I still remember the first time I heard Phillip Jensen preach. It was in February 1981, and I was a fresh-faced, charismatically-inclined young Christian, just down from the country, eager to learn and grow, and ready to take on the world.
Category Archives: Preaching
The unhelpful solitude of preaching
Pastoral Ministry
The practice of preaching is a lonely and solitary one. A certain amount of solitude is necessary for study and creativity. But for most of us, preaching has become a strikingly individual and secluded exercise. (more…)
Some reflections on team leadership
Pastoral Ministry
There has already been so much published on team leadership that, upon being asked to write this, my immediate response was, “Not another one!” I’m not even sure that ‘team leadership’ is the right category to use, for it leads us into business pragmatism rather than the Bible’s relational categories. (more…)
‘Point of contact’ preaching: Should we feel the need?
Pastoral Ministry
In a consumer-driven society, the preacher of the gospel can feel the pressure to aim always at the felt needs he/she guesses may exist in the potential hearer. Like all good angels of light, this too has its own attraction—and perhaps even some value. But as is usual with such blindingly beautiful apparitions, it too needs to be resisted, or at least received with great caution.
Once again (a deliberate attempt to tie in to previous posts), the pressure arises from the desperate search for a ‘point of contact’ (on the apparent assumption that this is not obvious, automatic, or already there since the gospel makes its own landing ground). It is often spoken of in terms of having to make the presentation of the gospel ‘relevant’ to the hearer.
An Arminian in the pulpit
Pastoral Ministry
“Be a Calvinist on your knees and an Arminian in the pulpit.” This has been the counsel to young ministers for many years. (more…)
Do we pass on more error than we realize?
Thought
In every culture, stories are begun (and go on to prosper) because they explain something important to us. In Christian circles, it’s often the best sermon illustrations that are passed on, from one to another. But I’ve come across two illustrations that preachers regularly use that are untrue. What should we make of them?
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Should theodicy be at the heart of our preaching?
Up front
Theodicy is the defence of God’s justice and goodness. It is something we naturally think about, and more often than not, it drives our preaching. You reach a difficult teaching of Jesus about hell, or a confronting passage of Paul’s about the role of men and women in the church, or even a verse about the uniqueness of Christ, and instead of listening to the passage, you start arguing with it. And sometimes God’s word seems to magically come around to your point of view. (more…)
Best preaching lessons
Pastoral Ministry, Sola Panel
If you’re a preacher of God’s word, what’s the best preaching lesson you’ve ever learned? See if you can jot down your answer before you read on, and then perhaps share it in the comments section.
It was Russell Moore’s absolutely excellent post a few weeks ago that caused me to reflect on this question:
Your first few sermons are always terrible, no matter who you are.
If you think your first few sermons are great, you’re probably self-deceived. If the folks in your home church think your first few sermons are great, it’s probably because they love you and they’re proud of you. If it’s a good, supportive church there’s as much objectivity there as a grandparent evaluating the “I Love You Grandma” artwork handed to them by the five year-old in their family.
(That may be so, but I thank God that people in my home church gave me a go!)
Moore goes on to explain that any young preacher should want his sermons critiqued—not harshly by a congregation with a critical spirit, but critiqued nevertheless:
Great preachers are the ones who preach really bad sermons. The difference is that they preach really bad sermons when they’re young, and are sharpened for life by critique.
So I return to my opening question: what’s the best lesson you’ve received from a sermon critique, or otherwise?
How do you communicate joy?
Pastoral Ministry
It’s easier to do dark than light. Angst seems stronger than joy. Evil is more exciting than good. And so the preacher has a problem: how do you convey the riches of heaven and the glory and goodness of God?
When liturgy fails to serve
The concept of liturgy can feel stuffy and constricting, but as Anthony Douglas points out, it need not be so: when done well, liturgy actually serves the church. (more…)
Should theodicy be at the heart of preaching?
Pastoral Ministry
Theodicy is the defence of God’s justice and goodness. It is something that we naturally think about, and yet, more often than not, it drives our preaching. You reach a difficult teaching of Jesus about hell, or a confronting passage of Paul’s about the role of men and women in the church, or even about the uniqueness of Christ, and instead of listening to the passage, you start arguing with it. And sometimes God’s word seems to magically come around to your point of view.
What to do when the sermon sucks like a vacuum cleaner
Pastoral Ministry
I subscribe to more than 70 blogs while pointedly avoiding some, but Ying, missing yours was an honest-to-goodness mistake.
(By the way, for those of you who are curious enough to reconstruct which blogs I read, click through to my blog and check out ‘Gordon’s shared items’. They are a tip of the bloggy iceberg, so don’t be offended if yours isn’t there, because I read and enjoy a lot more than I let on.
By God’s word (Volume 2)
Resource Talk
The next of the new resources I want to share with you is By God’s Word (Volume 2).
I suspect the majority of Sola Panel readers would be familiar with the name and Bible teaching ministry of Phillip Jensen. For those of you who don’t know, Phillip is the person who started Matthias Media some 21 years ago. (You can learn more about Phillip at his website).
To be quite frank, I don’t think I could name anybody who knows, understands, and loves God’s word more than Phillip. Nor can I think of anybody as gifted at teaching it and applying it to life.
Why Johnny can’t preach (Part 4)
Review
Having heard that Johnny can’t preach, Johnny can’t read and Johnny can’t write (read parts 1, 2 and 3), one could be tempted to think that David T Gordon is an old crank, romantically reminiscing about how good things were when he was a lad, and complaining about the state of the world in ‘the modern times’ (along with young people and their loud music!)