither Doctors or Magistrates, of whom, are here in this church above forty; but I have my eye to the multitude of young people, children, and servants, of whome are more than 2000.  I preach to those.”  - Martin Luther

I pray that the more I learn and study theology, the harder I work to translate the truth of God’s word into the language of the people I serve.  In the words of JI Packer, my hope is that I would learn to “Feed sheep, not giraffes."

Drifting East of Eden

Our family often goes on a vacation with a number of our friends to a cottage up north.  One of the activities our families enjoy is taking the ridiculous number of kids we have and piling them onto a pontoon boat.

And then we hang out on the water.

A couple of times this ended up with our families beaching the boat at a sand bar so we could let the kids out and play.  And inevitably, because the boat was beached and not anchored, one of us would look over at the boat and see the boat was beginning to drift away.

We always caught the boat thankfully.  But what is fascinating is that the people on the boat never realized it.  They were eating, hanging out, and relaxing and drifting away from shore without every noticing.

This is how drifting works though.  It’s subtle.  It happens slowly and it’s not until somebody points it out that you even realize it is happening.  This happens on beaches all the time; you are hanging out in the water and swimming when all of the sudden you look up and realize you’ve drifted down shore without even noticing it.

The Drift Away from the Garden

In Genesis 3:24, there’s an interest observation that has significant implications for us as Christians.

“After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden a cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.”

East of the Garden.

After Adam and Eve sin, they are moved eastward.  Out of the Garden and away from God.

And then in Genesis 4, we read about a story of two brothers.  A story of a brutal murder.  And then at the end of this story, the writer makes a simple note about the murderer-brother.

“Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.”

There’s a drift that is taking place.  And Cain not only drifts eastward, but he settles there.  He puts down roots and builds a city; he makes his home in the east.  There’s this feeling in the first four chapters of Genesis and throughout the entire history of the Israelites that they are going the wrong way.

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We are all east of Eden.  We all drift eastward.

“So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. For the message God delivered through angels has always stood firm, and every violation of the law and every act of disobedience was punished. So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak?” - Hebrews 2:1-3 (NLT)

This is the tendency of the human heart, there is a slow drift away from the truth we have heard.

We see it in Adam and Eve, we see it in Cain, we see it in the Judges, and in a man like David.  All of us are blown about by the wind and the waves of this world and are pulled by the currents of our own hearts.

And Hebrews makes clear what it is that we drift away from when he says, “We ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself.”  We drift away from the promise that Jesus proclaims to us.  We move eastward and begin building cities for ourselves instead of building our lives on the finished work of Jesus.

And our eastward drift is only stopped by the promise of the cross.

The cross jumps into the middle of this mess with a message that brings us back home.  The Good News comes to us as we’ve gone eastward and re-orients us.  It curves our me-centered hearts outward.  It declares to us our sins are forgiven and jolts us out of the drift and makes sure we cannot “ignore this great salvation.”  Jesus jumps into the storm and despite the currents of our own hearts, he changes the course and brings us back home.

Vision-Casting: There Are No Vision-Less Churches

Vision.  Churches, organizations, non-profits, and even sometimes families all talk about vision.   And these conversations around vision are often, although not exclusively, helpful.  As Christians, we believe that the God is at work in this world both in the work of believers and unbelievers.  Because of this, there is a lot that we can learn about the organization of a congregation and leadership from those who have no interest or appreciation for Church.

And vision is a common business practice and strategy.  And so it is helpful consider, is vision-casting Biblical?  And if so, what should it look like in our churches?

It depends.

If your pastor seems to imply that he has some direct revelation from God that has been given to him outside of Scripture, no.  It is unbiblical and I’d be a little worried about what he might say.  But if vision-casting is nothing more than looking towards the future and stating a preferred future (which is also given and guided by God through people in their vocations), it is absolutely does not contradict what the Bible teaches.

Here is how Jim Collins defines “vision” in organizations.

