Articles

Ricky has a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from UTEP. Sovereign Grace Pastors College, was a copywriter and editor, and has been in pastoral ministry since 2010. He oversees the vision, strategy, and preaching at Cross of Grace Church. He also serves on the Sovereign Grace Church Planting Group.

21 Ways to Plant Your Next Church

Written By Ricky Alcantar

Written by Eric Turbedsky and Ricky Alcantar

“When is the right time to begin the process of planting our next church?”

That’s a common question our church planting group receives a lot from pastors. But the answer isn’t what you might think. The answer is not, “Once you’ve got a planter ready” or “After you have a certain number of people in an area.”

The right time to begin the process of planting our next church is right now.

In many ways, each church should always be in the process of planting its next church. Church planting grows out of a church’s commitment to mission; it is, in many ways, an overflow of a church’s commitment to mission. So the healthier the commitment to mission, the better this prepares a church to plant.

Here are 21 ways to start the process of planting your next church. They’re stated here briefly and sometimes provocatively. The goal here is to take the idea of planting your next church from a theoretical wish to a practical reality you can prepare for. Not every one of them will apply to your specific church context and situation, but many of them will.

1. Develop a compelling vision for local missions

Help your church see your own community as a mission field. (This will also help your people see other communities as mission fields in the future.)

2. Adopt a second city

Find a partner church in another country and “adopt” it – get to know it and its context, support it practically, send help to it when possible, and repeat this over the long haul. Seeing the gospel at work in other contexts will spur us onward to mission in our own community as we see ourselves as part of what God is doing around the world.

3. Set a church planting goal

Set a faith-filled goal for planting in a particular place, or a goal to raise up a planter, perhaps by a particular year. What is realistic yet faith-filled? Write it down. Pray over it regularly.

4. Communicate your ambition with everyone

Don’t be shy about sharing a godly ambition for planting with leaders in your church and your congregation. Plans can change, but gospel ambition shouldn’t. It can be as simple as “We pray God helps us plant a church in this community nearby.”

5. Pray publicly for church planting

Be bold in prayer for particular places you desire to plant. Or pray particularly for what the church would need in order to be able to plant a church (i.e. planter, team, finances, etc.).

6. Budget for church planting

Set aside funds for church planter residencies, Pastors College, and leader development. Set aside funds for the first year of the plant. Make it part of your annual budget. This keeps planting in front of the elders and congregation.

7. Allow others to lead your services

Create opportunities for others to lead in doing things like opening a service, reading scripture, leading a prayer, or casting a vision for a new small group. Planting requires more leaders. Give them opportunities to lead. Help and coach them along.

8. Let people preach for the first time

When the church has one or two gifted teachers, it can be easy to stop developing preachers. Invite others to the pulpit for the first time and help them grow. Planting requires more gifted teachers on many levels of the church– both sent to the church plant and staying with the sending church.

9. Establish a preachers’ club

Invest in men by helping them specifically learn to preach – walk through a curriculum (like the Homiletics coursework at the Pastors College, or Simeon Trust). Give participants a chance to share a message with the rest of the group and give them feedback.

10. Spread preaching across the pastoral team

Share the pulpit with your pastoral team. Spreading the preaching load regularly helps planting in many ways: it gives others opportunities to grow their gifts, it builds the church into multiple leaders, and creates time for pastors to invest in other areas of the church like leadership development.

11. Offer internships

Bring people into the work. Interns can be paid or unpaid, full-time or part-time. But the key is being intentional, having clear goals for the internship, giving opportunities to lead out, and developing them.

12. Publish a process for making pastors

Write down a development process from start to finish. Training pastors takes an intentional plan to take a man from a faithful member to a pastor.

13. Know the SGC Best Practices.

Understand the current steps and guidelines for planting within Sovereign Grace. We plant together.

14. Train pastors to be lead pastors.

Develop the gifts and abilities of your team so that they can lead a church as well. Often the strongest plants are those led by experienced pastors.

15. Send men to our Pastors Conference.

Let them see the family of churches. Introduce people to the whole family of churches where they can be encouraged by what God is doing around the world. Help them begin to build relationships with your team and others.

16. Collaborate with your nearest sister church(es).

Do something with another Sovereign Grace church. Working together on mission gets both churches in the rhythm of collaborating on missional endeavors like planting.

17. Collaborate with other local churches.

Do something with another church in your town. Getting involved in your community alongside others helps you

18. Make church planting a part of every pastor’s job description.

Put something planting-related in every job description. While not every pastor is called to plant, every pastor is called to the work of supporting church planting – whether in leading prayer, preaching about planting, training leaders, missions, etc.

19. Introduce your church to missional leaders.

Highlight those in the congregation gifted and fruitful in sharing the gospel, encouraging others to follow their example.

20. Invite prospective church planters to join you.

Invite men aspiring to ministry to consider joining you in your vision to plant. Be direct and clear in your invitation, while not making promises for a particular outcome. Win them to the mission.

21. Be open to planting again.

Plant and then start again. The mission isn’t over once you plant; the goal is faithfulness year over year.

Are You Missing the Miracles of the Spirit in Everyday Ministry?

Written By Ricky Alcantar

It’s too easy for pastors and leaders to miss the miracles of the Holy Spirit, but when we open our eyes to see them we’ll be more full of strength, courage, and expectation as we minister.

I grew up in this family of churches, a proudly charismatic group. I also grew up afraid of the Holy Spirit. One of the people in my church referred to the Spirit as “The Holy Ghost” and as a kid, I wanted nothing to do with a strange ghost. I was a kid who liked order and predictability. I didn’t like how unpredictable prayer times or ministry times seemed.

Yet, later, I had a powerful encounter with the Spirit at age 13 during a missions week in Mexico. I wept tears of joy. I received some clear spiritual gifts. And then I spent some of my teen years wishing and longing I could experience that every week, and slightly disappointed when church seemed “normal.”

As a pastor, I often find myself caught between those two extremes as I minister to my church. There are times I want the Holy Spirit confined to a tidy corner of my statement of faith and don’t want our plans or ministry calendar interrupted. There are also times I long for some of the old experiences and wish we saw more of that every week.

But here is the poblem: In either extreme, I’m missing the miracles of the Spirit in everyday life. And when I miss the miracles of the Spirit, my church often misses the miracles too.

Miracles Everywhere

Think of it this way: I remember going on vacation to the beach in Mexico, where you could go parasailing. I remember just enduring the first two days, waiting for that one activity. But meanwhile, I was missing the ocean, the games with my cousins in the pool, the coconut bowling, the cold drinks on hot days. I missed the rest of the beauty.

Similarly, I’ve found that most Christians and pastors tend to default to thinking about spiritual gifts when we talk about the Spirit. But in the Bible, spiritual gifts are only one of the many miracles of the Spirit. If we’re fixated on one (very good!) benefit of the Spirit, we may miss the rest. We become the kid sitting grumpy inside waiting for parasailing, while there is an endless beach to run on.

So what are some of these other miracles we should be looking for? Here are just four.

The Miracle of the Spark

We often miss what is perhaps the most clear and obvious miracle of the Spirit: the spark that brings us to life.

In Ezekiel 34 there is a powerful picture of dry and dead bones that can do nothing on their own. But then a mighty wind (a picture of the Spirit of God) comes rushing in, and these dry bones come to life. We are crusty, sun-blasted, and sand-blown skeletons rattling around on the desert floor. Someone could offer us all the water in the world, but we could never drink it—if not for the Spirit of God.

Our hearts are made alive through the work of the Spirit. We then see the work of Christ for us—his death for our sins—and we happily believe. We drink deeply of salvation and rejoice. In John 3, we see the meeting between Jesus and Nicodemus, where Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (v. 5). We can only believe if we are born anew of the Spirit.

Do we ourselves see the miracle of the Spirit in all we do as Christians? We would not even be in Christ apart from this miracle. Do we help those we serve to identify and rejoice in this miracle?

The Miracle of the Forge

How is it that we grow in Christ-likeness? How is it that we are re-forged from our old shape that’s been warped by sin into a new shape that resembles Christ? By the Spirit.

Listen to Paul here: “But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to one another, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Galatians 5:16–17).

Paul shows us that there is a war going on inside of us between the “old us” and the “new us.” He calls the “old us”—our sin nature—the “flesh.” But by God’s grace, however, there is another power at work in us. It is the Spirit of God.

Before the Spirit, we’d have no hope of seeing true and lasting change in our lives. But the Spirit gives us hope. The Spirit enables us “both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). That means we receive the power to desire change as well as the power to actually change. This is nothing short of miraculous.

So do we see this miracle of the Spirit in our lives? Do we help those we serve see this miracle? Every time we are reshaped a little more, do we say, “Ah, look at the Spirit’s work.”

The Miracle of God’s Nearness

In Romans 8:13–16, Paul transitions straight from our fight against sin (one of the purposes of the Spirit) to our experience of God’s presence (another purpose of the Spirit):

“For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”

The work of Christ reconciles us to God. God the Father adopts us. It is one thing to know that you have a heavenly father, but it is another to be the son feeling the embrace of the father. This is the miracle the Spirit does – helping us experience in our hearts what is true in legal declaration over us.

