Tag Archives: Preaching

Sermon-less assemblies

19 Replies

pulpitNick Gill made an interesting comment on the last post:

Ironically, I wonder if online sermons might offer an opportunity to reshape the assembly of the saints into a more healthy pattern?
If we could get more people to listen to sermons on their iPods, et al, we wouldn’t have to give so much assembly time to sermons — there’d be more time for communion, for public reading of Scripture, for dialogue.
What do you think? Am I dreaming?

The answer is yes, of course, Nick is dreaming. We’ve got a whole industry built around Sunday sermons. What would we do with all of the out-of-work preachers?

OK, seriously, it’s an intriguing idea. Sunday sermons are a relatively recent addition to Christian assemblies. [Edited at noon, August 13: OK, I’ve had to back off this statement. I may write more about this in a future post. I believe that sermons in their present form didn’t exist in the first century, but my original statement was misleading]  They’ve come to dominate the time that God’s people spend together. What if we could remove that teaching experience to another time of the week?

I enjoyed yesterday’s poll. Let’s do another one:

What do you think of sermon-less assemblies?
They are an abomination. You have to have sermons in the assembly.

I would feel cheated.

I think the church would not grow as much spiritually.

I think they are a great idea!

I do not really care one way or the other.

View Results

Photo by Ian Britton, FreeFoto.com

Online church

4 Replies

There’s been some discussion around about the “online church.” Some think it’s great that people can now “go to church” in their own homes; others decry the lack of fellowship. I’ve joined the discussion in an article that’s out on Heartlight today.

But I’d like to hear about you. I don’t think any of my regular readers substitute Internet websites for actual church fellowship. But do you listen to sermon online? Do you watch videos of sermons? How often? Are there certain preachers that you listen to regularly?

Do you listen to Internet sermons?
I hear more sermons on the Internet than in person

I regularly listen to several Internet sermons per week

I typically hear about one Internet sermon per week

I listen to sermons on the Internet every once in a while

I never listen to Internet sermons

View Results

New preacher

2 Replies

 

churchIt’s a new phase of life for me. For the first time, the pulpit minister at the congregation where I attend is younger than I. Since I’ll continue to work with the bilingual group at our church, I won’t be hearing him on a regular basis. Still, it’s a bit strange.

Part of it, admittedly, is the fact that it’s not easy for me to think of anyone else as “the preacher.” I love to preach and feel that God has given me some gifts in that area. It was easier for me to “sit at the feet” of the previous minister because he was the preacher at this congregation when I attended back in my university days.

It has been strange for me to know that our congregation was searching for a minister yet to have no idea who was being considered nor even what qualifications were being looked for. Strange to not have any part in the process. Not surprising given the size of our congregation and the number of elders that we have. It’s hard not to feel a bit left out at times, yet I’ve got my own ministry with Herald of Truth.

Now a new minister has been chosen. It will be yet another battle with my pride. A battle that needs to be fought again and again. Our elders know this congregation and its needs and have made a prayerful choice. Now we move forward with prayer and optimism. May God bless his church and those who seek to serve her. I hope that I can always seek the good of the kingdom and not my own good.

{Photo by Simon Cautado, sxc.hu}

The monster within

9 Replies

monsterI should comment one other thing about this past Sunday’s bilingual service, something more personal. This combined service led me to wrestle with one of the monsters  in my life: my ego, my desire for recognition. As we prepared for having a bilingual service in the main auditorium, I was very anxious to see things go well. Besides my usual desire to see the Sunday assembly be a time of edification, I also wanted the service to be something that people would be willing to do again soon. I wanted the service to go smoothly so that the congregation would be interested in holding more combined services. Those are desires that I feel good about.

But there was something else at work, there is something at work in me. I want people to notice me. I want them to applaud and praise me. I want them to say, “Wow, Tim’s a good preacher. My, Tim really does a good job with bilingual preaching. Goodness, isn’t he talented.” Pat me on the back, throw flowers at my feet, break out the ticker tape parade. Even at church tonight (Wednesday), I had an ear out for people that wanted to compliment me on what had been done on Sunday. [I even dreamed of some people saying, “Tim should preach for us every Sunday.”]

That’s the monster I wrestle with, the human pride that wants to run my life. I’m reminded of a story I heard of a church where one member said to the preacher, “That was a fine sermon,” and the preacher responded, “I know.” The member didn’t know what to say, until the preacher added, “The devil has been whispering that in my ear all morning.” When someone does something well in ministry, Satan is there to inflate his pride, feed his ego, and turn something good into something harmful.

If that desire, the need to feed my ego, ever controls my ministry, I pray that God will hinder what I do and deny me the success my ego craves. I don’t want the praise of men; I want God’s praise. My constant prayer is that God will speak to his people through me and that all the glory will be his not mine. The monster is always there, hoping to consume me, but God is able to deliver me from my own ego. “Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.” (Psalms 115:1)

Presentations: An example

6 Replies

Let me give you an example of a time when I felt that a presentation added a lot to a sermon. Several years ago, I was preaching through Luke. When dealing with the first part of chapter 15, I used some visuals at the end of the sermon to try and communicate the main point.

First, I showed an image of the inside of a discotheque:

Discotheque

I talked about how that wasn’t my world, that I wouldn’t feel at all comfortable there. I then inserted “my island” over the image of the disco, my island being the church:

church over disco

I then talked about some of the people that I kind of didn’t want at church. If they came, I certainly wouldn’t want them sitting next to me and my kids:

Worldly people

I talked about how I saw those people: drunks, hookers, addicts, hoboes. I looked on them like the Pharisees looked on the tax collectors and prostitutes that flocked to Jesus. But how does God see them? I said, “When God looks at these people, He sees…”

lamb

Sure, I could have easily said, “God sees a lamb.” But it wouldn’t have had the same impact. There were “ohs” from some of the young girls. This picture showed something to be taken care of and protected (fortunately, no coyotes were present that day). The photo of the lamb had a much stronger impact, just as some of the people commented on the impact the picture of the disco had on them. All of this could have been done with words alone. But more people “heard” the message because they saw it.

[No, I don’t know how to do this in PowerPoint, so don’t ask. It probably can do it. Keynote does it easily, but you have to own a Mac.]

UPDATE: If you read the comments below, you can see that Robert Smelser had a different idea as to how he would use images at the end of this sermon. He sent me the images, so I’m posting them below:

lambs1lambs2lambs3lambs4lambs5