BookPastor >> "Power in the Pulpit" (Jerry Vines and Jim Shaddix)

This review was first published at Panorama of a Book Saint on May 8th, 2017.

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TITLE: Power in the Pulpit: How to Prepare and Deliver Expository Sermons
AUTHOR: Jerry Vines and Jim Shaddix
PUBLISHER: Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2017, (448 pages).

Preaching is hard. Good preaching is rare. Being able to sit through a well-prepared, well-delivered, and well-researched sermon is a tremendous blessing for any Christian community. Many preaching books nowadays try to address the great need for biblical preaching and an appropriate level of delivery that balances theological orthodoxy, biblical faithfulness, cultural awareness, and the cry for help and the hunger for hope. Not many can achieve this. This book hits close to this target. One clue about the effectiveness of this book is the need for a new edition to keep up with changing needs and changing times. First published in 1999, author Jerry Vines had been preaching for over 40 years. Half of that time was when he was pastor of First Baptist Church in Jacksonville. At that time, he had a passion for sharing his knowledge and experience with fellow preachers. Knowing the tough demands on the pastoral vocation, he senses a great need to equip fellow preachers with some basic pulpit skills. Basically, it needs to address two things: Faithfulness to the Word; and fruitfulness as the Word takes root in the hearers. During the past decade, many things have changed, most importantly, the cultural shifts that have been occurring in the world we live. Most of the material from the first edition have been preserved. This new edition not only updates the material, it strengthens the expository preaching preparation part and simplifies the delivery. It is also more conversational when compared with the original.

BookPastor >> "Preaching the Whole Counsel of God" (Julius Kim)

This review was first published at Panorama of a Book Saint on Feb 12th, 2016.

conrade

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TITLE: Preaching the Whole Counsel of God: Design and Deliver Gospel-Centered Sermons
AUTHOR: Julius J. Kim
PUBLISHER: Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2015, (240 pages).

There are lots of preaching going on every week everywhere. Due to the many different theories and philosophies surrounding the ministry of preaching, very often, it is not easy to distinguish what is true preaching of the whole counsel of God. Some expound the Bible well but fail to connect with contemporary relevance. Others connect so well that they fail to emphasize the relevance of the gospel to life. Some believe that content is everything while others insist on the method of delivery. Not only that, preaching is also about the audience. Do we preach until it hurts or do we maintain a level of feel-good healing posture? This book is important for the simple fact that good preaching means reestablishing a renewed confidence in the Word of God for all of life. The basic question in this book is this: What constitutes the whole counsel of God?

As far as author Julius Kim is concerned, there are four parts to this. Preaching must begin with the author's discovery of the truth; progressing to discerning the truth; designing the message; and finally delivering the text.

1. The herald must discover the truth of the text according to the human author.
2. The herald must discern Christ in the text according to the Divine Author.
3. The herald must design a sermon that is true, good, and beautiful.
4. The herald must deliver the sermon for attention, retention, integration, and transformation.

Virginia Tech CT article

Yesterday, Virginia Tech's Norris Hall was reopened, but the Universities authorities decided that it will no longer be used for classrooms, despite the new paint and cleanup. Perhaps the tragedy was too painful. Perhaps the memories they trigger are too depressing.

Here is one of the best reflections I come across, which is richly honest, pastoral and comforting. In a truly honest to self, and honest to God manner, Yancey starts off on two threads: what he would like to say, and what he would term the truth. I suppose it is a rhetorical method. Theologically, the two are supposed to be asserted together. Truth is truth. How can one thread be true and the other not? The proper understanding will be how do we express that truth, as truthfully as possible. Rhetoric or not, such methods work pretty effectively.

I like the way Philip Yancey puts it in ChristianityToday:

"In grief, love and pain converge. Cho felt no grief as he gunned down your classmates because he felt no love for them. You feel grief because you did have a connection. Some of you had closer ties to the victims, but all of you belong to a body to which they too belonged. When that body suffers, you suffer. Remember that as you cope with the pain. Don't try to numb it. Instead, acknowledge it as a perception of life and of love."

We all have connections we cherish. Imagine a childhood friend who gets hurt in an accident. We feel much closer to them, especially when they resemble too closely our own lifestyles and preferences. Compare that with a distant person from another culture, another language and another sociological context. Certainly we feel more for the one where there is a personal connection. Connections are primary keys to relationships. It can warm one's heart in nostalgia. It can release tears during tragedy. Connection. Where are the connections in our lives? Where are our connections in the community of God? What about our connection to God? Imagine God seeing the presence of tragedy all over the world all the time, if our connection to God is tight and firm, when God weeps, we too will weep.

ks

A sermon on 'not to worry'

Isn't it ironic that Christians who profess faith, are also the very people who struggle with worry and anxiety? I am constantly on a lookout for ways to relieve my self-anxiety. One of these ways is to enjoy good sermons that preaches against worry. I like this particular one.

