Preach It Brother

In my years of church going, I have heard some very good sermons, and some very bad sermons. I once heard a sermon on the story of Jacob's early life where the preacher argued that the Bible clearly teaches that boys should spend more time with their mothers than their fathers, and that it was OK for a boy to know how to cook! On my list of strange and inane things that I have heard from the pulpit, that may take top honors.

I get the opportunity to preach fairly regularly. In addition, I oversee our church's teaching ministry. I have the privilege of helping others become better teachers. This role has caused me to reflect on preaching quite a bit.

It seems to me that most preachers tend toward one of four styles:
1) Commentary Giver - this preacher gives the exegesis of every detail in the text. To him/her success is a thorough explanation of the text itself.
2) Story Teller - this preacher tends to string together stories that make a similar point to the preaching text. To him/her success is getting people to connect the text with their lives.
3) Comedian - this preacher tends to make humorous stories and jokes the staple of his/her preaching. To him/her success is keeping people entertained long enough to tell them about the Bible.
4) Emotional Plea Guy - this preacher tends to make things persuasive and heart wrenching. To him/her success is when people are responding to the sermon with weeping or dancing, grieving or rejoicing; really just any response of strong emotion.

Now, these are certainly four extremes. We all do a mixture of these things, but most preachers will tend toward one of them. I tend toward being a commentary giver. In my view the goal of teaching/preaching is to help people understand the Bible and its implications well enough that they can follow Jesus in love.

What about you? When you go to church, what are you hoping to hear?

Jesus I Like, You I Do Not

In A.D. 251 St. Cyprian of Carthage wrote, "He can no longer have God as his Father who does not have the church as his mother." You can't have Jesus without the church we might say. They are a package deal.

Yet it is not uncommon to hear people (especially people under the age of 30) say things like, 'I follow Jesus, but I don't think I necessarily need the church,' or 'I experience God more in nature than I do in the church.' Many such individuals have had negative experiences in the church that have left them wonder if they can have a Christianity with just the good parts. No intentional intimate community, no input from a pastor, no cheese-ball worship leaders, no committees, no buildings, no tradition, no creeds, no authority...just give me Jesus.

So here the question: Do we get to have Jesus without the church?

Celebrating Jesus

We have already celebrated New Years. Not the January 1st New Years mind you, but the Christian New Year. With the beginning of Advent (11/29/2009) the Christian New Year began. We have passed from Advent to Christmastide now. Christmas will end after 12 days with the celebration of Epiphany on January 6th. Epiphany will give way to Lent and Lent will give way to Easter. Easter will culminate in the celebration of Pentecost.What follows is called Ordinary Time or Kingdomtide.

Why do I tell you all of this? If you are like the majority of Protestants, you celebrate Christmas and Easter with some vague awareness that Lent falls in there somewhere. However, the celebration of the traditional church calendar year takes the season from Advent to Pentecost to celebrate the entire life of Christ, to once again center ourselves on the greatest of great stories, the whole story of Jesus our Lord. It seems tragic to me that in a misguided attempt to be un-Roman-Catholic, many protestants miss the delight of walking with Christ through his time here with us.

The fear of being too Catholic has driven us away from many wonderful and rich Christian traditions. Instead of shying away from all things Catholic, we ought to reclaim them as Evangelicals and drink deeply of the great tradition in which we all stand!

Merry Christmas!

Creed and Councils, They're Not Just for Catholics!

Growing up, it was common to hear that our only creed was "We have no creed but the Bible."Of course that was not true. We believed in all kinds of things that the Bible does not describe, the Trinity and the divine and human natures of Christ most prominently. These things come to us from the great tradition of the church, of which we were largely ignorant. In my opinion this is sad. In an attempt to be un-Catholic many evangelical protestants cut themselves off from the riches of the great tradition.
On the other hand, members of many liturgical churches could recite the creeds much easier than they could recite any biblical passage.This is also sad. in an effort to stay true to the traditions of the church, they have lost the most sacred and most fundamental of all traditions, the scripture itself!
I think many of us feel forced to make a choice. You can have either the traditions of the church, or you can have the Bible, but not both.
So where is the nice middle ground? Is it possible to be both anchored in scripture and to draw from the riches of the great tradition? Can we actually be evangelical and recite the Nicene Creed every week in church
What do you think?