Four Lessons for Preachers (part 2)

This week, I’m going over four lessons on preaching that I’ve learned from Jesus in John 6:51-66. Yesterday I talked about the importance of preaching the message that has been given to you.  Moving on to lesson number 2: Expect people to not like the message.

If you are preaching the message God has given, then you can expect some people to not like it.  This push back will come from all over: people close to you, people not close to you, the denominational leadership (or covenant partners for you independent types), the deacons, the first time guests, the lifetime members. The folks following Jesus didn’t like His message at all.  ”This is a hard saying.  Who can hear it?”  This complaint can fall under two categories.

1. This message is too hard for me.
2. This message is too hard for them.

There will be those in the crowd that will be personally challenged by God through the message He gives us to preach.  God is not satisfied with living on the fringes of Christianity.  Jesus said things like:

“You’re either with me or against me.”
“You’re either gathering or scattering.”
“Because you’re lukewarm, I’m spewing you out of my mouth.”

This sort of message flies in the face of the relativism that is generally embraced by people both outside and inside the church (note the lower case “c”).  A message that challenges the crowd, stretches crowd, or tells the crowd that something is not right will generally be rejected by the crowd.

There will also be people that will pressure you to change the message because it is too challenging on the crowd, and might drive them away.  In other words, you will be pressured to do all you can to keep the attendance from declining.  The disciples of Jesus were in the middle of a record attendance:  5000, not counting children’s church.  To them, a crowd meant success, but, and I love how Craig Groeschel of LifeChurch.tv puts it, “Jesus didn’t die for a crowd, He died for His church.”

So let’s recaps the lessons so far…

Lesson #1:  Preach the message God’s given to you.
Lesson #2:  Expect people to not like the message.

Would LOVE to hear your thoughts so far.

Four Lessons For Preachers (part 1)

I’m afraid to even look to see when I posted last.  It’s been way too long.

This week, we’ll look at four lessons on preaching modeled by Jesus in John 6:51-66.  

Lesson #1: Preach the message given to you.

I’m sure every preacher has had a message that was not so easy to give.  I’ll never forget the time I was woken up at about 3:30am on a Sunday morning and God told me, “I have become too common to the church.  Remind them I am terrible.”  

“Terrible?!  Are you kidding?!  In 7.5 hours I am to tell these folks that You’re terrible?!”

I’ll never forget the response of the congregation that morning.  Exasperated is a good adjective.  One woman actually gasped, “No!”

One more personal example, and I’ll move on.  One afternoon, as I sat down at the table to start taking notes for the upcoming service, I was getting all my books and computer set up to get going and I heard God clear as day.  He said, “I know you can study, but can you listen.” 

As preachers, we are sometimes tempted to preach to the crowd or for a crowd.  However, we must never let the crowd (or hope for a crowd) shape our message.  Jesus had a crowd of 5000 men (children’s church wasn’t counted), and when they got hung up on Jesus saying He was the Bread of Life, He got even more offensive and said, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you have no life in you.”

Jesus had something to tell the people that had been following Him.  It would not be easy for them to hear.  It would be even harder for them to apply.  However, He made no attempt to shape the message in a way that would make it palatable to the majority. 

Let’s learn from Jesus.  

• Preach His message as is!  
• Apply communication principles and styles, yes, but don’t compromise the integrity of the message.
• It’s His message and His church.  
• Let Him worry about the response.

Catalyst West Day 2

Honestly day two rocked me even harder than day 1 or Origins did.  I am so glad I got the DVD’s.  I will be able to go back and really process what was given, AND it will be shared with the FGF leadership team as well as anyone else at FGF interested.

Again, I am not going to try to summarize the experience yet.  I may do that tomorrow or Sunday.  Probably Sunday since I’ve been away from my wonderful wife and son for about four days now and need to be completely theirs for at least Saturday.  You understand.  For your review, some quotes and thoughts from day two of Catalyst West 2009.

Catalyst West Day 1

What a crazy day.  To say that it was like drinking from a fire hydrant would not give it justice.  I doubt I’ll EVER process what I got just from today.  I am so very happy I decided to get the DVD’s.  The FGF leadership team is going to have their very own Catalyst conference from the comfort of my living room.

I’m not even going to try to summarize.  Instead I will put up some quotes or thoughts I jotted for some of the speakers.

Origins + Labs Thoughts

I’m writing this the morning after and I’m not going to even look at any of the notes that I took yesturday during the main sessions and three breakouts.  This will strictly be a what-affected-me-the-most type of entry.

Let me just say this: Erwin McManus wrecked me.  Or more correctly…GOD wrecked me using Erwin McManus.

Expectations of Catalyst West

It’s early Wednesday morning, and I’m up for the Origins + Labs portion of Catalyst West.  I’ve been waiting for this conference for a LONG time and now I’m about an hour and a half from checking in.  My goal is to blog each evening about some of the stuff that really grabbed me.  Hopefully I’ll be able to share enough to be of benefit to you guys that were not able to make it this year.