Yet vision is one of the least understood-and most overused-terms in the language. Vision is simply a combination of three basic elements: (1) an organization’s fundamental reason for existence beyond just making money (often called its mission or purpose), (2) its timeless unchanging core values, and (3) huge and audacious—but ultimately achievable—aspirations for its own future

As our churches are led, they should certainly be led with this kind of vision.

But this doesn’t mean that the pastor is seeking some unique word from God where God shows up in a miraculously way telling them how to build the next mega-church.  Instead, leading a congregation with vision ultimately comes from knowing the Scripture and knowing the culture you are trying to reach.

Vision is simply aligning the congregation around a shared ideal for the sake of the people you are trying to reach.

The scriptures say, “Go and make disciples of all nations by baptizing and teaching.”  If this is the mission, the vision is how a congregation does this in their context.  The vision becomes the unique ideals that shapes that congregation, not necessarily the given Biblical commands that are required of all congregations.

Non-Christian organizations do this all the time.  Starbucks, Wal-Mart, ABC, Disney, Apple.  They all cast vision for their organization.  The CEO aligns that company around a particular idea and seeks to form the strategy and philosophy of business around that vision and mission.

And while our churches shouldn’t be run strictly like a business, there are valuable lessons we can learn from businesses, and uniting around a common vision is a lesson that is important for our congregations.

There is no such thing as a vision-less congregation.

“Vision" language might not be used.  And a vision might not even be clearly expressed, but there is some kind of vision for what that place should look like and how ministry should happen.  And if that vision is not clearly communicated, it will also be controlled by somebody other than the shepherd of that congregation.  And when that happens, the vision to not have a vision gets hijacked by somebody else’s vision to make sure the church looks like their vision.

Happy 4th Birthday!

My blog is officially 4 years old today.  After 400 of posts over the past 4 years, it has been fun to see how the blog has changed, grown, and become what it is today.  This blog wasn’t the first time I had blogged.  I had a livejournal back in the day and even blogged while I was an intern for a short season.  But four years ago, I decided to venture back into blogging.

Here was my first paragraph I wrote on rjgrune.com:

I’ve thought about blogging for a while now; I’ve struggled with the idea of why I’d do something like that, wondered if I’m arrogant to think that anyone would care what I have to think, and ultimately put my reservations aside and decided to go for it.  Since I have spent a lot of time trying to decide if I would blog, I figured I should share my thoughts going into it.

When I started blogging, I initially blogged primarily about youth ministry and technology, occasionally adding in some random theology posts.  At that point, I would’ve considered my blog primarily a youth ministry blog and also a way to promote some of my app development work.

I blogged because I wanted to, had no strategy, and slowly began to have people reading and interacting with what I wrote.

Now, four years later, this blog has grown up a little bit.  I’m still motivated by my love for writing and sharing my ideas.  And I still love the things that I have previously spent a ton of time blogging about.

The blog has matured as I have better understand what I’m blogging about.  And it has matured as the community that is involved here has grown.  This blog is all about theology for everyday life.  This shapes what I write, how I write it, and the new ideas and dreams I have for my writing.

I honestly believe that good theology is not reserved for the academics, pastors, and dead guys, but it is for the people living everyday life.  And as a leader who believes this, I do whatever I can to translate the ancient message of the Bible into the language of ordinary people.

This affects the way I write, the way I preach, and the way I talk about my faith in daily conversations.  It influences the eBooks that I share with subscribers.  And even the new podcast that I’m working on.  It’s all connected around this crazy idea that the core doctrines taught throughout scriptures should be translated into the language of ordinary people.

So this is just a way to say Happy Birthday to my own blog and to let you know, I’m going to try to keep working with this crazy idea that when ancient truths are translated into everyday language that it changes people’s lives.

In the words of the beloved Steve Jobs, “Here’s to the crazy ones.”

The Power of Words

While most of us have grown up with the rhyme, “Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will never hurt me,” we know that words have far more power than that simple childhood rhyme led us to believe.

