Preachin' It

I love preaching. I love sitting in Scripture and letting God smack ya with Truth and then relying on Him to articulate the message that will pay that smack forward to the hearers.

Pretty excited about the opportunity to share a message on graduation sunday this sunday. It is geared toward the grads transitioning to a new phase of their lives...to a church who is transitioning to a new phase of her life, with new leadership coming in multiple areas of the church...and to individuals who are wasting their lives because of the fear that controls them...I am pumped.

I believe God will move.

Workin on the Message all day today.

Preachin' It

This Sunday I am preaching on the torture and the humiliation of the king. We are going to look at the flogging, mocking and humiliation of Christ leading up to the crucifixion.

There won't be any cute stories.

No jokes to laugh at.

Its a dark passage about the darkest time in human history.

And you should come.

8:15, 9:30 and 11:00 this Sunday!

Preachin' It

I feel like there is a fire in my bones to preach the Word of God. It's been since Christmas Eve that I last preached so I am getting revved up to lead in worship tomorrow. Because of some changes in schedule, I ended up getting the privilege and challenge of wrapping up the One Prayer Sermon Series at our church.

We have had some really good messages/speakers and if i'm not careful, I can feel the pressure of that and want to make tomorrow about a performance or about a response to my abilities.

I'm preaching my One Prayer for 2011 which is ONE GOD. And the great irony of this whole thing is that I can feel the tensions and temptations of seeking validation, affirmation, approval, etc. which are steering me to little 'g' gods everywhere I look.

The bottom line is that I am satisfied most when God is glorified most in my life.

And so are you.

We are going to make much of Jesus tomorrow! 8:15, 9:30 and 11:00 at Wadsworth UMC.

40 Minutes To Enrich Your Life

So this is David Platt. Heard him at a Break Out session at Passion 2011. You need to get acquainted...and you better brace yourself.

David Platt: SBC Pastors Conference 2009 from Todd Thomas on Vimeo.

Risk or Retreat? Where ya at?

One Prayer...in One Week

One Prayer begins on January 9 and we've asked a variety of leaders in the United Methodist context to come and share their one prayer for the church/world for 2011. We are also looking towards implementing a movement of prayer that will be unprecedented at our church. My one prayer through this time in our church is that God would sweep us up in a story bigger than ourselves. I am hopeful that this will be a time that renews the church and helps us hone in on what matters most.

So, its officially 2011...what's your one prayer for the year? Let us have it!

New Series in January

Can't wait for this series to launch on January 9. We are going to hear from a wide range of excellent preachers answering this one simple question. What's your one prayer for 2011?

So...what's yours?

Isaiah Christmas

Wouldn't have really expected it, but the Isaiah passages we've been preaching on for Advent this year have been surprisingly exciting and challenging.

Peace only comes when a Righteous and Holy God can judge and cleanse the impure, unholy, sinfulness. We stand condemned, deserving of punishment and brutal execution and God exacts that judgment as He must...but He exacts it on Himself, the suffering servant. Isaiah 52-53, written hundreds of years before Christ's birth, life, death and resurrection, tells of the righteous one who will bear everyone else's unrighteousness. If I don't have peace in an area of my life its because I haven't turned the situation or relationship over to the God who has made a way for shalom.

Joy doesn't come to us because we've escaped the wilderness. It comes in the midst of the wilderness. It's because of the wilderness and the God who meets us there, that we find redemption, delight and contentment in all things.

And this next week, I have the opportunity to speak on love out of Isaiah 7:1-17. "She shall call him Immanuel" which means 'With-Us God.' I am really excited to preach this text and yet challenged to figure out how to whittle down an arsenal of ammunition to provide the right amount of context and practical application.

This is a fun week. We've got a weather extravaganza perfectly timed with our Edge Christmas party (Saturday) and preaching 3 services (Sunday) and then having my family's Christmas dinner and gift exchange (Sunday evening). I also have the opportunity to preach at the 8:00 p.m. Contemporary Christmas Eve service which will be my first chance to do so...With all this happening over the next 10 days or so, the blog world may be hit or miss even more than usual.