While we do not always subjectively sense this perfectly, there will be, for the Christian, many clear times the Spirit does allow us to sense this. Perhaps a moment of being lost in worship. Perhaps a moment of comfort as we pour our hearts out in prayer. It is the Spirit’s work to help us feel the embrace of the Father.

When we feel God’s embrace, do we trace this back to the miracle of the Spirit’s work? Do we see that apart from the Spirit’s unique work this would be impossible? Do we help those we serve to see the Spirit’s work in those moments as well?

The Miracle of Missional Power

When Jesus is about to ascend, he speaks of the promise of the Spirit coming, and he ties the Spirit’s coming not to our personal experience but to our outward mission.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

The Spirit, Jesus says, is coming to us, but he is not coming just for us. The gift of the Spirit is also for others through us. The power we receive from the Spirit is given to empower us for a mission.

Later in Acts 4, the believers face intense persecution. But the apostles say, “We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (v. 20). The religious leaders threaten them and demand they stop speaking. When the believers gather and pray, their prayer is not that the persecution will stop but rather, “Grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness” (v. 29).

What is the result? Verse 31 tells us, “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.”

When the Church sets itself to the task for which God has given the Spirit, God sends the Spirit.

When we set ourselves to the task of witness, God gives us the power of the Spirit for that witness.

So here is the miracle we often miss: When Christians share the gospel and witness to Christ, they do so because they’ve been empowered by the Spirit.

Do we see that any of our efforts to share the gospel or be a witness are only possible because of the Spirit? And do we have confidence that when we step out in faith to share we’ll be met with the Spirit’s power? Tracing the work of the Spirit will make us, and those we serve, bold and fearless in gospel proclamation.

He Still Does the Wonders

A few years ago, one of our gospel partners from India was sharing with our church and coined a phrase that has lived in my mind ever since. He spoke about how our churches might be separated by distance, culture, and language, but we have some things gloriously in common. We believe in the gospel as of first importance. We treasure the Word. And in that list of common traits between us, he said this:

“Like you, we believe God still does the wonders.”

I love that. In our family of churches much has changed over the years, but this should not change. We want to remain a family who believes God still does wonders – bringing new life, helping people change, drawing people close in his presence, empowering gospel witness, and giving spiritual gifts. These are wonders. Miracles.

When we see these miracles, here’s the effect:

We treasure the Lord’s work – Even writing this short reflection, I’ve been overcome at how precious God’s work is in my life and church
We lean forward in courage and strength – Tracing God’s work only builds more confidence and faith for God’s work in the future.
We take the Spirit from our statement of faith to our everyday life – I love our Statement of Faith’s section on the Spirit, but it was written not to keep the Spirit in a tidy box but to serve us as we live in the power of the Spirit in everyday life.

May we lean forward, believing He still does the wonders.

FREE RESOURCE

Recently I completed a book published by my local church on the work of the Spirit. It was written out of a heart to help Christians understand the Spirit and see these miracles in their own life. We’d love to send a PDF and eBook to any pastor in Sovereign Grace that wants one. Just email ricky@crossofgrace.net and I’ll gladly send you a copy.

Common Preaching Weaknesses in Our Family of Churches (And How to Change)

Written By Jeff Purswell

Originally titled, “Identifying Our Weaknesses”: a message delivered in two parts on February 13 and 14, 2008 at the Sovereign Grace Pastors College Preaching Conference.

I want to begin with a familiar text that is only indirectly related to the way in which we are going, but also an appropriate reminder.

Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. (1 Timothy 4:12-13)

Here in this inspiring letter Paul is addressing his trusted coworker Timothy, instructing him and encouraging him, aware of the threats to Paul’s Aegean mission. False teaching is spreading. There are signs of a counter-mission. Apparently some former church leaders are teaching false doctrine.

One fascinating thing about 1 Timothy, and the Pastoral Epistles in general, is Paul’s change of strategy. Earlier in his ministry he has been writing letters to churches, but in the second part of his ministry he starts writing letters to individuals. And so we have these precious things called Pastoral Epistles.

In light of the false teaching, in light of the heresy clearly at the forefront of Paul’s concern, Paul unveils his primary weapon in battling heresy—the establishment and definition of biblical leadership.

How do you battle heresy that threatens to destroy the church and hinder its mission? You define, establish, train, encourage, and guard biblical leadership. That is what Paul does in the Pastoral Epistles.

And so in this section of 1 Timothy we gain profound insight into the kind of leadership that will vanquish error and establish the truth. And so Paul’s letter—after addressing things on the corporate level for a few chapters—turns to Timothy personally. Paul pulls Timothy aside in his own little Pastors College moment to emphasize what should characterize a faithful pastor.

Paul writes, “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.” One imperative, governing three activities. Devote yourself to three activities.

Interestingly, Paul doesn’t just give a job description. He doesn’t just list responsibilities. But he calls for something. He calls for an intensity of devotion to something, an intensity of devotion to the task. And what is the task? Three things: to the reading of sacred Scripture (exposing people to the voice of God in the Scripture), to exhortation (calling people to respond by pressing its claims upon people) and to teaching (the exposition of Scripture’s meaning through clear and patient instruction).

These are the tasks we are exploring in this conference.

Moving from Heart to Process and Product

Now we move from heart issues (in earlier chapters) to process and product. We start examining the actual process of preaching and the product of preaching the sermon. And the place we begin this morning is assessment. We want to examine where we are in Sovereign Grace relative to the public proclamation of God’s word.

Later we will get into the actual process of preparation, but now I want to lay the backdrop by establishing some areas where I think we can all grow. Some of these I think are characteristic of Sovereign Grace in general, not necessarily every person. We have different strengths and not all of us have the same tendencies as others. But I do think there are common weaknesses. And so my hope is to encourage our growth in these areas, to create some discernment, and to suggest some specific categories for growth.

I think addressing our weaknesses is important and will help set a trajectory for where we want to go as we consider the preaching task, specifically within the churches of Sovereign Grace Ministries.

Seven Categories for Growth in Sovereign Grace Preaching

Please know I include myself in all of these. I am not sitting back, identifying these categories in sort of a dispassionate separation. I see myself in all of these things.

Introductory Inefficiency

The beginning of your sermon has importance disproportionate to its length. And one of the things I have observed in those opening moments is introductory inefficiency.

Now this inefficiency manifests itself in a number of specific ways.

Undisciplined informality

Compared to other traditions we are more informal in atmosphere. We are non-liturgical. We lack some formal aspects of other worship traditions and denominations. We don’t have a specific call to worship (although we have our own little thing that functions like that). When you enter a meeting, the environment tends to be more celebratory than somber. You have been in churches where you walk in and there is a hushed silence where people just sit down and begin praying. That’s great. We’re just different.

Now, this is not at all to critique our informality, it’s just to recognize that our informality leaves us vulnerable to an undisciplined informality. And this can manifest itself in a number of ways.

Wordiness

Undisciplined informality can manifest itself in wordiness. We have not thought through what we are going to say. We are much more prone to stand up and engage in a conversation and be inspired by the moment, without having thought through exactly where we are going to go. That can occur at the beginning of our messages. Instead of purposefully entering our message, we sort of wander into our message.

And I am certainly not arguing for an artificial formality. That would obviously not fit in our context. But I am commending intentionality and discipline and planning. Important things are happening at the beginning of your sermon, more than you may be aware of.

How you enter the preaching moment sets the emotional tone. If you come into the pulpit and you’re chitchatting, adding an announcement that you forgot a moment ago, directing an usher, moving around your lectern, joking with the guy in the front row because of his sweater, you are obscuring the importance of the preaching moment. You are sending a message that, “OK, this is just the next thing we do.”

Preaching is not just the next thing we do! Preaching is the primary thing we come to do. Sitting under the word of God, hearing the voice of God, being addressed by the Sovereign God of the universe, and responding to him in worship and obedience and praise and adoration—that’s why we gather.

Again, this does not rest upon a formal environment, but one where people realize we are turning our attention to God and his word. We are about to be addressed by God. We need to help people realize this is a significant, eternal moment.

If it is true what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2:16, that we are an aroma in our preaching—some an aroma to death, some an aroma to life—eternal things are happening in preaching. We want people to know that. We don’t want people content to kind of wander the halls working their way into the auditorium. No. There are important things happening in that room. There are eternal things happening in that room. We don’t want to obscure that by wandering into our sermon. People need to recognize preaching as relevant and significant—a meeting between them and God.

Long Introductions

I would add here the issue of long introductions. If you want to find a place to cut your messages, your introduction is the first place to look. Wordiness here can rob your effectiveness. So if you have an introduction that involves a story in your past, you want that to be conversational. However, you don’t want to just wander on and on in that introduction. You want to do the hard work in your study of preparing and crafting and familiarizing yourself, so that in that moment you can build relational bridges as you connect with people and be disciplined in what you cover. So be careful about those opening moments of your sermon. It’s here we can waste the most time.

And it’s not only an issue of time, but if we just wander on and on and something else occurs to us during the opening story, we go down some other rabbit trails. By doing this we are teaching people that what we have to say is unimportant. We are training our people not to pay attention. We are training our people to expect distractions. And most significantly, we are introducing distractions to them.

We need to think of our introductions in terms of function. We are not artificially putting a story in front of our sermons because communication theory tells us to. No. Introductions have a function. Introductions grab our hand and lead us to the main thing we seek to communicate. If the introduction doesn’t lead to the main point, then the introduction distracts from the main point.