Words have the power to create and destroy; to kill and give life.  God works through words.  In the beginning, the Word created the world and everything in it.  In our daily life, our own words have the power to create and destroy the lives of our friends, family, and coworkers.  Our words have the potential to give life or kill the life of the people around us, just as God’s own words do this in our life.

God’s word “kills us in order to make us alive.”  He speaks his word of condemnation to shatter our self-made delusions about the kind of people we think we are.  He reveals us for what we are in his sight and once we have been shattered, he reminds us of who he is.

God’s Word is made up of two words: Law and Gospel.  The Law is the Word that kills.  It kills the self-righteous, breaks the arrogant, and destroys the legalist.  The Law reveals our sin and kills us so that we might be resurrected.  The Gospel is the Word that gives life.  It rescues the person who cries, “Lord have mercy on me a sinner.”

As Christians, we are given the sacred calling to speak God’s words in the places he has placed us.  In our homes, in our families, in our neighborhoods, and in our workplaces God has called us to be people who speak his word in the unique places we have been placed.

In the words of Uncle Ben, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

We have a responsibility to use our words wisely.  Our words have the power to correct those who live licentiously and falsely believe there is no law.  And they have the power to set free those who have been enslaved by sin.

The Law will inevitably drive people to guilt and shame.  These aren’t bad feelings when they drive us to repentance.  But without the Gospel, they leave a person destroyed.

Guilt says, “I’m sorry, I did something wrong.”  Shame says, “I’m sorry, there’s something wrong with me.”  The Gospel speaks words of hope to both of these experiences.

It speaks to our guilt when it declares, “Your sins are forgiven.”  The guilt has been removed.  And it speaks to our shame, when it says, “You are not who you were.”  Our identity is found in Christ, not in our shame.  We are not only sinners, but we are also saints. And these are the words that we have the privilege to speak in our conversations, in our preaching, and in our writing.

How Do We Understand What Laws We Follow in Leviticus?

Why do Christians pick and choose which laws to follow in Leviticus?  How can someone wholeheartedly affirm one passage that says declares one sin an abomination and then flat out ignore another that forbids eating shellfish.

One of the misconceptions in understanding how to read the Bible is that people often simply say, “I read the Bible literally.”  That’s not true, even by the people who claim it.   Most of the people who might say something like that actually don’t literally believe that the poetic language of Psalms should be taken literally.  Or when Jesus claims “I am the gate,” believes that Jesus is literally a fence that opens and closes.

A better description for the proper way to read the Bible is: read the Bible as it was literally intended to be read. This means that some books are intended to be read as history, others are intended to be read as poetry, others as apocalyptic and so on.  When we read the bible we have to consider, who wrote the book and what was the author’s intention behind what we read.

So how’s this translate to the book of Leviticus?

The book of Leviticus is a book full of laws.  And as we read the book of Leviticus it is important to understand how we should understand the book we are reading.  Because the book is full of so many laws we have to consider, should we be following these laws?  And if not, why don’t we follow them?

When you read the book of Leviticus you cannot automatically assume that every law you read still applies today.

But at the same time you cannot automatically ignore every law that is found in the book of Leiviticus.

You have to discern, is this a law that was for a particular time and place or was it timeless?

The 3 Types of Laws in Leviticus

1) Ceremonial

The ceremonial law was given to the nation of Israel for a particular purpose.  These are the laws that were given to the nation of Israel for the purpose of separating them from their Gentile neighbors.  These laws are for a specific nation, at a specific time, and for a specific purpose.

And so for the sake of separating Israelites from the Gentiles, you will read about laws like dietary regulations (don’t eat shell fish) and other regulations of cleanliness. These laws are not meant for all people or all times.

2) Civil

The civil law, like the ceremonial law, was given to the nation of Israel in their particular culture.  The civil law had a different purpose than the ceremonial, but like the ceremonial it was not meant for all people or all times.

The civil laws were the laws given to the nation of Israel for managing the civil affairs of the people. It gave laws that suggested how to run business, punishment for crimes, and even the treatment of slaves. These laws do not apply to us in our culture.

