This interesting video illistrates the distrubing trend in the demographics of the developed world. Is our way of life at an end? Should we be promoting family growth in churches? I am not sure how to react to this…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-3X5hIFXYU[/youtube]
It seems a bit odd to be revisiting a blog topic from a year ago, but I still hear the same topic being used completely out of context by Christians after all this time. Worse yet, the people who are now misrepresenting the news are seminary professors and theology students.
It seems there is a deep-seated hatred of the “seeker-sensitive” church by many who would consider themselves “better” Christians. They portray the strategy of tailoring the Sunday morning worship events of the church toward non-Christians as being manipulative, unspiritual, and incorrectly representing the gospel message by not clearly portraying “fire and brimstone” to hell-bound sinners.
Too often, I believe they fail to realize the most people come to faith because God is shown in light of the love and kindness He has extended to sinful men. They fail to realized that the “seeker-sensitive” model is not about watering down the gospel, but about communicating the gospel in language that is familiar to non-Christians, and avoiding words that do not hold meaning for them, like: “sin, perpituation, redemption, etc.”
In my classes, Willow Creek church is characterized as having apologizing publically for pushing an incorrect strategy in their emphasis on seeker-sensitivity and small groups. This is entirely incorrect.
The Reveal study (www.revealnow.com) is another example of how Willow Creek is using the best of culture and academics to refine it’s mission to reach lost people. It does not in any way apologize for the major thrusts of Willow Creek’s past strategy toward being Seeker Sensitive, or promoting small groups. It instead shows that these strategies have been extremely successful in reaching the non-Christians and growing Christians of their church and the churches of the Willow Creek Association. What it apologizes for is its failure to lead people successfully through the stages of maturing Christian growth. It shows that they have failed to teach spiritual disciplines, or to show maturing Christians that they should stop looking to the church programming as the next step in their spiritual journey. Their failure is not a culture adoption problem at all…in fact, cultural adoption is still the key to much of their success in reaching new generations moving into the Chicago area. Their failure is keeping “older” believers motivated to grow in Christ, but not providing the most effective means for them to pursue that growth.
See my original post, here: https://blog.pathfinders.training/church/the-willow-creek-rumor-of-repentence/
In case I haven’t mentioned it before, I’ve been working part-time as a IT support person for a local school. Since my start in February, I’ve built servers, setup backups, written script, and maintianed the 80 computers that are in constant use at the Dallas Nursing Institute. It’s a job filled with challenges that are altogether different than the ones I confront at school. And while work and school keep me intellectually strained in two different directions, I love them both. I am a servant of Christ, and never more happy than to be meeting the need of others at DNI.
In light of those amazing discoveries, I wanted to share a new favorite blog that carries the IT geek theme that lives inside of me (http://www.dailycupoftech.com/) and also give you a short enjoyable clip from the world of tech geeks like me. Enjoy!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMlWbTqwkdU[/youtube]
I mentioned my general disappointment with the Bible Study resources in a past post, and I want to come back around and add a few recent discoveries that have positively impacted my study. I hope that that following sites peak your interest, and possibly add momentum to your time with God.
Language Tools:
If you only speak English, one of the most profitable things you can do is read from various translations. If you are a multi-lingual individual, I definitely suggest that you read from non-English translations as well. My favorite translations are the New American Standard Bible, and the New Century Version. The first is VERY accurate to the reading of the original language, the second is a paraphrase intended to be readable to children. Bible reading sites are very prevalent: bible.logos.com, www.youversion.com, www.biblegateway.com, etc. My favorite one is currently www.biblos.com, which has over 90 multi-lingual translations, and also makes an interlinear view available.
If you are a student of the original languages, I also recommend that you utilize online tools. I find the Greek view of www.biblos.com to be very helpful in my study–but am most impressed by John Dyer’s readers bible, where you can customized the view to provide only the elements of the text that you need to read successfully.
Bible Reading Plans:
Both online and offline, I am also a huge fan of Bible reading plans. My wife and I are currently following the plans available through YouVersion.com, so that we can keep each other accountable to reading through the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice this year. However, online reading guides are a dime a dozen, so take your pick. Most sites even provide the option to have your daily reading emailed to you, or send via RSS feed.
Bible Study Tools:
In addition to these tools, I suggest that you consider using one of a few different approaches to Bible study:
Here again, www.biblos.com shines with great resources and views for all of these.
Tomorrow I will once again approach the pulpit, in an attempt to communicate the Word of God effectively. It is a task that requires a TON of diligence, and one to which I feel totally inadequate. Give me a classroom, and I feel right at home, but put me behind a pulpit, and all is lost. Here are a few reasons why:
The sermon requires a monologue, not a conversation:
During my first sermon I approached the message with a concrete knowledge of my outline, thinking the inflections of my words and motions of my body would simply fit themselves to the message. I was wrong. I spent 12 minutes pacing back and forth with my hands bouncing together as if they were connected with a giant rubber band. My motions failed to follow my words and distracted the audience from God’s Word.
I’ve realized since then that a monologue is best fit into the category of acting, rather than speaking. It requires diligent rehearsal…both of words and physical actions. This time I wrote out my outline with inserted body movements, and I have practiced on the stage and in front of the mirror, rather than across a blank table. Next, I should allow my wife to critique my practice…but I just don’t have the guts for that yet.
Outline or Full Manuscript, I still cannot decide!
It really is quite difficult for me to decide whether I would prefer to preach from an outline or a manuscript. The manuscript allows me to be more eloquent with my words…but the process of revising it over and over along with my constant habit of changing the wording in the midst of the sermon makes all that hard work seem useless.
Using Scripture to Explain Scripture: Bad.
There is rarely a sermon that I hear today that does not seem to need to validate the words of a passage of Scripture with the example of David, Abraham, Joseph or Jesus. It carries with it to negative connotations.
Firstly, it seems to imply that if Jesus didn’t say it, it’s not as important to us as what He said–or that it doesn’t apply to us today. My professor jokingly said it this way: why do we need red-letter Bibles? The church believes that the entire Bible is the written product of the Holy Spirit. He’s just as much God as Jesus. The entire thing should be red-letter!
In addition to this, it is REALLY common to use Scripture to validate Scripture. We preach from Proverbs, only to pull in an example from the book of Job. The problem again is this: Scripture does not need to be repeated to be true. One lone command should be just as powerful in our lives as a command repeated 10 times. I cannot think enough to elaborate on this more right now, except to say this: beware filling the need to make Joseph or David the example for everything you teach. We should feel the need to enhance the commands of Scripture with stories of Scripture. Examples from real life are often more applicable, especially since many of the story examples I hear used to validate lessons on character or leadership tend to take the intention for the stories of these Biblical figures out of context.
Send up a prayer for me…this may be a class assignment, but it still involves proclaiming the Word of God, and I never want to take that lightly.
Recent Comments