My Thoughts on the Susan Boyle Video

OK, so everybody and their cousin’s brother in law has weighed in on this video, and I refuse to be left out.  If you’re one of the 128 people in the country that HASN’T seen the video, watch it first.

After watching that, go read Pete Wilson’s take on it. Simply amazing post, and I want to say right here and now that I really appreciate Pete’s transparency on his blog. It’s refreshing and encouraging.

Taking it in

I was going to post last night, and I chose not to because I didn’t really trust myself to not say something that I would have to explain later.  

First let me say that I absolutely LOVE the church I serve with.  They are the best people I know, and I am privileged to be standing should to shoulder with them in the kingdom.  The work they did yesterday for our Easter service was just remarkable.  From the invitations to people WEEKS before Easter, to the planning for the service and Easter egg hunt, to the execution of a fantastic, powerful service the people of Full Gospel Fellowship shined so flippin’ bright, I’m still seeing stars.

Yesterday we had a packed house of about 140.  Yep, that number of people pretty much packs our house.  Of that number about 30 – 40 were first time visitors which is fantastic!  Praise God!  However, I’m going to be honest here and tell you that my heart is broken…BROKEN…over the fact that not one person gave their life to Jesus yesterday.  I’ve been struggling with that big time.  

Most of the pastors I am friends with and/or follow on twitter were reporting tens and hundreds of decisions for Christ yesterday.  That’s AWESOME!  Seriously, I rejoice big time over the devil losing folks and the book of life getting some more names written in to it.  But…couldn’t just one have made that decision here?  One?!  My heart breaks for these folks that are going through life without a relationship with Christ.  I’m crushed by the fact that I may never see them again and that they may never accept Jesus as their Savior.  I’m devastated by the implications of that non-decision.

I wish I knew what was going on.  I mean, I know that it’s the Father who draws people to His Son.  I get that.  But, at what point should I start asking, “What’s wrong?”

Outsourced Evangelism

To save money, companies sometimes outsource their customer support to third parties which are typically from other countries.  I sometimes hear complaints from people about calling a customer support line.  The gripe usually goes that there was a huge language barrier, and that it was painfully obvious the support rep. had no clue about the product and was just reading from a script.  

I was reminded of this as I was thinking about the church.  I don’t want to be a church, or a disciple of Christ for that matter, that is content with giving money to other people (i.e. missionaries, evangelists, etc…) and calling that “evangelism”.  It’s not.  Not in any sense of the word.  I don’t want to be a believer that is OK with other people talking about Jesus while I sit back and add some more money to the offering.  I want to be inserted in to the lives of people that are struggling, hurting, sinning.  I want to be salt and light.  I want to embrace the fear that comes with knowing I should mention Christ to someone.  I want to tremble under the responsibility that I have to DO the great commission.  It is huge and awesome and terrifying, and I don’t want to make it any less than that.

Here’s why:  the gripes I hear from unchurched people sound very familiar.  When talking with Christians about life’s struggles, there is a huge language barrier, and it’s painfully obvious the Christian has no clue and that he (or she) is just reading from a script.  

Yes, there are some really strange people telling people seeking for God some really strange things.  However, instead of posting blogs or youtube videos about these folks, perhaps we can take on the responsibility of evangelism for ourselves.  

Come on, guys and gals.  Let’s not be afraid of the messiness of life and of the conversations that are waiting for us.  Let’s do evangelism rather than outsourcing it.

Wednesday Night Takeaways

Our church has a Wednesday night Bible study, and the adult class is taught by our founding pastor, Pastor Emeritus Eugene McCoy.  He is a wonderful man of God, a gifted teacher, and a faithful servant.  Since I’m a note taker when I’m not the one doing the preaching, I figured I’d jot down some thoughts from the lesson here.

We are going through the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, and last night we were reading out of Luke 10:25-37.  Here are some takeaways and thoughts that I got out of the lesson:

• The question is not “Who is my neighbor?” but “Who am I being a neighbor to?”
• Religion accepts you when you’re fixed, grace comes to you where you are.
• Religion must die.
• We must decrease and Jesus must increase.
• The Samaritan represents the church as it should be.
• The Samaritan wasn’t called “good” by Jesus.  His actions are the expectation, not the exception.
• Helping people will be uncomfortable, and will cost us something.
• Religion and rules can’t help a broken person.
• Grace is awesome
• In a one-to-one spiritual correlation the priest represents religion, the levite represents the law / works, the Samaritan represents the grace of Jesus Christ, and the inn represents the Church.
• Jesus met the man where he was, bound up his wounds, brought him to the church, gave the church was it needed to take care of the man and told the host “Take care of him”, and promised to return.
• What is our church doing to take care of the broken?

What are some thoughts that YOU get out of that story in Luke 10?