3) Moral

The moral law is unlike the other 2 types in that the moral law is not to a particular culture or for a particular time period.  The moral law can also be described as the natural law.  This isn’t because it is natural to obey the law, but because it is the way God created the natural world to function.

The moral law is timeless.  It exists before, during, and after the culture in which it was given.

For example, murder.  When did murder become a sin?  When Cain killed Abel, there was no commandment against murder.  But it was still wrong.

Why?  How can something be a law without having been given as a law?  Murder, I would suggest, is a part of the moral law.  It existed even before the giving of the ten commandments and is still important in our day and age.

This is why we often place such high importance on the Ten Commandments as Christians.  It’s not because the list of 10 is more important because it’s from the book of Exodus instead of Leivitucs.  It’s simply because it is the best summary of the moral law.  These are laws that are timeless and that we should hold dearly.

And so with laws in Leviticus, we must consider what kind of law is this?

Criticism Sucks: Don't Listen to the Haters

Criticism sucks.

And based on my experience, criticism tends to happen whenever something goes well.  You preach a sermon you love, you get the deal you’v been waiting for, you write a blog post that blows up… and then somebody decides to rail you for it.  Anytime you share your work with the world, you run the risk of being criticized.  As I’ve preached and written many different times and plan to keep doing so, I’ve come to expect that this will inevitably happen to me.

But even when you expect it, it still sucks.

Because even when you get 100 compliments, the 1 complaint is much louder. A while ago after receiving some criticism, I was reminded of an important truth that I often like to share with others.

You are not what you do.

Criticism stings because we take it personally.  And that really can’t be avoided.  But what makes the criticism sting so much?  Because when somebody criticizes my work, no matter how much I don’t like what is said I will still replay it over and over again in my head.  And no matter what someone else might say to counter the criticism, I often believe something about myself based on what someone says about me.

Criticism hurts because of what we believe about ourselves.

We believe that we are what we do.

When somebody criticizes my preaching, it is a statement about who I am.  When somebody doesn’t like my writing, it is a statement about who I am.  I attach my identity to the work that I do.

But what if I didn’t find my identity in what I did?

The more and more you deal with haters, the more and more you need to remind yourself of the truth of the Gospel.  Your identity is found in Christ Jesus and it has nothing to do with what other people say about you.  Your identity is not found in the words of the haters.  And, lest you get a false sense of self-worth, your identity is also not found in the words of your fans.  Your identity is found in the person and work of Jesus.  People might hate you, they might think your art is terrible, and they might even label you a heretic, but you are God’s child because of Jesus.

And believing that might change the way you hear criticism.  And in the least, it will remind you of what you need to hear when the volume of the critics begins to drown out the truth of the Gospel.

Comforting Bible Verses for Times of Death

If you are anything like me, tragedy causes you to question everything you say to the people you care about.  You question whether or not to say anything at all.  In order to help myself in these situations, I’ve decided to think about it ahead of time and write down some bible verses that are helpful for a variety of difficult situations in which I want to be careful no to say something stupid.

Now, doing this, remember that even when you are nervous about what to say, your presence speaks loudly.  Be present for the people you love even when you don’t have the words to say.

But given that you are like me and you want to know what places to point people to in these moments, I thought it would be helpful to consider what we can say when someone dies.

Scriptures that are comforting when someone dies:

Psalm 23, which speaks to the God who walks with us and cares for us even in the darkest valleys and in the shadows of even death itself.

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.  He makes me lie down in green pastures,he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.  Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me;your rod and your staff, they comfort me.  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.  Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Isaiah 25:6-9, which speaks to the important reality that death doesn’t get the last laugh.  Death stings, but it doesn’t win.

On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples,a banquet of aged wine— the best of meats and the finest of wines.  On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples,the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever.The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces;he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth.The Lord has spoken.9 In that day they will say, “Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us.This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”

John 11:35, which is the shortest verse in the Bible and reminds us that in our moments of grief, Jesus grieves with us.

