Praying for Preaching

John Piper writes, “especially on Sunday’s, preaching is paramount for pastors.”  He then goes on to give insight regarding how you can pray for your pastor and what you should expect in preaching.  (You can read it here).

Do pray for preachers.

Pastors: Uncover the Strangeness of Truth

As Chesterton explained, we ought not to be surprised that truth is stranger than fiction.   

‘Truth must of necessity be stranger than fiction,’ said Basil placidly. ‘For fiction is the creation of the human mind, and therefore congenial to it.’  [G. K. Chesterton Club of Queer Trades.

Crawford Loritts on Courage

In Northern Illinois, we got hammered with snow today.  Somewhere around a foot of the white stuff came down.

So, I’ve been hunkered down in my study at home - - I studied, prepared a sermon and listened to a sermon (while I dusted) by Crawford Loritts on pastoral courage.  Leaders need to listen to this one!

Hell? Yes - - solemnly.

 We must be willing to talk about the wrath of God and the justice of God.

Pastoral Search Committee Sermon Evaluation Form

Pastoral Search Committees / PNC’s / Pulpit nominating committees usually say their first goal is a pastor who preaches well. Yet, few evaluate sermons against any objective criteria.

Below is an excerpt of material I wrote that gives suggestions for how search committees should evaluate sermons.

If you would like more information, you can e-mail me at chris at theredbrickchurch.org.

Expository Preaching Should Never Be Boring

No sane person wants to sit under preaching that is boring.  So, whenever we encourage people to value expository preaching, we ought to also explain to them why, by definition, expository preaching should not be irrelevant and dull. 

In a sentence, expository preaching should not be boring because it is about showing how God’s timeless truth intersects with life today.  If a particular sermon is just a survey of technical details and a lecture about the Ancient Near East, then that is not expository preaching. 

Got Preaching? On Pastoral Search Committees

Arguably, the most strategic decision that a local church makes is calling a preaching pastor.  When a local church calls a lead or senior pastor, they almost always want a pastor who will preach with excellence.  Yet, often pastoral search committees do not know how to go about achieving that goal.

Unfortunately, there are essentially no resources available designed to help pastoral search committees / pulpit nominating committees succeed in calling an excellent preaching pastor.  

Books and resources designed for pastoral search committees / pulpit nominating committees focus on areas other than preaching, and these areas are important.  Yet preaching is the center of what their next pastor will do, and there is nothing available to help churches call a pastor who will preach with excellence.

You can read the below excerpt from my doctoral thesis which focused on developing a resource that will help local churches call a pastor who will preach with excellence. . . This is the introduction to my entire thesis - - it introduces the problem.  So, it is written in a technical way - - It is not a portion of the manual I developed.

I am praying that the manual/resource I developed might serve a local church looking for their next preaching pastor.

Preaching and Esther: She Won the Contest

 Even if you argue that Esther was forced to spend the night with the king, the fact remains that she kept her identity a secret and that she won the contest.  She may have been forced to spend the night with the king (though we do not know that is the case).   She did not have to conceal her identity and surely she did not have to win . . .

What is the point?

Lord’s Day Prayer

I am preaching this morning from Hebrews 6:4-8 - - one of the most solemn warnings in all of Scripture.  The author of Hebrews:

 (1) Warns people who have tasted the faith.

(2) That if they walk away.

(3) They may never come back again because they have inoculated themselves to the Gospel.

Our Father in Heaven,

I pray our church would have a greater urgency with the Gospel.  I pray that those who are waiting to accept the Gospel would bow their knee to Christ without delay.  I pray that those who are weary from the journey would be reminded that quitting cannot be an option.  And, I pray that our people would have a greater urgency for those who have walked away.

I pray that we would recognize that eternal destiny is in the balance.

For all our church,

 ”May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant, brought back from the dead the Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, equip us with everything good for doing His work, and may he work in us, what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.  Amen. (Heb 13:20-21).