I will never forget my first sermon at seminary. I worked hard on this introduction and I think it was pretty good, actually. We had 30 minutes to preach the sermon. Mike Bullmore was my teacher and he made this observation. He said it was a good introduction. It was appropriate. It was right. But the message was too long. He taught me to be aware of a lengthy introduction that assumes a massive place in the structure of the sermon that it doesn’t warrant. That is exactly what we can do.

It may be a great introduction, but what is the point of the text? What is God trying to get done?

I don’t want to minimize the potential of an effective introduction, just caution that we don’t let our informality lead us to inefficiency.

So if you have a story, think it through. What issues do you want to bring up? What details do you want to add? And then craft it. Cut it. Make it succinct. Use only those details that will most accomplish the purpose of an introduction, which is to draw people’s attention and eventually lead them to the burden of your text.

It’s easy to lose credibility in the first five minutes of your message. Have you ever experienced that? I am not necessarily talking about a sermon. It could be a sermon. It could be a preacher. Or it could be someone you are listening to on C-Span. After 30-seconds you think, “This guy is a fool.” You don’t want to lose your credibility in those opening moments by wandering aimlessly or by indulging yourself with details that entertain but don’t enhance the function of your introduction.

Unnecessary review

We often feel an obligation or desire to review last week’s message, so we spend 15 minutes reminding everyone of what we said. And we burn minutes on unnecessary review, retracing our steps and re-preaching last week’s message. Don’t do that. Don’t detract with “last week.” There is a present purpose in this sermon. This is a present moment of urgency because the word of God is being proclaimed. Let’s not drain the present moment of significance by retracing the steps of last week’s moment of significance. Don’t draw attention to what you are not going to preach. Draw people’s attention to what you are going to preach.

That’s not to say that review is unacceptable or unnecessary. We must be purposeful. The rule of thumb would be this: Review previous material to the extent it makes the present material clear and understandable. What does it take to get people to understand this text as quickly and succinctly as possible? If I need to review something to make this clear, then I will do it. If I don’t, there is no need for review.

Double introductions

“Double introductions” are another common phenomenon. This is more a matter of poor structure than anything else. Basically, this is a mistake of separating the introduction from the presentation of the sermon’s main idea—be it the proposition or perhaps the truth category. Maybe it is an inductive message, so you are introducing a category that your text will fill out or answer. However, when framing the text’s main thrust at the beginning part of your message, you don’t want to unduly separate that introduction from the presentation of the text’s main point. Often that happens with background material.

Here is an example of what I mean. A preacher will tell a story or maybe read an excerpt from an article and arrive at a particular point. Maybe it’s about Ernest Shackleton. So you are talking about Shackleton, and this vivid story of courage in the face of danger and how he kept up his men’s spirits and kept their vision on the coming promised rescue. And you come up and you reach this point:” Shackleton demonstrated unbending courage in the face of overwhelming odds. At times we face circumstances that seem overwhelming and God wants us to have similar courage.”

That’s kind of a nice introduction. You are building momentum. You have made a connection. And then you read the text and launch into a second explanation:

So here Peter is writing to Christians and they are spread throughout Asia Minor and he mentions a number of regions here, probably provinces. These are probably political distinctions. And they are in a circular arrangement because most likely there is a courier taking this letter from one place to another and these probably would have been mixed churches. It used to be thought that they were mixed, but now we probably think maybe they were Jewish roots, but mainly Gentile congregations, I think. And Peter is writing to these people who are facing persecution. But it wasn’t, you know, legal persecution. It used to be thought that it was either Nero or Domitian, but now we know that those weren’t official throughout the empire, but nonetheless it was true persecution, maybe sporadic persecution, circumstantial persecution. But there was suffering. And so Peter encourages them to stand fast in the face of suffering. We, too, suffer as Christians. And here is what I think this text was meant to communicate: Stand firm in the face of suffering.

Now where is Shackleton? You left him in Antarctica. But you see the problem—there are two introductions. You have the first introduction, and you start to suggest what this text might say—and then you go to the text, and you give a historical introduction, and then you arrive at your proposition, and you might as well exclude your first introduction. It didn’t function, it only distracted, and it only took up time.

Have you ever done that?

It is that background information you have to think through. Craft it. Hone it. Choose it. Be selective. And then say, “Where is it going to function?” If I am going to have an introduction that gains attention, then I don’t want to separate the introduction from the thrust of my text.

I see this same thing with doctrinal content. There is an introduction, maybe a great story about your childhood and about how you always struggled with knowing you were accepted by God. And you say, “In college I had this life-changing moment when I realized the basis upon which God accepted me.” Then you have your people turn to Romans 3, read the text, and pray. Then comes the second introduction, “But before we get into this text it is important to understand the difference between justification and sanctification. Actually the ordo salutis begins before that in eternity past through God’s merciful, sovereign choice of election and then there is the miracle of regeneration which leads to eternal.”

You get my point. It’s easy to start loading content, copying-and-pasting from what I read last night in Grudem, adding it into my message, my childhood, and my struggles with assurance.

For an introduction to function well, it must be tied to the claim of the text. Don’t separate these. You will waste time. You will squander the potential of your introduction and you will drain your sermon of momentum. You don’t want to take the air out of your sermon; you want to be building the air. It is like inflating a tire. You pump. You pump. You pump. The tire expands and gets fuller and feller. You don’t want to stop in the middle and let the air out. Throughout the entire sermon, you want to be building and maintaining a forward motion.

So guard the early moments. Get to your text as soon as you can. Get to the thrust of the message as soon as you can.

2. Information Overload

In our sincere and rightful desire to be faithful, we can misconstrue the preaching task as primarily or exclusively one of data transfer. Obviously, there is content to be shared, explanation to be done, truth to be communicated, teaching to be accomplished. However, the goal of preaching is not informational, it’s transformational. Your goal is not downloading data to your people, but exposing them to the text so the text can transform their lives.

A sermon is not just a man describing God, or describing salvation, or describing the gospel. God’s word is not intended simply to inform. It’s meant to have a functional, transformative effect on our lives.

Preaching identifies the transformative intent of the text and it brings that to bear upon people so—by the Spirit—the word can do a work in their lives. Guard against the tendency to download what you read in that commentary or the sermon CD you just heard.

The temptation here is with biblical background information. Have you ever found background information fascinating? Yes. That is one reason you are a preacher. Most people don’t. Or their fascination is circumscribed by their immediate situation. I am interested as long as this is going to help. We have been immersed in this stuff all week. Our listeners have not. So in our presentation of material (be it background, context, or exegetical detail) we must be selective.

Your sermon has a purpose

Your sermon has a purpose. It is not to explore the ancient Near East or to deliver an exegetical paper. It is to enable this text to have its intended effect upon the people of God.

Your people have limitations

Your people have limitations. They do not have the capacity to take in through their ears all that you have processed through hours of reading. They do not have the time to process the information that you do. They do not have the background knowledge that makes some of that information more intelligible. They don’t have the vested interest you have. You are preaching, they are not. So you must be selective, which can be difficult when you are engaged with the material.

Now, your in-depth study is not a waste of time. Though much is left on the cutting room floor, it does something in you. It seasons your interpretation, fills out your perspective, directs, and shapes you. It is not to say that the work is not important, but the selectivity is critical.

Incorporate the material that is essential to giving your exposition clarity and credibility. In Scripture there is some assumed information. Just like you got up and read the paper this morning and the writer speaks about the “Potomac Primaries.” The writer does not say, “Barack Obama sailed to another victory in the Potomac primaries yesterday. Let me tell you what the Potomac River is. … And let me explain what a primary is.” The writer assumes all this stuff.

Well, the same thing is happening between the original author and the original audience. Certain assumptions exist in Scripture. We need to fill in those gaps, so that people can understand what the text says.

You want to give the exposition clarity and credibility. If you are making a point that is not clear or that could elicit objections or questions, you are obligated to give reasons for your exposition. So be aware of that. Present this information succinctly, eliminating unnecessary detail and naturally allowing it to inform your exposition.

3. Structural Complexity

The more I preach, the more I gravitate towards simple structures. The simpler, the better. So avoid multiple layers in your sermon. If you drop down to point two, letter b, subpoint number three, you are in too deep. You may not come out. Or you will come out and those you led in may not make it out with you.

Simple structures are best. If you are dropping down into that kind of detail, the chances are high that you have drifted too far from the intended thrust of the text. You are probably emphasizing a point in this text which—at the level at which you are preaching it— should not be emphasized. It doesn’t mean it is unimportant. But, again, when we preach God’s word, when we preach a text of Scripture, we are not doing thorough exegetical treatments. We could never do a thorough exegetical treatment in 40 minutes. So chances are if you are getting that deep you have left something behind or you are, perhaps, adding something artificially. So simplify structures.

My first homiletics professor told me something I have never forgotten. He said to me, “Preach close to the mains (main points). If they are your mains, let them be your mains. If they are the main points, don’t obscure them by 40 other points, all of which are vying for main-ness. Preach close to your mains.”

Not only is this an issue of clear communication, but also of expositional integrity and communicating the thrust of that text.