Jesus wept.

Romans 8:31-35, 37-39, which speaks to God being on our side.  While death and the devil are raging war against us, God is for us.  While we suffer and are in pain, we can be reminded that God is fighting for us and nothing is going to stop him.

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us…No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Death is always hard.  And often more important than being able to remember these scriptures is going to be you being present in the lives of the people you love.  As Christians, we can put our hope that death is not the end.  And because of that, while we might hurt, we also can hope.

A teacher of mine once suggested about death that, “Resurrection makes dying hard.”

This might be a bit odd at first glance, but consider it.  The fact that Jesus rises from the dead and the fact that we are promised a resurrection proves that death is not the way God intended things to work.  And so while we have the hope of eternal life that comes with dying, dying is still hard.  And it’s hard because it’s not the way God intended for this to work.  Death isn’t just an escape from the awful, worldly life.

Death is the enemy and it still stings, but it doesn’t win.

More Than a Piece of Paper

In our world it is easy to see marriage as nothing more than a piece of paper.  But marriage is about more than a simple, legal binding between two parties.  It is about two people before God, their family, and their friends making a promise.

This isn’t about negotiating a contract.

It’s not about scoring the better end of the deal.  It’s not about making sure your benefits outweigh the costs.  It’s not about making sure that you’ve made out better than the other person.  This is not about being a consumer seeking a good bargain.

Our world loves bargains and business deals.  But marriage is not one of them.

Marriage is about two people making vows.  It’s a promise to one another and a promise to God.

This promise between a husband and a wife actually reflects the promise that God himself makes to his Church.  Paul describes this in Ephesians 5 when he says, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”  This is the promise we see kept by God.  Jesus Christ sacrifices his life for us despite our unfaithfulness.

Imagine that kind of promise.  An unconditional, faithful, and forever love.

Although we’ve sinned, although we’ve fallen short, and although we do not deserve it - Jesus continues to love us.  He gives up everything so that we might have everything.  He makes us holy and clean.  And in marriage, we reflect this same promise.  If it were a contract, it would be about negotiating terms.  But instead this is a covenant; it’s about making a vow.  A vow to give sacrificially, to serve humbly, and love unconditionally just as Jesus himself did for every one of us.

Contracts are about the piece of paper.  Contracts are about the legal agreement.  Contracts are about what you can get from the other person.  But this isn’t about the paper, it’s about vows.

But marriage is a promise that says, “I’m binding my life to yours forever.”

Marriage isn’t about a contract, it’s about a promise.  The marriage part matters not because the piece of paper matters, but because in the promise to be a spouse, there’s a commitment that fulfill God’s calling to love and serve each other in your marriage.

In marriage we have a joining of two people that cannot be separated.  In marriage, two are bound together.  They are glued to one another for life.  Sickness, tragedy, trials, and pain - none of these can separate the couple that has committed themselves to each other “till death do us part.”

You’ll notice this same language reflected when describing God’s relationship with us:

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  - Romans 8:38-39

No change in feelings, no loss of job, or no tragedy can separate the two that have been joined together.  In marriage, we commit that even when the passion fades, the promise will always remain.

Ideas Are Cheap. Teams Take Work.

Ideas are cheap.

Anybody can come up with a great idea, but executing that idea is a different endeavor.  There was a season that I spent some time making some iPhone apps; one of the common occurrence during that season was a ridiculous number of people would tell me they had a brilliant app idea but they just needed somebody to help them with the app.

And I was not interested.

Because ideas are a dime a dozen.  Anybody can come up with ideas.  But executing that idea is hard work.

There’s something far more important than the brilliant idea that you wait up all not far.  And that something doesn’t happen randomly when you are on a walk or in the shower, but it happens by hard work with time.

So what’s more important than a great idea?

A great team.

