Dramatic Life Change

In the movie Julie and Julia, the Julie Powell character blogs about cooking her way through Julia Child’s cookbook in one year. It’s quite an undertaking, and one that changes her life dramatically.

Have you ever considered reading through the Bible in one year? I suspect that for many of you it would be a dramatic, life-changing experience. Here are the details of what would be involved, etc…

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Are Your Bible Sermons Another Nice Little Talk?

Let’s say you are preaching a sermon series on the subject of basic spiritual disciplines. This week your sermon outline is about the value of meditating on Scripture. The desired response you have in mind is to get people to invest quality time in this activity.

The time-honored concept of having daily devotions seems like too aggressive a challenge in regard to your understanding of where most of your people are, spiritually speaking. So what you have in mind is to see if you can get at least half of the congregation to commit to spending just one half-hour sometime during the coming week to read and reflect on Scripture. Hopefully this will prove to be a positive experience that results in similar future encounters with God’s Word.

Do you think your people will know how to pull off what you have in mind on their own? NOT A CHANCE!!

Common problems they will experience include the following:

  • Where to find a quiet place
  • What part of the Bible to read
  • What’s involved with reflection
  • How to deal with distractions and interruptions
  • Getting over seeing this as an obligation rather than something truly beneficial

These and others are the practical “how to” problems you will need to work with in your topical sermons if you want it to be more than just “another nice little talk.”

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Grace for Clunkers – Sunday Soundbyte

The dictionary defines a “clunker” as “an old or badly working piece of machinery,” such as a dilapidated car, OR “someone notably unsuccessful.” That sounds like a person who has tried but failed more times than they care to admit. If that sounds like you, I am pleased today to be able to tell you about God’s incredible “Grace for Clunkers” program…

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The Battle Over Preaching

It’s relatively easy for a preacher on his/her own to quickly get into the sermon subject and the response being called for. It’s the how-to that takes extra sermon time to develop. Sadly, most Sunday sermons conclude without even a mention of how to go about doing what is needed to effect life transformation. The hearers’ minds have not been engaged with intriguing practicalities. So the habit of listening remains one of hearing and forgetting.

Unless change comes in regard to these matters, the American church really has little hope of surviving! Give it a couple more generations of the same old, same old, and I prophesy that our sanctuaries will be as empty as Europe’s!

A couple decades back, the battle lines in the church opposed each other over the issue of music. It was a bloody war that still continues in some circles. But new instruments started to appear, like guitars and (would you believe) drums! Song leaders slowly faded into oblivion as worship teams replaced them. Instead of a hymn here and there in the service, large blocks of time were opened up for sustained worship that usually featured new songs that were sung over and over until learned. People stood more than before and started lifting their hands in praise. Hymnals were put aside for PowerPoint slides of the words, displayed on walls or screens by overhead projectors. The revolution left many wounded, but in the end the younger element had its way.

What I see on the horizon is “The Mother of All Church Wars.” This time it will center on preaching and it will make the earlier music conflicts seem like child’s play. I say it’s time to admit that with the hundreds of thousands of church sermons preached in this nation every weekend, most really aren’t accomplishing all that much. People still come and listen, but for the most part they leave about the same as when they arrived, spiritually speaking. After they get home many of them can’t even answer simple questions like, “What was the subject of the sermon series?” “What response was called for?” “What practical help was offered regarding how to do this?” So the message is quickly forgotten, and the sinister Sermon-Sucking Black Hole remains a huge problem.

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