My own reflection on anxiety is found here which I blogged on May 1st this year.

ks

Preaching on Martha/Mary -30July06

I preached last Sunday on Luke 10:36-11:1, with a focus on Martha and Mary. The stories were told. The exegesis were made. The observations were mentioned and the applications for us were explained. The start was slow, as I fumbled over trying to put many things within the first 5-10 minutes. I knew that from my expository preaching classes that context is critical. Somehow, I felt like a living Martha scrambling in my head and mouth over the many exciting discoveries I made regarding the text with the limited time given. Indeed, only after the initial 10 minutes, I started to focus on one thing which helped tremendously. Words came natural. The thinking juices started flowing like a brand new fountain. I gave the congregation the question: "Is the text telling us to be Martha-like or Mary-like?" After giving sufficient rhetoric over that, I pounced onto my main point and thought I hit it home.

Yet I felt strangely disturbed within me. I do not feel like I have connected my heart with the hearts of the congregation. Preaching is already hard, from a preparation and delivery standpoint. However, to preach as a form of worship and neighbourly care for the congregation is to me a distant art, that I can simply glimpse at. My feelings danced between disappointment and hope. Perhaps that is the Lord trying to care for me in a way that does not flatter me or break me.

May the Lord be merciful on my next 2 sermons in August.

kianseng

Preaching this Sunday - Choices

Will be preaching this Sunday. Passage taken will be Luke 10:36-11:1. It will be entitled: "Choices we make. Choice make us." May change the title as the days draw near as I need to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

May the LORD prepare the hearts of hearers and preacher continually.

Told my wife that my sermon this Sunday is 90% complete. Simply needed to warm it up by this weekend. The other sermons in August is still under slow cooker mode. Taking a long time. Pray that the fragrance of the Word will come through powerfully. May it be a testimony that the Power is truly in the Word, as the preacher is but a mere imperfect mortal.

kianseng

Theologian with the Head + the Heart (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

I watched an amazing documentary on Dietrich Bonhoeffer on KCTS last night. It was a biography of one of the humblest and courageous theologian who lived and practiced the Christian faith to his death. Born in Germany, he was in the resistance movement against Nazism and in particular, Hitler. The state church then bowed down to political pressure and subsequently failed to champion the rights of the weak and the oppressed. Bonhoeffer and a handful of German Christians were appalled and started their own Confessional Church movement, even to the point of planning the assassination of Hitler. That failed and led to the execution of Bonhoeffer and many others.

The writings below represent a portion of Bonhoeffer's convictions in his book "The Cost of Discipleship". Bonhoeffer was executed at a Nazi concentration camp on 9th April 1945, just before Germany surrendered to the allies in WWII. Theologians with both the head AND the heart. We need more of them.

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Cheap Grace vs Costly Grace
WE DO NOT NEED CHEAP GRACE
"Let the Christian rest content with his worldliness and with this renunciation of any higher standard than the world. He is living for the sake of the world rather than for the sake of grace. Let him be comforted and rest assured in his possession of this grace - for grace alone does everything. Instead of following Christ, let the Christian enjoy the consolations of his grace!"

That is what we mean by cheap grace, the grace which amounts to the justification of sin without the justification of the repentant sinner who departs from sin and from whom sins departs.

Cheap grace is not the kind of forgiveness of sin which frees us from the toils of sin. Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession.

Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

WHAT WE NEED = COSTLY GRACE
Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must then be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.

Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “ye were bought at a price, and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us.

Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

Powerful stuff!
{for more on Bonhoeffer click here}

kianseng

Preaching on John 1

After turning on my stopwatch, remembering that I have only 20-25 minutes to speak, I started the Scripture reading. As I read verses 1-14 from my outline, a strange excitement wells up in me. "I am preaching God's Word! What a privilege. Not a normal Toastmasters speech nor a motivation speech. It is pure and simple an exposition of God's Word!"

After verse 14, I prayed that God will prepare all of us to receive God's Word. It was amazing when I spoke the Word, the normal Toastmasters fear do not arise. I had prayed that whatever glory, mine be the smallest and God's be the highest. I believe that was the reason for the lesser fear in me. Thus I spoke going from God as Creator, to God as Community to God as Co-equal. Careful to vary my voice and make sure I am audible, I went ahead verse by verse. After 22 minutes, I ended with 3 exhortations. "Let us shine" "Let us be with the people." "Let us be humble in all we do."

During feedback session, when probed where did the text say it? I kind of forgotten to add in a transitional phrase that "Because God has done so, we should . . ."

That will clarify most of the questions pertaining to "Where did the text say?" The exhortations were indeed truths I had gleaned from the texts but did not explicitly state how it led to my conclusions. I had forgotten again that I had the privilege of living in the text a much longer time than the rest in the room, hence were able to see the deeper implications at that time. By bringing out the conclusions without explaining in detail how I got it, (I was trying to keep within time), the audience were struggling to find the link.

Feedback forms were however very encouraging, and one even said that he can now read John 1 in a new and fresh light. What made me most glad was that people were rekindled to appreciate John 1 even more, a supposedly difficult passage.

I went home, took a quick Lasagne bite and slept from 9.30PM to 8AM the next day. My body needed the rest after a gruelling 4 days of non-stop classes and counselling and stress.

kianseng