(Someone forgot to tell the Browns about my plan for their playoff run)...sigh.

Communicating Something Lasting

The beauty and the challenge for pastors, Bible teachers, and all others who proclaim the message of Christ lies in the reality that The Bible, like the God it speaks of, is unchanging. This is beautiful in that it is fantastic to have something steadfast, true and consistent in a world that seeps with so much that is fleeting, false and inconsistent.

It is challenging in that its the same words, the same stories, the same texts every year. Christmas is here again and Jesus is still born in a manger to a virgin. There's still no room in the inn, still magi who worship and shepherds who do the same.

And for the most part, the people who show up in the churches around Christmas know these things. The great and hard task of the communicator is to hear from God and convey the message in such a way that it shocks the hearer's system. Our brains want to take the message they've already heard and file it into the "Been there Done That" File and then allow the mind and the heart to disengage from any new encounter with the age old tune.

So, maybe these 5 tips might help produce new fruit in your people this Christmas.

1. New Vocabulary...If you follow the Traditional Advent Calendar, you're going to encounter familiar words like Hope, Peace, Joy and Love...These are timeless words that embody the season, but I can file them away. If I engage these words strategically, they can be heard anew. When we talk about a scandalous love that risks everything on a people who will remain stiffnecked and stubborn or an innebriating joy that puts us 'under the influence' of the God who gives us delight and fulfillment...suddenly the conversation has a little more pungency. We need to use words that artistically tickle ears, while all the while remaining authentic to the message.

2. New Perspectives...Haven't heard the Christmas message from Satan or from King Herod...Jump in the story from different vantage points...Creatively convey the surprise of the shepherds or the regret of the innkeeper. New perspective makes the message un-file-away-able.

3. New Texts...Christmas is conveyed in more places than Luke! Do Christmas from the unique prologue of John 1 or from the Genaeology of Matthew 1. This year we are looking at Christmas through the lens of Isaiah, a prophet 700 years before the incarnation. Love it!

4. New Twists on Old Traditions...We have the lighting of the Advent candles each week leading up to Christmas Eve. I am not saying that this is a meaningless, rote deal. But sometimes repetition leads to staleness. How can you tweak a tradition to make it 'sticky' for the long time attendee and the first time attendee?

5. New Creativity...My conviction is that the Church, with the Presence of the Holy Spirit has no excuse to not be the most creative place on the planet. So dream bigger and dream further out...Guess what! Christmas comes every December...It shouldn't be a crisis of unpreparedness when November ends...Start thinking about Christmas 2011 now.

When God Breathes

Got to preach it today out of Ezekiel 37.

Here's some thoughts/reflections:

Sometimes less is more. In each of the services, the amount of music used was less than typical. But each piece of music was intentional and I had multiple people comment about the overall flow and power of the entire service.

The Word of God speaks for itself...I loved how Ezekiel 29, Jeremiah 52, and so on and so forth told the story and fate of Israel. Ezekiel 37 is one of the coolest passages and it is impossible to give it justice.

Sometimes we need a kick in our buts...we have so many cop outs, excuses and justifications for delaying obedience and that is not an okay thing.

Studying when and where God has breathed throughout the Bible is eye opening. And it is crazy to know that He is not done breathing.

God wants us to know that in the midst of exile and pain, He is right there and He desires to do a new thing and bring the deadest of dead fully alive.

Preaching 3 services is exhausting. Shaina and I were up at 5:15...and that is why I'm heading to bed now...bed and a day off tomorrow. Thank you Jesus.

Mission Sunday

Getting excited to preach on Sunday for our Mission Sunday. It's one Sunday where we gather all the year's Mission Trips for a time of celebration of what God has done, what God is doing, and what God will do next.

The problem with me getting excited to preach...is that I'm limited to between 10 and 15 minutes. It'd be easy to preach that if it wasn't something I was absolutely passionate about.

Anyways, I get a chance in this time to really lay out the plan for Church ReVerb which is quite honestly where the church is going in the next 25 years.

