A Word From The Pastor

I’ve been reading a book by Dr. Robert Smith, professor at Beeson Divinity School, entitled Doctrine that Dances. 

The book is about the importance of preaching doctrine in your sermons.  Doctrine is the iron in the church’s blood, but unfortunately, most churches are quite anemic.  And Smith is calling for a return to “brining doctrinal preaching and teaching to life” in our churches.

Last night I read a quote in his book which, at first, I got mad at.  I was moments away from closing the book and throwing it away.  No joke.  But as I continued to read, his point became, not only abundantly clear, but indescribably beautiful and encouraging.  What I initially thought was poor theology, turned out, instead to be a rich, doctrinal truth.

On pages 83 and 84 of Doctrine that Dances, Smith writes: “When I go back to the cross, I see something that I had not seen before…I used to think that there were just two thieves at the cross, but…”

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The word from the pastor is: ordinance.

This Sunday, as a church, we will be celebrating both the ordinances of baptism (during the morning service) and the Lord’s Supper (during the evening service). These are unique rituals and expressions of true Christian faith. While baptism expresses one’s initial faith in Christ and preliminary commitment to the church, the Lord’s Supper expresses one’s ongoing faith in Christ and continued commitment to the church. They are both important acts of worship and obedience for every believer. To refuse either one is to…

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This last Wednesday I taught a very unusual message on the practice of snake-handling in churches.  The title was “Snake-Handling: Faith? or Foolishness?” (Click here to download the free .mp3.  It’s dated 07/30/08.  Click “archives” if it’s not on the front page.)

Anyways, I forgot to mention, there’s a classic snake-handling story by Wendy Bagwell, a Southern gospel singer from years ago.  In fact, it sold over a million copies.  If you’ve never heard it (or maybe it’s been a while), click on over to this website and listen.  (It plays automatically, so be aware.)

One of the most neglected aspects of worship (in my experience) throughout Baptist churches is the public reading of Scripture.

I find it terribly ironic that we Baptists, especially us Southern Baptists, fought the innerancy fight for two decades (or more) and yet when it comes to actually reading the Bible aloud in church,…

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Charles Spurgeon once said, “If you want to be read then read. If you want to be quoted, then quote. A man who fails to pick the brains of those that have gone before him, reveals that he has no brains of his own.” Spurgeon sure had a way with words, didn’t he? I love hearing good quotes. As one man said, “A good quote is like a finely cut diamond, incredibly compact yet endlessly fascinating.” Here’s a collection of some great, theological quotes that I ran across. Some are funny. Some are serious. But all of them are compact and fascinating statements that I hope you will remember.

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When it comes to preaching and teaching the Bible we all “fall short”. From time to time, everyone gets things wrong. I think it is God’s way of keeping us a bit humble. For instance…

I remember hearing John MacArthur once say that one Sunday evening he preached a sermon entitled, “Why the Coming Antichrist will be a Gentile.” As he continued studying throughout the next week, he realized some things that he had not noticed in the Scriptures earlier. And so, the following Sunday he preached a revised sermon with a title (something like), “I Meant To Say, Why the Coming Antichrist will be a Jew.”

Rest assured, everyone gets things wrong from time to time. Everyone quotes the wrong verse or even makes a mountain out of a molehill exegetically speaking. Everyone makes mistakes.

But here’s 10 mistakes in preaching and teaching the Bible that I try my very best not to make.

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Sometimes our desire for success and notoriety can come at any cost.

It’s like the pastor whose church gave him a button that read, “Humility Award”. A week later they had to take it back…because he wore it constantly.

We’ll do anything, it seems, to be noticed and envied by others.

We want the corner office so badly, we compromise our integrity and do things that we shouldn’t in order to get there. We want to be the head of the PTA and so we whisper “innocent” comments about others to make ourselves look better.

To make matters worse, other people encourage us to do it. They say things like, “You should be making those decisions, not her.” Or, “Is there anyone else more qualified for this than you? You should be doing that.”

Jesus knew this temptation for success and notoriety.  He knew what the clamoring of the crowd sounded like.  After He had fed the 5,000 the Scriptures record,

“So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.” (John 6:15)

Here was His opportunity to have the crown without the cross. Here was his chance to be Lord without being the Savior. Here was his chance to have the gain without the pain.

But Jesus understood that He would rightly become King only by fulfilling the will of God, not the will of the people. Often what people want is fickle, ever-changing, and shallow. Jesus knew this. But God’s will is reliable, certain, unchanging, and deep.

God’s timing and God’s will may not be everything that we expect or anticipate, but it’s certainly everything that we need. Listen to the voice of God, not the clamoring of the people.

This may come as a real surprise to some of you, but (believe it or not) pastors aren’t perfect. Shocking, I know. If you don’t believe me, just ask my wife. (On second thought, please don’t.)
Pastors make mistakes. We make wrong decisions. We have wrong motives sometimes. We are tempted. We sin. Now I’m not flaunting that fact. I’m just… Read the rest of this entry »

I’m sure that there are very few of you (if any) that look forward to this blog as a highlight of your week.  Regardless, for those of you who actually read this blog (i.e. my parents and anyone stalking me)…let me apologize for the recent lack of updates.

I’ve been at the SBC Convention in Indiana and on a vacation work-trip in Ohio; and I intentionally unplugged myself from the computer.

Anyways, I’m finally back - so, I hope to begin adding new updates soon.

For your daily moment of lightheartedness…here’s an “all-too-true” cartoon.
 

It’s finally that time of year again when messengers representing 45,000 Southern Baptist churches will come together in one place for two days of preaching, denominational business, and Baptist brethren (and “sisteren”) fellowship. The Southern Baptist Annual Meeting is always an enjoyable and challenging time for recharging the ministry batteries and reviving our common interest in fulfilling the Great Commission as Southern Baptists. This year we are sending three messengers to represent our church – Joe Veres, Gaylen Leverett, and myself. We look forward to a wonderful time in Indianapolis at the meeting and will report our findings back to the church soon after we return.

To give you a preview of this year’s Annual Meeting, I thought I would share… Read the rest of this entry »