Texts have structure because of certain created realities. There are certain created realities built into the way God constructed human consciousness—logic, coherence, reason, rationality, and development. Scripture is not like certain ancient Near Eastern magical texts that wander from one truth claim to another truth claim to another truth claim. No. Scripture proceeds in logical, rational development because it doesn’t violate these created realities. And we don’t want our sermons to violate those created realities either.

I’m reminded of something John Stott memorably put it in his classic preaching text, Between Two Worlds,

The golden rule for sermon outlines is that each text must be allowed to supply its own structure. The skillful expositor opens up his text, or rather permits it to open itself up before our eyes, like a rose unfolding to the morning sun and displaying its previously hidden beauty.

So let texts supply the structure, and keep it simple.

4. Lack of Unity

This is a common weakness, not just for Sovereign Grace, but for anyone who preaches.

Unity is an absolute requirement in preaching and if your sermon does not have it, its absence will be obvious. People know it. They may not know that it was a poor outline, but they will know something was wrong with it. When you are preaching you don’t want to see a lot of furrowed brows. You want wide-eyed expressions that are saying to you, “Ah, yes!”

Identify the intended purpose

Nothing is more important in your sermon preparation than identifying the text’s purpose. Scripture is not just data, it’s not just information, it’s not just a history book. One of the great texts of Scripture on Scripture is 2 Timothy 3:16:

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

Scripture works, it gets specific things done—teaching, reproof, correction, training in righteousness. Scripture has an intended purpose, therefore, your sermon must have an intended purpose.

I remember a student approached me about a sermon he was going to preach on friendship with God. “Can you help me out? I’ll be preaching at a church and I want to talk about friendship with God. So do you have any thoughts about that?”

I said, “Well, I have no idea. What are you going to say about friendship with God? Are you encouraging believers that they can have—through the finished work of Christ—a relationship with God and they can be like Abraham, “friends of God,” which, against the ancient Near Eastern background, is incomprehensible? Or is it a message on obedience? In John 15 Jesus says, “You are my friends if you do what I say.” So maybe it is a message on obedience? Maybe it is an evangelistic message where you are going to speak about the state of all people before God? Don’t buddy up to God because Scripture says we are enemies of God. We are at enmity with God, the wrath of God abides, but because of the work of Christ enemies can be reconciled. This war can be transformed and blossom into the sweetest fellowship. So I have no idea how to help you until you tell me what you want to say about friendship with God.”

We don’t simply start with a topic but an intended purpose.

In Colossians 1:28 Paul has this intriguing statement about his ministry—“Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.” Scripture is God’s chisel. It’s his completing instrument. Texts of Scripture come to us, shape us, form us, cut off rough edges, and transform us until— week after week after week and year after year—it matures us into fully-orbed Christians.

So every time you preach, you are bringing a text to bear upon people’s lives in this process of forming, shaping, completing, and perfecting.

Intended Redemptive Effect (IRE)

Every preacher must find in their text the Intended Redemptive Effect (IRE). You need to be asking: What is the functional, transformative effect this text is intended to have in the believer’s life individually or the church’s life corporately? I have no idea where I am going in a sermon until I identify the IRE. So what is the text attempting to do about unbelief or this fallen condition? Is it informing the condition? Is it rebuking the condition? When this sermon is over and the Holy Spirit has applied it to people’s hearts, how are they different?

I cannot start my preparation until I know the IRE. But once I know this I’m well on my way. It does everything for me. It determines the purpose of my sermon, drives the proposition of my sermon, and is where the proposition originates. The IRE will help guarantee the unity of my sermon, and it will set the trajectory of application.

If a text is calling me to forsake unbelief and trust in the promises of God, application is within view. In fact, I’m already at application.

Once you have identified the IRE, then let it function. Let it govern your message. Let it govern your structure. Let it govern the thrust of your application. Your main points are not separate ideas, not some new fresh ideas untethered to your proposition, not burdens you bring, not fresh ideas you have. No. Main points unpack, expound, undergird, support, and press forward this main idea of your sermon. That is how you obtain unity—identify the purpose and then allow that purpose to function.

Weak arguments

Our sermons should explain the text to make it clear, illustrate to make it vivid, apply to make it practical. But our sermons are progressing and unfolding as we move from point to point. This unfolding contributes to a growing sense of clarity and conviction.

I mentioned this earlier with the inner tube illustration, but one of the keys to effectiveness in a sermon is maintaining the building momentum, attaining an increasing weight of the accumulated argument as it builds and moves forward. Great sermons exhibit this. As they proceed they expand and the effect deepens as it progresses. And people arrive at the end of a sermon with a fullness of understanding, thoroughly grasping the meaning with their soul, penetrated by its truth, and postured to respond. That is what we want to attain in a sermon.

So as you develop sermons, think: Does this cohere? Is the argument sound? Is there clarity in the development of the idea? The answers are critical to the unity of the sermon.

5. Incisiveness of Application

I am not concerned that we are not giving attention to application. The way C.J. has led us we have a historical strength of application. But application is not easy and we all have room to grow.

Dualistic fallacy

Part of what hinders our application is a flaw in our thinking, what I have called dualistic fallacy. We can think that a sermon is information plus application. And so we tend to think of application as separate from the text itself.

Tell me if you have ever heard a sermon like this or preached a sermon like this. You talk and you talk and there are about five minutes left. Then the preacher says, “Now for some application.” Have you ever done that? Sure. Last Sunday.

To be quick to say there is a concluding summons for a response is appropriate. It can be a very effective time to refocus the applicatory channels that you have been exploring. Or maybe if it’s an inductive message that tells the story of Christ and unfolds his glory, his person, his claims, his authority, and his trustworthiness—then it’s appropriate to have application at the end following the isolation of the truth of that text. That is fine.

But we shouldn’t think of application exclusively as, “What I do at the end.” We sort of pin the tail of application onto the sermon of information. Application is not an appendage to your sermon. It is not something you attach. Application starts the moment you open your mouth.

If you have identified your IRE and your prop captures the IRE, you are applying already. The entire sermon is about responding to the truth of God. The entire sermon presses for application. A sermon that doesn’t press for application is not a sermon. It may be a great explanation. It may be a wonderful exegetical treatise. It’s not a sermon.

Once you have identified the IRE, it sets the trajectory for your application. You’re already suggesting the application. Then the task becomes helping people identify concrete ways that this effect can find expression in their lives—in their obedience, thinking, practice, relating, praying.

Mistaking exhortation for application

Exhortation is necessary, and exhortation can be powerful, but exhortation is not application. But I think that when we exhort and press the claims of Scripture on our people we somehow feel like, “Good, I’m done. I’ve done application.” Exhortation is not application. Exhortation is good, important, and necessary. First Timothy 4:13 tells us to “exhort.” But that is not application. To urge people to respond is different from helping them see what a response might look like.

Circumstance vs. the heart

We make sermons applicable to different seasons of life. And that is exactly right. We should do that. We need to make it a point in our sermons to address different people—mothers of young children, singles, married couples, children. You should be thinking about those people in your congregation as you are preparing.

But be careful that you are not gravitating only towards your own season of life. Recently I realized that many of my illustrations have to do with my boys and my parenting. And that’s good. I want to include those. But if my application is all driven by my little season of life, I’m not addressing other people.

But the key is not only about addressing all people in all circumstances (although that’s a good practice). But let me suggest another category—not only “season of life,” but “stance of heart.” What condition are the hearts of my people and how does this text affect these different conditions of the heart?

So don’t only think mothers of young children, but think of those feeling the weight of being overwhelmed and those tempted to discouragement. These are conditions that can apply to all seasons of life. We all face those temptations.

The preacher can address all those seasons of life though heart stances. And this will add variety to our application. One thing I have noticed is that at the end of our sermons we can fall into this grid in application. Towards the end of the sermon we address mothers with young children, singles, parents. OK, next sermon we address mothers of young children, singles, parents. Next sermon we do the same thing. You know what I mean? I’ve done it.

Let’s go deeper and think heart stances.

Hanging questions

We use questions in our application. It is a very effective way to provoke reflection. Questions open up categories. But sometimes we think that because we have asked questions that we’ve helped people apply. No, maybe we just helped condemn them.

What you want to do is not only ask questions, but then suggest both wrong and right answers. For instance, we can ask, “Does your life reflect the importance of God’s word?” Now, 99.9 percent of our people will say “No,” right? It’s not enough just to ask the question and leave it hanging. Anyone can ask the question.

But you want to suggest some negative answers. Say, “Maybe you just feel overwhelmed and you feel it’s impossible to get to God’s word. Maybe you are distracted by other things in life.” By suggesting some wrong answers you begin relating to people and begin helping them process the question.

And then on the positive side show them what a biblical response looks like. Show them what God’s grace wants to do in that area. So suggest ways God’s grace wants to change the area that they have just become guilty over.

You may tell your people, “So do you find yourself distracted from God’s word? It doesn’t have to be that way. God is after something. This isn’t just a call to get disciplined. No. God’s Spirit wants to open your eyes to the beauty of God’s word. He wants you to be transformed in your perspective on God’s word. When that happens, God’s word assumes its right place in life. That is what God wants to do in our lives.”

See, now you are creating hope and suggesting what God’s grace wants to do.

Allow questions to lead people to the grace that God promises to provide for a biblical response.

Lingering responsibility vs. motivating grace

Because we emphasize application (and rightly so) we can conclude our messages accenting responsibility at the expense of grace. Never leave people at the end of your message more aware of what they must do than what Christ has done and what Christ promises to do.