Sunday Morning Reflections

I preached yesterday. Everybody asks afterwards how it went. I don't know how to respond...I can't tell if things land...if God encounters...if people are comatose. So I usually respond "Well, no one threw anything at me..." No one threw anything at me yesterday...Here are a couple things I'm still hanging out on a day after the message fom Ephesians 4:1-16. Title of the message was MORE MATURITY.

Maturity has little or nothing to do with age.

Are we righteous because we do right things or do we do right things because we are righteous? (If you answer the former...you've missed the gospel!)

Paul's ORTHODOXY (Right Worship) precedes his ORTHOPRAXY (Right Action)...Too many in the church are only concerned with behavior modification (Orthopraxy) and have missed the point of the kingdom...namely to Worship and align ourselves with the most high king of kings.

Tradition is the living faith of those now dead. Traditionalism is the dead faith of those now living. --Charles Swindoll

Speaking the Truth in love means gently letting those you know and love when their breath stinks.

You are a producer of worship not a consumer of worship...start acting like it.

I get very irritated when I hear of people leaving churches because "they are not being fed" Mature Christians don't need a 20 minute message on Sunday mornings to be fed...They feast from the hand of the Feeder all week. It's time to GROW UP!

Want to grow in Christ? FOCUSED INTENSITY OVER TIME MULTIPLIED BY GOD = MOMENTUM!!!
F.I./T(G) = M

Where Have All the Prophets Gone?

Today was a stretching, powerful, uplifting, altogether draining, joyous, frustrating day.

I had the chance to preach on the Church as the Holy Nation. I've shared before about my concerns regarding the relationship between cross and crown in this nation...and today we went to some really tough places. I loved it...and I hated it.

Some people were moved by God. Some people were moved to tears. Some people were moved to anger. Hopefully all people were moved to think.

Here's my take on this from a prophetic preaching standpoint. I would guess most pastors relinquish the role of prophet and substitute it for people pleaser. Because if the people leave or if the people aren't happy, then attendance drops and giving drops...But here's the thing, when we stop being prophetic, repentance stops and revival stops and even if the numbers are consistent or even growing, if it is a lukewarm people, it is a waste of time.

I will not simply cater to the preferences of people and if I could speak one message to the next generation of church leaders, I would plead with them to choose the Truth of God's Word over and above the likes and dislikes of the people, because our aim as God's mouthpiece is to allow the Truth of God's Word to become the thing that the people like, hunger and crave.

"I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes." Romans 1:16

I request prayer coverage this week, as any time we dare to be prophetic an angry mob seems to form. Pray that I will humbly speak the truth and love and that any animosity that rises up would lead to conviction by the Holy Spirit.

Preachin' It

Preaching this Sunday on Church as the Holy Nation.

Never had such a wide range of emotions entering a Sunday where I'm bringing the message.

On one hand, God is stirring passion and excitement that is becoming like fire in my bones. I have to preach this message. I absolutely cannot avoid it.

And yet I am burdened with the reality that this message may fall on deaf ears, or that opposition to the message will be fierce.

Pray for me this week. That I have a prophetic anointing and that those who have ears would hear.

"Some trust in chariots, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God" (Psalm 20:7)...What do we do as Christians when we live in a country who unashamedly, unabashedly trusts in their chariots? (We spend more money annually for our military than the next 15 countries combined.)

The Disney Conspiracy

In case you were wondering...the lemmings shown here are actually catapulted off the cliff by a turntable.

FYI, lemmings do migrate over small bodies of water to populate new areas...but not the arctic sea.

offensive preaching

Sometimes preaching with conviction hurts.

Not every sermon is going to be a feel good made for tv moment.

Sometimes people will be offended. Sometimes you will receive the cold shoulder.

This isn't new. Jesus taught on difficult things and sometimes the people left. Sometimes the crowds thinned.

This might have been the first time that this happened to me on any level today. There was very little affirmation and to be quite honest, I loved it.

Now preachers can take this one of two ways. They can think that what they've preached was ineffective and so people don't have anything positive to say, or they can think that conviction is taking place. And if the prayer and preparation have been put into the message and you know that God has stirred the message in you, then the latter option may indeed be true.

The preacher must comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. It's what Jesus did.