"A mediocre team will screw up a good idea.  But if you give a mediocre idea to a great team and let them work together, they'll find a way to succeed." - Catmull from Pixar, p.149

Jim Collins, author of Good to Great suggested,

"Most people assume that great bus drivers (read: business leaders) immediately start the journey by announcing to the people on the bus where they're going—by setting a new direction or by articulating a fresh corporate vision.

In fact, leaders of companies that go from good to great start not with “where” but with “who.” They start by getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats. And they stick with that discipline—first the people, then the direction—no matter how dire the circumstances.”

Whether you are leading a ministry, a team of volunteers, or a large organization, this is an important understanding.  The team is more important than the idea.  If you have the right people doing the right things, they can take an idea and turn it into a product or an event.  If you have the right people in the right places on the bus, they can take a problem and figure out the best solution.

The right people are always more important than the idea.

This is why so often people with their grandiose new business plans don’t succeed.  Because they have a great idea, but they have no skills or people to execute their idea.

In ministry it is often easy to focus on the next idea.  What’s the next event?  The new program?  The retreat coming up?  Or the new sermon series that needs to be designed?  And while all of those things are certainly important, what is more important is the team that works on those things together.  The team has to learn to enjoy each other, support each other, and make each other better if they are going to execute their ideas more effectively.

Perhaps the best thing you could do for your ministry is put your ideas on hold for a season and focus on the team.  Build your trust, find your roles, and learn to work together.

What's your worship style?

Imagine the disciples if they were encountered with a discussion of “worship styles.”  I can only imagine their reaction to somebody suggesting they prefer contemporary worship or traditional worship as being, “Huh?”  Or consider their confusion when worship is a genre of music and not what one does with all of their life.

There are only two styles of worship - true worship and false worship.

“The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” - John 4:23-24

Despite our best efforts to categorize worship into hundreds of categories, there is really only two.  It’s either the worship of God or the worship of something else.  Contemporary, traditional, contemplative, experiential, post-modern, liturgical, confessional, attractional, missional, contemporvant…

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The same confusion continues when worship is an adjective to describe something.  Worship music, worship album, worship artist.  Is there a kind of album that is not worship?  After all the person creating the music, album, or art had to be worshipping something.

So what is true worship?

Jesus suggests true worshippers worship the Father "in spirit and in truth."

What does this mean?

Worship is always about receiving and responding.  This is true of our gatherings when we worship corporately.  This is true of our lives as we worship in our vocations.  A worshipper is a worshipper because of what they’ve received.

This is why it is so important that we worship “in spirit.”

This isn’t suggesting that our worship must be emotional (although that is not necessarily bad), it is suggesting that we approach God in worship by faith which is given to us from the Holy Spirit.

We can call God Father because of the work of the Spirit which puts faith in the person and work of the Son.  In other words, the Spirit clings to the truth.  The Spirit teaches us the truth about ourselves and the truth about our God.

We are faced with the harsh reality that we have nothing to offer when we come in worship as we are exposed to our sin. And the Spirit also reveals to us the truth about our Savior.  This is the very truth we hear and we sing and we read as worshippers.

So what style of worship do I prefer?

I prefer true worship.  The one that receives all that God gives to me.  The one that receives what God promises to deliver in his Word. And the one that responds in faith to that truth with all of life.  Worship that is not just about the singing, but certainly embraces it.  Worship that is not just about a gathering on a weekend, but certainly sees the importance of it.  Worship, instead, is about the totality of life as it flows out of an understanding of who we are and who God is.

Worship is about receiving and responding.  It receive from God the gifts that only he can give to us in the ways that he promises to give them to us.  It receives these gifts by faith in the promise of God.  And it responds to this with all of life.  Our work life, our home life, our neighborhood, and our church life… all lived in response to what we have received from God.

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” - Romans 12:1

A Cheater's Guide to Preaching Without Notes

As a preacher, one of the most valuable tools that I find in preaching, is preaching without notes.  The idea of preaching without notes is one that I’ve loved whenever I’ve seen it done.  But the idea of doing it is quite frightening.  It is extremely nerve-wrecking to consider standing in front of a congregation without your trusty notes to guide you through.