I think about this when I prepare. When my people leave, what thought should animate their mind? I want to make sure that (depending on the text) what Christ has done, and what he promises to do, animates their mind. This is not to blunt conviction. This is not to withhold a summons to respond. We are to wrap that summons, wrap that conviction, in the promises of grace. I don’t want people to leave saying, “What a wretch.” I want them to leave saying, “What a Savior, what a promise, what a hope!” That is Christ-centered preaching. Christ-centered preaching is not simply making mention of the gospel or the cross. Christ-centered preaching is laying people at the feet of the Savior.

I don’t want to say to my people, “All right. Here is your week. God’s word has addressed you. It has convicted you. Now I am laying you at the feet of your responsibility. Go and be blessed.” No. I want to lay them at the feet of the Savior. I want to lay them in his arms, trusting and resting in him.

John Calvin in The Institutes used that great image of leaning into Christ. I want people leaving leaning into Christ—leaning, resting, hoping, and trusting in him. That is where we want to deliver people at the end of our messages. We don’t want them burdened with responsibility, we want them smitten with grace.

6. Truth-Driven Passion

What do we mean by truth-driven passion? Here I am talking about appropriately embodying the intended emotional force of the text. So here we are touching upon the incarnational aspect of preaching.

Preaching is incarnational, meaning it calls for the presence of human personality. This sets preaching apart from other modes of communication. This sets preaching apart from personal Bible reading. That is why we don’t just hand out Bibles and read from Scripture on a Sunday morning. Why not? Because there is more going on in the preaching moment than just a delivery of information (as we have emphasized a number of times).

One of the things that enters here is biblical anthropology. We are people created in the image of God. We were created to know God, created to reflect God, and endowed with certain characteristics from God. And so we are created to know him.

In the ancient Near East a king would set up huge statues of himself in distant providences which represented his presence and authority. In the same way God has set up an image of himself. And that is man. And this impacts the way God communicates as he speaks through divinely appointed messengers. Ever since man was ejected from the garden, God has communicated to his people by mediating his word through someone. Even the Scriptures were mediated from God through someone.

God didn’t just deliver the Israelites. God could have just wiped out the Egyptians and delivered Israel. No. He sent a messenger to reveal God to them. “Tell him I AM has sent you.” And then after delivering them, he appointed this messenger to not only give them his law, but then to interpret that law. So Deuteronomy is basically comprised of three sermons of Moses explicating this law. And then, of course, throughout the rest of the Old Testament we read the prophets. The most accurate definition of a prophet is one who speaks God’s words. “I will put my words in his mouth” (Deuteronomy 18:18).

The ultimate revelation, of course, is through the person of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. He is a particular kind of revelation, a different kind of revelation—not just one prophet through a line of other prophets, but a qualitatively different revelation (Hebrews 1:1-2). The apostles stand in that same succession. Now preachers stand in that same succession.

Listen to this quote from a classic essay on preaching by J.I. Packer in The Preacher and Preaching. Packer writes,

God’s standard way of securing and maintaining His person-to-person communication with us, His human creatures, is through the agency of persons whom He sends to us as His messengers. … Such were the prophets and apostles, and such supremely was Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son. … That is the succession in which preachers today are called to stand.

It’s sobering that this is the succession in which preachers today are called to stand. The moment of preaching is not simply one in which you—by virtue of your job or by virtue of the nameplate on your office door—get to stand up and share some thoughts. No. You are not sharing thoughts. You are not Jay Leno. You are not a talking head. You are standing in the very stead of God.

Oh, that is a frightening thing.

It’s not only a divine message you are bringing. But you are meant to be a suitable vessel for that message, embodying its truth, exemplifying an appropriate response to its claims, impassioned by the weight of the message and the urgency of the moment.

Think about the kind of messengers you see in Scripture. You hear Jeremiah with fire in his bones. Ezra speaks in such a way that people weep.

So that’s the calling we have. We bring a divine message, and we bring it through a vessel affected by that truth. That’s one reason why character is so important for a pastor. You are an example. Look through the Pastoral Epistles. What you see stressed over and over there is, you are an example to the people. You are not a super Christian, you are an exemplary Christian. You are meant to be.

Packer said this also in that same essay, “Preaching mediates not only God’s authority, but also His presence and His power.” So preaching mediates the very presence of God. And that should humble us. It should sober us. Preaching doesn’t just disclose information, it discloses God. Without using this word in systematic theological categories, it is a moment of revelation (in a sense). In preaching, God’s presence is revealed.

Notetaking during preaching

That’s one reason why the preaching moment is so important, and why we don’t want people merely preoccupied with the doctrinal content. Content, yes, but not merely. We don’t want people so consumed with notetaking that they miss the presence of God being revealed.

People can think, “It doesn’t really matter what is happening right now. I just want to get everything written down so on Monday morning at Starbucks I can go over my notes.”

Notetaking is great. Praise God they are going over their notes in Starbucks. It is great they are continuing to apply. Please don’t misunderstand. However, I don’t want them merely thinking, “Just let me get every word down so later I can process it.” No. I want them engaging with God now because there is something that happens in the preaching moment that will not happen at Starbucks.

So that impinges upon, I think, the degree of notes that we use during our preaching. Outlines can be helpful for people. But, again, we should always be measuring those outlines. Are they distracting from the preaching moment? We want our people not only to hear, learn, and apply, we want them to encounter God in that moment. That’s what God promises to do. We can’t generate it. We can’t manufacture it. But God promises to do it.

Passionate preaching

Our preaching should be appropriately passionate. I am grateful for the most passionate preacher I know (C.J.) leading us in that. But it’s not about the mere emulation of a leader. Passion is a function of the theology of preaching, a function of our dependence upon God for the effect of preaching, a function of the necessary effect of God’s word upon an authentic messenger.

Given the variety of gifts, the variety of personalities, the variety of life experiences, passionate preaching is not as simple as the imitation of a style. If you imitate, you will not be authentic. It’s not going to work for you, so don’t try it.

Passion is not a function of style or volume. It should be a reflection of the intended effect of the text upon a human life and that will display the activity of God upon me. This authenticates the integrity of the messenger. If I am weeping over the cross, I am illustrating something. If my breath is taken away by God’s majesty, I am not acting. I want to be affected because this is an illustration for everyone else to follow. You are leading people into response.

We want to cultivate intense preaching, and there needs to be some volume. There needs to be some intensity, not because that is what preachers do, but because this is urgent. And so I would encourage you men to push yourselves not to think of yourself as a lecturer. Think of yourself as a preacher. And for some of us it requires pushing ourselves.

I will tell a guy who is a bit meek and gentle, “You need to step out a little bit. For you, it is going to feel like you are screaming your head off. It is going to feel like you are going nuts. But you know what it is going to feel like to us? ‘Oh, he is passionate.’” Sometimes you have to step out of yourself and feel uncomfortable, but I think it is going to sound about right.

And some people need to tone it down. I think there needs to be something—not artifice, not manufactured emotion—but something of a growing momentum in the way we are embodying the truth. If you start out intense in your introduction and carry that on, people will quit listening by point two.

I love what Dr. R.C. Sproul wrote:

Preaching calls forth an emotional response. It is not merely an exercise in the transfer of information. The pulpit is the setting for drama. The gospel itself is dramatic. We are not speaking of the sense of drama as a contrived performance or as a make-believe world of play-acting. We are speaking of dramatic truth, truth that shatters the soul, then brings healing and sends the human spirit soaring. It must grieve the Holy Ghost when His dramatic Word is recited dispassionately. The preaching doesn’t make the gospel dramatic—it already is. To communicate the gospel dramatically is to fit preaching with the content. Dispassionate preaching is a lie—it denies the content it conveys.

Different settings need to be factored in. Different personalities need to be factored in. But there is a danger in an attempt for relevance through natural communication. There is a danger in so elevating a natural, relational, ostensibly authentic mode of communication to the detriment of proclamation.

We are not communicators. We want to communicate, yes. We want to be winsome, yes. We want to relate and connect people relationally, absolutely. Nonetheless, we are proclaiming. We are not communicating, God is proclaiming.

7. Faithful Christ-Centeredness

Finally, and perhaps supremely, we can struggle with Christ-centeredness in our preaching. Ultimately, we must emulate Paul’s example, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). This was Paul’s aim for the 18 months he spent with the Corinthians. Of course this does not mean he was preaching only the atonement, but that Paul preached nothing apart from the atonement, nothing apart from the person and work of Christ and its implications. So we want to demonstrate how the text testifies to some dimension of Christ’s person and work, and how this is meant to affect a particular area of our lives.

All of Scripture is not about Jesus, but all of Scripture is about God and his redemptive acts which culminate in the person and work of Christ. Therefore, all our preaching should testify to some dimension of Christ’s person and work and demonstrate how this affects our lives. Every text in your Bible plays some role in the unfolding drama of redemption. Therefore, we must show how each text fits into that drama, and what role each text plays in the history of God’s redemption of his covenant people, which reaches its climax in the person and work of Christ.

This does not mean that we will see in every text a particular reference to Christ. But it does mean that we will see each text within the broader background and ultimate relevance in light of the person and work of Christ.

Redemptive-historical role

I think we tend towards just a temporal view. We sort of know how Scripture unfolds. We have read Graeme Goldsworthy. And so we ask: Where does this text fall in the timeline?