Yet the preacher only aims the gun, the Holy Spirit pulls the trigger.

Sometimes when we're honoring the text...we will have to be offensive...because sometimes that's precisely what the scripture demands.

Thought for the day

"I don't have a problem with tradition. Tradition is the living faith of those who have died. My problem is with Traditionalism, which is the dead faith of those now living." -Chuck Swindoll

At some point we have to be willing to crucify 'the way we've always done it'. When we are willing to go here...there's no telling what God might bring to life.

Again...sometimes normal...sometimes 'the way things are'...sometimes 'the way its always been' is insanity.

What thing, approach, ministry, method, meeting, mindset,sacred cow, practice or style does your church need to nail to the cross?

Sometimes Normal is Insanity

I am getting ready to preach this coming Sunday, and one of the key points that will be made from the text is that sometimes what the world deems acceptable or preferred behavior...sometimes what the majority is doing...sometimes the status quo...is insanity.

Here's a good example.



"Wide is the road to destruction, and many enter through it." Mt 7:13.

Puttin' on the Preachin' Hat

I typically preach once every two months. I love preaching and would do it every week if I had the chance...but being able to put a month or two of thought and prep into messages has spoiled me (not that I'm cramming that whole time...but I am thinking it through and preaching it in the car.

That said, I am preaching/teaching at 4 different venues in the next month. First, I preach at my church, Wadsworth UMC, 3 services on March 14. Then, two days later, I am teaching at Baldwin Wallace on the topic of Heaven to the college Campus Crusade movement. Then April 2, I am bringin' the Word on Good Friday to young adults at our RISE service. Finally, I am leading a Leadership Training evening that focuses on effective teaching strategy. I am excited for all of these...but I am curious how easy it will be to prep 4 totally different topics for 4 totally different audiences.

With that in mind, I have taken today as a sermon prep day and have driven an hour to perhaps the quietest place on Earth. The Ashland Theological Seminary Library, where I have commentaries, dictionaries, lexicons and other books all to myself.

It has been a good morning and now I am preparing to meet up with a good friend for lunch and then it will be back to the grind...hoping to have two of these talks completed by day's end...Then its home to see my lovely wife and maybe watch some Cavs vs. Celtics.

Feel free to pray for God's revelation in my day today..."Without Revelation, the people perish." Proverbs 29:18

Thinking outside the box

Got an email with this pic from a buddy of mine...pretty appropriate after church yesterday.

I shared from Matthew 17...Jesus' transfiguration story. Peter's quick response is the same response we have..."Lord this is good to be here...let me build shelters for you, Moses and Elijah." In other words...God this good...let me box it up and hold on to it.

We experience God in some significant way and we think that we have discovered the corner on God and we try to box Him in and suggest that this is how God works (and only this way).

Some of the boxes I believe our churches struggle with confining God to:

1. Worship War Dimensia: God can only move and be present in 'our' style of worship. This is the difference between Consumers, who think worship is about their preferences and Producers, who prefer to worship God.

2. Edifice Complex: God is present in the Church and the Church is a location, with a building and an address. This is the difference between the Church as a What (something we go to on Sundays) and the Church as a Who, something we are every day of our lives.

3. The Way We've Always Done It Syndrome: God works this way because its the way he worked in 1878, 1943 and 1982. This is the difference between Traditionalists (the dead faith of the living saints) and Tradition (the Living faith of the dead saints).

4. The Messiah Disorder: God will bring our church to the heights of its potential, if we get the right pastor who will save us, lead us, grow us, etc. This is the difference between putting hope in a system and in a man vs. putting hope in the Risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the only one who can save us, lead us and grow us!

So what other boxes do you see God being stuffed into?

quotable.

"If I am able to say in very truth, 'I was buried with Christ thirty years ago,' I must surely be dead. Certainly the world thought so, for not long after my burial with Jesus I began to preach his name, and by that time the world thought me very far gone, and said, 'He stinketh.' They began to say all manner of evil against the preacher; but the more I stank in their nostrils the better I liked it, for the surer I was that I was really dead to the world."

C.H. Spurgeon.

So...how's your stench.