As I’ve begun preaching regularly for our entire congregation, I’ve tried to make it a regular practice do preach without notes.

Why?

If I can’t remember what I’m talking about, how will the congregation be able to remember what I said?  Years ago, I listened to a preacher talking about communication and he suggested that giving a sermon should be like talking about your own family.  What he was suggesting is that a sermon should be something that is so deep within you that it doesn’t feel like your reading from a script or a page of notes.

Some Tricks to Help You Preach without Notes:

1. Practice, practice, practice.

One of the best ways to diminish the need for notes is by practicing.  When I preach, I practice a ton of times, each time reducing the amount of notes that I use when practicing.  When I start practicing on Tuesday, I might be at about 6 or 7 pages of notes.  Each day this gets significantly reduced so that finally by the end of the week I hardly need 1 page of notes.

Now, I get it, some people suggest that they really don’t like to practice.  But nobody likes to practice.

But it helps.  And while it might seem unnatural to practice your sermon out-loud, it will probably make it much more natural when you actually deliver the sermon.

2. You can still use notes.

One of the tricks I learned about preaching without notes is that I can still have notes.  I just keep them hidden and have them to fall back on if necessary.  Because of the practice I really don’t need the notes much, but I do have them and can strategically use them when we open up and read the Bible.

Throughout the week when I am practicing my sermon, I also use that time to get my notes down to a single sheet of paper.  I end up making that paper into two columns so that I can have a single sheet of notes that can be laminated and fit within the pages of my Bible while I’m preaching.

I use the notes as a bookmark and will occasionally reference it if need be.

Download a copy of notes I've used in a sermon.

3. Think in chunks.

As I reduce my notes, what I’ve learned is I have to think in chunks for my sermon.  This means I have an idea for what I want to communicate but I also need to have a way to reference that idea enough in my notes so that its short.  A friend of mine suggested that one way of looking at these chunks would be like doors to a room.  Think of your sermon as a house that you want to explore.  The chunks are simply the doors into the rooms.  You need the doors to help you remember where you are going, but once you have the door you then can open it up and start showing people around.

Reclaiming the Word Evangelical

The word “evangelical" gets a bad rap.  It’s used to describe political agendas, a style of worship, or perhaps even a backhanded way to call someone a fundamentalist, a legalist, or out-of-touch with our current world.  It’s ironic that a word which is derived from “Gospel” or “Good News” can so easily send people running.  If an “evangelical” is really one who clings to the message of Christ’s death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins, then evangelicals should be a group of people you'd like to be around.

But there's a reason why Rob Bell when pressed about his identification with the word evangelical once  responded, “If An evangelical is somebody who, when they leave the room, you feel better because you heard the good news [from them], then yes.”  Because this is not what people typically think of when they think of the word evangelical.  And while I certainly don’t agree with Rob on a lot of issues, he accurately perceives that most people don’t think Good News and Evangelicals belong in the same sentence.

There was a time when the word evangelical was used to describe the distinction from the catholic church.

“[Evangelicals] were also the first to emphasize the Gospel to such an extent that it became central to every level of their doctrine and practice.  This evangelical focus, made over against medieval Catholicism, opened the door to every other Protestant expression that came later.”  - Gene Veith

What Kind of Evangelicals Do We Need?

We need to evangelicals who are about emphasizing God’s words - we are sinners in need of a savior and Christ declares that “It is finished."  It’s not about political agendas or styles, but the centrality of the Gospel to every doctrine and practice of the church.

It’s interesting to note that even Luther himself didn’t want to call himself Lutheran but instead evangelical.

Christians have always been people who are about the message of the Gospel.  In the New Testament, in the early church, in the middle ages, and in the days of the reformation - it has always been about the Gospel.

"For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. - 1 Corinthians 15:3-8

There was a group of people who witnessed the death and resurrection of Jesus.  They saw him alive after he had died.  And then they pass on that message as it is “of first importance.”