Now that is obviously part of it. I call this a redemptive-historical role. Some texts have a more pronounced redemptive-historical role, meaning their relevance to the person and work of Christ is most prominent in its contribution to the unfolding of the biblical storyline.

I just love knowing that—thanks to Jesus in Luke 24—I can look for these references to the redemptive-historical role.

With my older son I was reading the story of Leah and how she was rejected. Laban plays the trick on Jacob and she ends up his wife, rejected and unloved. But she has a baby and that baby’s name is Judah. God loved this woman. No one else did. Yet, this woman became the mom of a prince, the Prince of Peace.

We know King David is as an example, a type, a foreshadowing of another warrior, another one who would come and fight battles on behalf of God’s people. David stood in that valley when the other king wouldn’t. It is one of the most ridiculous things in Scripture, isn’t it? Saul stands back, “Who is going to fight?” You are supposed to fight. You are the king. Get down there. “Oh, no. You know what? I’ll give you my armor. Hey, take my armor, please.” It’s a ridiculous scene. The guy who is supposed to be down there is sending a boy. But a boy goes. And yet another Boy came and died for us.

See, through our preaching we can populate people’s Bibles with pointers to the Savior. In our sermons we can show how that is done. So there is that redemptive-historical role. But not every text immediately has an evident redemptive-historical role.

Redemptive-theological role

I’ve called the second role of the text a redemptive-theological role. Though many texts display both roles, here we are talking about a text displaying redemptive principles.

Bryan Chapell’s book, Christ-Centered Preaching, has a wonderful quote, “In its context every passage possesses one or more of four redemptive foci. Every text is predictive of the work of Christ, preparatory for the work of Christ, reflective of the work of Christ and/or resultant of the work of Christ.”

I remember when I first read that quote, I came out of my seat because it was just so illuminating. So be looking for redemptive principles that necessitate redemption. It could be an aspect of God’s character. It could be an aspect of man’s sin. It could be one of the three necessitating factors for the atonement—God’s holiness, man’s sin, and God’s mercy (Because with God’s holiness and man’s sin alone you don’t need the cross, you need hell.) And so those are the three raw materials of the atonement. Texts will often display one of those three. God’s holiness demands payment for sin. Man’s sin requires atonement. God’s mercy provides atonement. There are often fruitful connections which don’t mean you will read a text and identify God’s holiness and immediately go to the cross, but at some point the resolution of those things. There is a great resolution.

In most novels there is a point of resolution where it all just sort of comes together. And that’s what we have in the cross. In the biblical storyline, the cross functions in bringing everything together.

What I am arguing for is an appropriate Christ-centeredness, not, “read the text and make a beeline to the cross.” There is an appropriate Christ-centeredness and it falls to us as those who are called to be workmen, to discern this. To do full hermeneutical justice to a text we must take into account the progressive nature of God’s revelation. We must take into account the unfolding of salvation history. For it is only in light of that unfolding that earlier revelation can be fully understood and its full relevance found.

Our exegesis is not complete until we have examined the role the text plays in the overall frame of Scripture, which in its totality, testifies to God’s saving work of his people culminating in the highest point—the person and work of Christ.

Conclusion

In our preaching, let us be precise! Let us do the hard work of studying, reading, praying, writing little notes, tracing outlines of messages, tracing flow, and then sitting down on Saturday to write and pray. Let’s do all of that. Let’s be passionate. Let’s be praying. Let’s appropriately embody the truth’s intended effect in our lives. And let us do all this in light of the moment to which all other revelation points—Jesus Christ in his atoning, substitutionary work on our behalf.

Jeff Purswell

Jeff serves Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville through preaching and teaching, along with pastoral care. Jeff is also the Dean of the Sovereign Grace Pastors College and serves on the Leadership Team of Sovereign Grace Churches. He and his wife, Julie, have two sons, one daughter-in-law and one grandson!

Counsel In Crisis

Written By Trey Richardson

When it comes to care, let me begin where the Bible begins, and that is with the gospel. The truth of the glorious gospel allows the pastor to see that the power he needs to help people, and the power for people to change, is not found in the pastor’s intellect, knowledge, experience, or education. Those are all helpful and needed resources, but not the source of power for change. The power that does change lives, is the glorious gospel. You see, God has given us all that we need to care for people. It is found in Christ and His finished work. That reality allows us to confidently direct those we care for as they face the trials of life, to the truth and wisdom of scripture, not to something found in the pastor. Jesus is their Shepherd, and we are those under-shepherds that direct them to the Savior. Remembering this truth helps us from feeling that we need to somehow change people through our preaching, or our teaching, and even our counseling. We can never change a heart, but we can point them to the one that does change them, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 3:18 – “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

Our role is, and will always be, to make much of Jesus. Success in pastoral ministry is to make much of Jesus from the pulpit, the classroom, the counseling oce, and in the various church ministries. May the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:3,4 be our goal as it was his goal.

For I delivered to you as of rst importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures…’

May the gospel be to us as ‘first importance’ as it was for the Apostle Paul. That way people are le with the Words of God to comfort them, the power of God to change them, and the peace that is only found in God. (Philippians 4:7). Being faithful to this calling ensures your success in ministry.

The Unexpected Crisis

I hate crisis. I hate crisis in my own life. I hate how times of tragedy and crisis affect people. I hate the confusion crisis brings into people’s lives. I hate how the enemy uses these times to tempt Christians to believe things untrue about themselves, about who they are in Christ, and about the very nature of God himself. I also hate seeing and hearing from people that I love, how they are affected in a crisis. That affects me as a pastor, deeply.

Over the past 30-plus years of pastoring, I find myself being more and more affected by the sorrows of people in crisis, and less able to disconnect emotionally and be as objective as I once was. Sometimes the situations that people live through and bring to me for pastoral help and care can be overwhelming. There are no other words for it, simply overwhelming. I have come to the point to believe that this seemingly ‘less resiliency’ I see in my response, is not the result of years of burdens heaped up, it is the work of God in my heart. I see that God is in the process of truly deepening my love for people rather than somehow weakening my ‘resolve’. A pastor is unlike a surgeon who must approach each situation disconnected emotionally and completely objectively, or his/her decisions may be affected. A pastor is there to be a shepherd, not a disconnected professional, but engaged, not overly objective but emotionally involved, to the extent that we … “weep with those that weep.” Romans 10:15.

Every pastor wants his love for his people, to be experienced by his people. A love that goes way beyond helping, giving direction, and counseling them. A love to be seen and felt as you genuinely walk through life with them. The walk-through life will eventually involve walking through crisis. For them to feel our pastoral love for them in good seasons, as well as needy ones, is the call of a shepherd.

Being as prepared as we can be for a crisis is part of it. However, as important as preparation is, faith for the task is vastly more important. Without faith motivating our outreach to the hurting sheep, faith that God will meet them, our involvement can be perceived by the hurting sheep as simply our pastoral responsibility. But as we care for them knowing in our hearts that God is enough for them, they will feel our faith for them. Then they can see us embrace the privilege it truly is to be the one bringing hope to the hopeless and hurting. Remember,

…without faith it is impossible to be pleasing to God. We must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek after him. (Hebrews 11:6).

Without faith for the task, we are left to operate in our own strength, which is so limited. Plus, why do the hardest things in pastoring and not have it be pleasing to God? In reading the gospels we see how Jesus was unhurried in his ministry to the needy people around him. As people came to him for a healing touch, they never walked away disappointed. Jesus always met them. That was true in the first century and it is still true in the 21st century. We point people to Jesus with the faith that He is enough to meet the need of their crisis at hand. The person may not walk away healed, but they can walk away knowing God’s grace is sufficient for their need, (2 Corinthians 12:9), and we must always believe that it truly is.

I recently left from a hospital visit to a friend in his 50s who has been devastated by a massive stroke, and his life will never be the same. His family’s life may be forever altered as well, in their caring for him. There was no warning as his normal life was interrupted by a call to 911 as the symptoms became evident. Crisis never makes an appointment. That same day I received a call from an out-of-town friend who was dealing with some child abuse issues and the after math of proper, faithful reporting to the police authorities. He was asking for my help and counsel for his soul. Crisis seldom is simple.

As a pastor, my own heart can feel the burden of the sin and tragedy affecting others in crisis. This morning I felt that way as I headed into my home office for my devotions. I felt much more burden than joy, more concern for the wisdom I needed than gratitude for answered prayer, and more aware of the needs of people than the goodness of God. Later that morning, God brought me to the verse I mentioned above

2 Corinthians 12:9 – “…my grace is sufficient for you, my power is perfected in weakness.”

I then realized that this is not only a promise for the one in crisis, but also a promise for the pastor who comes to carry the burden of the crisis with them. The burden then became a privilege. The need melted into dependence upon God. The concern focused on gratitude and the result was renewed joy to serve. My faith for the task at hand became renewed.

As we decide to be with others in their crisis, inevitably some of the burden, some of the ‘mire’ revealed in the crisis, becomes ours to know and sometimes to carry. The burden can be heavy, and a burden that does not easily leave when the end of the business day arrives. As a pastor, it can then become a thought to resist personal involvement, or delegate crisis care to others so that we can try and minimize the additional burdens that come our way. Burdens for a pastor are never in short supply. But for the pastor, carrying burdens is a part of a faithful shepherd’s task. Jesus never turned a need away. Jesus never failed to listen. Jesus does the same for us. May we show the same care to others in our charge.

My point in sharing this is to help you to ‘not miss the joy’. There are many areas of our job that bring joy to a pastor. I want to help you to see that helping people in crisis is one of them. There are few areas that allow you to witness people’s needs and then see God’s provision together with them. When looking at the example of our Savior, we see him reaching into the mess of crisis with people bringing to them help and hope. Jesus touched the ‘unclean’ leper (Matthew 8:2). Jesus touched the ‘unclean’ dead son of a widow (Luke 7:14). Jesus allowed a prostitute to wash His feet (Luke 7:38). He was not concerned about the burdens from people; He was concerned about bringing healing and hope to them in their need. His love for them was evident, and may ours be as well.

Jesus initiated with them, and they were all changed by their encounter with Him. People are not changed by an encounter with their pastor, but they are changed by an encounter with their God. We can help point people to God, help them to see and trust God in the dark mess of trial. To see someone trust God where they did not, to have hope where there was none, is the miracle of the gospel at work before our eyes. God uses trial, he uses crisis, and he uses you to care for the hurting. Don’t miss the joy.

Every crisis is an opportunity to see God move in a way that can change someone’s view of God and therefore their ongoing walk with God. To see someone affected when God meets him or her at his or her deepest moment, bringing change or grace to endure, is a joy that even builds our faith. Is crisis messy? Yes. Is crisis confusing and difficult to know what to do? Yes. Is crisis full of ‘in the moment decisions’ that are difficult? Yes. But also walking with someone through a crisis gives you a ringside seat to see God move in amazing, memorable ways – this is inexpressible joy! Don’t miss it!

Trey Richardson

Trey has been in pastoral ministry since 1983. While he has worn a number of “hats” over the years, his primary responsibilities have most recently been counseling and overseeing Men’s & Women’s Ministries. Trey’s hobbies include rooting for the Dallas Cowboys, biking and kayaking, and pretending to understand technology. Trey is married to Charlotte and they have 4 adult children and 14 grandchildren.

Lessons Learned by Experience

Written By Mike Bullmore

The following text was transcribed from the introductory message to the Pastors College preaching conference on February 12, 2008.

What I’ve Learned About Preaching After Teaching it for 15 Years.

In this chapter I want us to think on a higher level. We’ll delve into the specifics later but now we want to talk at a level where we can orient ourselves to the larger task and familiarize ourselves with the relationship of preaching to pastoral ministry.

I am a little concerned about what the title communicates. It’s not designed to call attention to expertise. I hope the intention of the title will become clear in just a moment. And the second adjustment that I would make has to do with the word “learned,” because it actually should say, “Things I am learning.” Or maybe even, “Things I think I am beginning to get a grasp on.” Please notice the stress on the word “after” which is designed to make a point. Even though I had the privilege of teaching this, there is still so much to learn. Many things are learned by experience.

While taking nothing away from the elements of preaching that can be more or less learned in the classroom, I believe the heart and the soul of preaching are learned in, and grow out of, the crucible of the actual work of weekly preparation and delivery (and that develops over a period of time). “Good preaching” is one thing. But effective pastoral care and leadership through preaching are the result of awareness and intentionality at a higher level.

Things mechanical and things spiritual

In this chapter I am going to share with you seven things that touch on both the mechanics of preaching and the more spiritual dimensions of preaching. You will see more of a lean to the mechanical in the first three. But numbers four through seven lean towards the spiritual side. Preaching is endlessly interesting. It is not quite so simple as to separate out mechanics from the spiritual. Both are inextricably bound together. But there needs to be an awareness and intentionality on both of these directions because both are part of your calling in preaching.

1. The Crucial Connection Between Preaching an Pastoral Leadership

I’ll begin with the biggest difference I’ve seen between teaching preaching in a seminary and actually preaching in the context of a local church to a body of believers. I am regularly amazed at the leverage given to pastors when we preach on Sunday morning. And it is not just because you have the pulpit. Yes, you have the floor. But preaching is also a powerful tool for the exercise of pastoral leadership. So let’s talk about using your preaching to lead.

Using your preaching to lead

You are not a guest speaker who happens who show up every week. You are the pastor, a pastor who is commanded to pay careful attention to the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you an overseer to care for the church of God (Acts 20:28). So you need to see every opportunity to preach—in addition to the opportunity it affords to communicate truth—as an opportunity to exercise pastoral leadership and care.

In the midst of sermon preparation (usually the temptation comes Friday or Saturday) I find myself thinking, “Oh, I just need to get through this one. I will position myself better next week, but for now I just need to get through this message.” Right there is when I need to say one word to myself, “No!” This opportunity cannot be missed! So, Lord, help me not to slip into this mentality of just getting through another sermon.

Listen to Lloyd-Jones.

The greatest danger for me, the greatest temptation to me, is that I should walk into the pulpit next Sunday because it was announced last Sunday that I would be doing so. Of course it is right that a man should not break his contract, but that I am simply doing it because, well, another Sunday has come.

So what does this mean, using your preaching to lead? Certainly it means your faithful leading in terms of doctrinal definition. That’s inherent in the preaching task, and part of your pastoral leadership certainly includes that. But it also means thinking carefully about the spiritual needs of your congregation and determining the priorities for the church. I try to do this each year. I use my retreats to think specifically about where the church needs to be led. And then, having determined those priorities, fuel those priorities with exposition- driven, Spirit-empowered preaching. Don’t put a disjunctive between your goals for the year and your preaching.

One of the things I love about expository preaching is that God can be trusted to set the agenda for your church. You will not fail to get what God wants to get done because you are limited by preaching through the Gospel of Matthew. There will be, even in the Gospel of Matthew, plenty of content to accomplish the goals that you set forth for your church.

One of the things that I have tried to do over the past several years is to write an anniversary letter to the church. Our anniversary is conveniently located on the second Sunday of the year, so right at the beginning of the year the pastors share with the congregation what we are trying to do for the year. And then we attempt to help them see how the preaching relates to these particular goals.

Using your preaching to lead means boldly addressing real issues. Are there things that need to be defined? Do we, as a church, need to talk about the issue of baptism? Then preach on it! Address key issues from the pulpit.

My wife has a little something called the “cringe factor.” After my sermons she will sometimes say, “Oh, the cringe factor was up today.” She is sitting down there as I am addressing some issue and she is thinking, “What are people thinking right now?” And I have to help her with that. She helps me to speak with grace. But there are times that the church needs to be addressed on something. And so what better place than in your preaching?

You need to be bold in addressing points of contact with real life experience. Often topics addressed by the world should be talked about, too. So, for example, a couple of years ago we decided to dedicate three Sundays to “end of life” issues in an “ending well” series. What better way to address these topics than through your preaching?

I don’t think a Sunday passes when I am not conscious of some opportunity to exert leadership. So let me give you the most recent example.

This last Sunday we sent off a church plant to Milwaukee. But I don’t want people to be thinking, “This is just one plant, and then we’re done.” No, I want to build this moment into an opportunity to envision them for the next church plant. And so right in the middle of that sermon from Philippians about the wonderful privilege of gospel partnership, I just said, “How do you feel about this? And how are you going to feel about doing this again in 2010? And then doing another one after that and another one after that, and another one after that, and another one after that?”

Nobody except the guys on the team would have known why I listed five church plants (I am praying for five church plants during my tenure as a pastor). No one would have known that except the guys, but I used the opportunity to begin sowing a seed through pastoral leadership.

It might be something tiny, but I don’t think you should let any Sunday pass without seizing an opportunity to lead through your preaching.

The benefit of corporately-shared experiences

Part of what makes this pulpit leadership so important is the corporately shared experience. I think you can heighten this by announcing ahead of time where you are going in the

pulpit. This builds an anticipation. And you can do that either orally or in print. But take advantage of the corporate experience to announce these kinds of things to help people anticipate the messages as a body.

Also, connect the preaching with other parts of your corporate life. If you have Scripture memory programs, make sure they correlate to the sermon. If you are preaching through Matthew, have Scripture memory verses that correlate to Matthew. Or give your care groups a schedule of your preaching so they can maximize the momentum of your preaching.

You see the point. Anything connected with your corporate life—if you can pull it out and tie your preaching to it—is a way to leverage your preaching for pastoral leadership.

2. Difference Between a Sermon and a Sustained, Unified Teaching Ministry

While I was at Trinity I had the opportunity to frequently fill pulpits on a weekend and that mentality can surprisingly invade your preaching in your home church. We begin thinking of this coming week’s sermon as kind of “one-off.” And then I’ve got another one after that. But this independent sermon mentality, even if you’re in a series, affects your preaching. And it can create an appetite that will never be satisfied because you’ll be looking for responses to independent sermons.

You need to see your preaching as cumulative. Not only will you need to go over topics again and again, but you also need to see that whatever you are preaching is part of something much bigger. So you cannot think in terms of independent sermons.

I would argue that even if you have an independent sermon (separated from any series) you can’t think of it as an independent sermon. And while an extended series helps you to avoid this kind of atomistic approach, even a series needs to be seen as part of something bigger.