We have that same message.  A promise that sins are forgiven.  A promise that death has been defeated. A promise that you are made new.  A promise that Christ was victorious.  A promise that is good news for all people.  A message that is the most important message around.

This message is what makes an evangelical.

Evangelicals are those who seek to see the Gospel reach a dying, dark world.

"There is no saving doctrine except the Gospel; everything else is night and darkness." -Luther

This message is Good News.  It is not news that you need to earn.  It’s not news that gets you votes.  It’s not news that gives to you exactly what it promises, the forgiveness of sins by faith in the finished work of Jesus.

I am an evangelical.

And It’s not because of a political stance.  It’s not because of a style of music or the preachers or books I read.  It’s because what we have received I want to pass on as the most important message of all.

How to Speak the Language of the Culture

We are missionaries in our world.  We have been sent with the promise of the Gospel to our broken world and are called to go into our neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces with the message of the Gospel.  When a missionary enters into a foreign country, he must become a student of that foreign culture.  The missionary must study the culture before he ever enters the country, he must learn their customs, their language, their dress, the people of influence, and even their social behaviors.

In missions what often happens for missionaries is that there is a level of excitement when entering the new culture that they have studied.  But then not long after the initial excitement about the new mission work, reality sets in.

The realization dawns that this is now our home. Here our children will grow up as natives. And we must become one with these people with their unintelligible tongues and foreign ways before we can effectively share with them the Good News of the gospel. - Paul G. Hiebert. Anthropological Insights for Missionaries

In order to effectively share the message of the Gospel, the missionary has to become a part of the culture.  They have to become a native.

The missionary needs to speak the language of the people.

A missionary is a translater.  They translate the truth of the scripture into the language of the people.  Whether that language be spanish, arabic, or english, missionaries are finding ways to translate the ancient truth into something that people can understand.  In our culture, there is no shortage of people who haven’t heard the message of the Gospel.

The job of the missionary is to translate the Gospel message into the language of these people.

Speak it in a language they can hear, understand, and apply.

The missionary needs to be one of the people.

Knowing the right words isn’t enough.  You can’t just know the language, you have to have the accent.  When tourists show up in town, all the locals can spot them a mile away.  They don’t look the same, they don’t talk the same, and the things they are interested in are completely different.

The tourist stage ends when we move from being outside visitors to becoming cultural insiders. This takes place when we establish our own homes, take responsibility for ourselves, and start making a contribution to the local community. - Paul G. Hiebert. Anthropological Insights for Missionaries

This isn’t to say that you have to agree with everything in the culture of the people you are trying to reach.

But it means that reaching the people in your culture is going to require more than dressing the part and learning some illustrations that prove you are culturally-savy.  The missionary can’t just drop in with a mega-phone and start saying all the right words, the missionary needs time and relationships.  The missionary needs to earn the right to be heard - a right that only comes through loving relationships with the people they are trying to reach.

What are the best leadership books?

Leaders are learners.  And learning means listening to teachers, reading books and articles, and practicing new learnings.  As a ministry leader, one of the topics that I love to read about is the subject of leadership.  Because I love to read these types of books and think that other leaders should also be reading, here is a list of my favorite leadership books.  They are in no particular order, just 20 leadership books that came to mind.

Top 20 Leadership Books

1. Good to Great by Jim Collins

2. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

3. Linchpin by Seth Godin

4. Rework by Jason Fried

5. Start with Why by Simon Sinek

6. Go, Put Your Strengths to Work by Marcus Buckingham

7. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath

8. StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath

9. Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin

10. A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink

11. The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni

12. Great by Choice by Jim Collins

13. Choosing to Cheat by Andy Stanley

14. Church Unique by Will Mancini

15. Purple Cow by Seth Godin

16. Deep and Wide by Andy Stanley

17. The War of Art by Steve Pressfield

18. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

19. Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon

20. The Accidental Creative by Todd Henry