Building a house

I have adopted the helpful metaphor of building a house, a great big house for your people to live in. And it’s a life-long project. It has specific parts. It is not vague. And you’ve got to get it built. And this house will need regular upkeep.

I remember being disabused of this naïve notion early in church planting that you can lay the foundation and then move on. Well, two years later there are new people. They weren’t there when you laid the foundation. And by the way, the people that were there need a refresher anyway. So somehow your preaching must be a happy mix of going over again and then building, going over again and then building.

Importance of long-range planning

Every year I take a fall retreat (usually late October or early November). The primary objective is to set priorities for the coming year and to plan the preaching calendar. In that retreat I’m unable to get down into specific texts and weeks. But I don’t need to at that point. I just need to plan out the year.

When I look back at the preaching ministry at CrossWay over the last nine years, this purposeful planning has been one of the most fruitful parts of our attention to preaching. It has paid huge dividends. I shudder to think about the opportunities that could have been missed if this mindset of planning and building a house was not in place. Added to this, the lessens the stress level each week.

Unified theological center

I remember hearing a seminary graduate come to the end of education at Trinity saying, “One thing was missing—a class on how the whole Bible fits together.” Although I loved my education at Trinity, I could have said that when I graduated, too. Building from a unified theological center is something that Sovereign Grace pastors do remarkably well. I just want to add my voice to encourage you to operationalize that in your preaching, making sure you are preaching from this unified theological center. I think your preaching is one of the major places where that needs to be leveraged.

3. Clarity Matters More Than I Thought it Did

When teaching at Trinity I held four hallmarks as absolutely essential to preaching: integrity, engagement, clarity, and spiritual empowerment.

Clarity—both on the small scale and on the large scale—is very important.

I don’t know if you realize this, but you forfeit a lot of momentum if all of a sudden in the course of your preaching someone thinks, “I’m not quite sure I followed that.” Even if it is a small moment in your preaching, you forfeit momentum.

I think it is fair to say that there is, for all of us, a tendency toward unnecessary organizational complexity. I’m not talking about conceptual complexity. Sometimes this is unavoidable. For example, it’s conceptually complex that we are united with Christ in his death and resurrection. Here I’m talking about organizational clarity. And I don’t think you should ever be satisfied with anything less than clarity in the development of your ideas.

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.” Simplicity on this side of complexity is a failure to do your work. You must go through the jungle. There is a time in your sermon preparation where you are going to be in the thick of it. But you must come out. You can’t stay there. You can’t preach from inside the jungle. Come out on the other side of complexity with simplicity.

Large-scale clarity

One of the things that I do fairly early in my sermon preparation process—in fact, as early as possible—is to write down what I call the basic flow of the sermon. In other words, I want to simplify the movement of the sermon. I don’t want to get bogged down in the details at this point. I want to make sure I have clarity on the primary movement of the argument. At this point it’s like stretching out a clothesline. You want to make sure that you are connected all the way down and everything that you are going to add hangs on that clothesline.

Everything in your sermon needs to be clearly contributing to the forward motion of the argument.

Don’t let your sermons become holding tanks for displaced ideas. Your sermon should not be bowl of pearls, but a string of pearls. I have had many sermons that were a holding tank for displaced ideas. Just get that point in somehow. It is so good they will need it and let them figure it out while I am preaching.

Remember, you are preaching to persuade. Persuasion depends on clarity and clarity depends upon unity. You will not persuade if you are unclear. And you will not be clear if your sermon is not unified. So that’s why you need the clothesline all the way through. You must be certain there is a clear, large-scale argument.

And working hard to get clarity on the basic flow of the argument will serve you in discerning if the nugget of information stays or goes. Does the nugget contribute to the forward motion of my argument or not?

You will find if you wrongly place a nugget, you have just robbed yourself of using it at the right place. Within a few weeks you’ll be kicking yourself. “Oh, I wish I hadn’t forced that illustration in there because here is where it belonged.” Be willing to say, “Not yet.” Besides, you are the only person who knows what you didn’t use. This truth is liberating. You are the only person who is aware of what’s left out. So it is not like your people are saying, “Well, why didn’t you use that other illustration?” Because they don’t know about it. They know what you’ve given them. And what you have given them must hang together.

Small-scale clarity

This is just an appeal regarding the use of quotes, illustrations, and all other supportive material. Make certain its contribution to your point is very clear. We can be sloppy here, of inserting an illustration but not connecting it. Make the illustration and quote work for the sermon.

Ask yourself three questions:

Is it succinct? Don’t include anything more than you need for your point. Only in a very rare occasion should you include a very long quote.
Is it emphasized rightly? C.J. has served me so well by teaching through his example how to read a quote well. Are you emphasizing the quote according to what you are trying to illustrate or to prove? Highlight the particular things that are going to contribute to the point that you are illustrating.
Is it operational? When you come out of the quote, make sure to operationalize the quote with reference to your point.

So all three of those things are very important to determine if a quote or illustration advances your idea.

Watch the first five minutes of your preaching. Don’t waste time. Get right to it. I see too many guys laboring over the first five minutes. Time is precious. And it can be confusing if you are trying to get too many other things done in that first five minutes.

4. The Weight of Your Preaching Comes from the Weight of the Truth Meditated Through Your Own Conviction, Not From a Manufactured Passion or Some Confidence in Your Crafting.

Now we begin leaning towards the spiritual side. Let me tell you what is behind this. There were many times in my early enthusiasm when I would be reviewing my sermon and find myself saying something like, “That is the point where I need to be passionate.” I was introducing artificiality. And do you know what happened almost invariably? It would be awkward for me, and awkward for the people. To put it bluntly, my point of passion would flop.

So what should it be like?

Your job is to spend time with your Bible until you feel the burden of the text. You have accurately identified the burden of the text when you have begun to feel the weight of the text on your own soul. You care about it and it matters to you—and not just as a preacher, but as a creature who desperately needs truth. And when this happens, there will be a gravity and a joy about your preaching.

Let me try to capture this in a few notes from history for you. This is from an account by Lloyd-Jones.

Robert Murray M’Cheyne walked into his pulpit at Dundee, and before he had opened his mouth, people would begin to weep and were broken down. Why? Well, there was a solemnity about the man. He had come from the presence of God. He did not trip into his pulpit lightly and crack a joke or two to put everyone at ease and to prepare the atmosphere. No, there was a radiance of God about him. There was a terrible seriousness

Here is another account. Sereno E. Dwight, who assembled The Memoirs of Jonathan Edwards, asked a man who had heard Edwards preach whether he was an eloquent preacher. The man said,

He had no studied varieties of the voice and no strong emphasis. He scarcely gestured or even moved. He made no attempt by the elegance of his style or the beauty of his pictures to gratify the taste and fascinate the imagination. But, if you mean by eloquence the power of presenting an important truth before an audience with overwhelming weight of argument and with such intenseness of feeling that the whole soul of the speaker is thrown into every part of the conception and delivery so that the solemn attention of the whole audience is riveted from the beginning to the close and impressions are left that cannot be effaced, then, sir, Mr. Edwards was the most eloquent man I ever heard speak.

I’m not suggesting we don’t attend to other things. Remember the Chrysostom quote? There are dynamics of public speaking that matter. You should illustrate well. You should gesture now and then. This is not an argument to avoid all of the other tools at your disposal. Nor am I suggesting that any of us are ever going to be a M’Cheyne or Edwards. I am learning that the weight of our preaching comes from the weight of truth mediated through personal conviction.

Identify the burden of your text

I have already mentioned the importance of identifying the burden of your text (also know as “the claim of your passage”). Let me unpack that just a little bit.

Preaching is less a treatise on the material of your text, and more a communication of the burden of the text. Preaching is not coverage of biblical material but the accomplishment of a biblical intention.

A good definition of expository preaching is this: A good expository sermon is one whose content and intent is controlled by the content and the intent of the passage. You can’t be satisfied with the sermon’s content. You must accomplish what God was trying to accomplish in the preaching.

Now, I don’t want to drive a wedge between content and intent. Obviously, the intention of a passage is communicated by the content of a passage. And the preacher uses that material to communicate the burden and intention. But I’m trying to clarify your purpose. The end of preaching is not information, it’s persuasion. Your sermon’s purpose needs to find itself completely in line with the purpose and the burden of the passage. From this burden everything else in you sermon will highlight, emphasize, argue towards, connect, and apply. Success here gives your sermon unity, focus, and effectiveness.

Illustrating the burden

Sometimes one illustration carrying the burden of the message is more effective than multiple small or medium-sized illustrations. There is no formula. Preaching requires wisdom in the moment, so let’s not try to do a paint-by-number thing. Illustrate in a very focused and specific way and you will advance the purpose of your preaching.

5. The Craving for Recognition is Strong and Needs to Die

The craving for recognition is strong and it needs to die.

6. Effectiveness in Your Preaching is Utterly and Completely Dependent on God … And God is Faithful!

Effectiveness in your preaching really is utterly and completely dependent on God. All of the hope of your ministry lies in the Spirit of God operating on the spirits of men. All of it! So you are utterly and completely dependent on God. Notice I did not read the rest of the sentence—“and God is faithful”—which I am going to get to in a moment.

Let me read a wonderful excerpt from a sermon of Edwards that I read recently. The sermon, “Ministers Need the Power of God,” was published in The Salvation of Souls: Nine Previously Unpublished Sermons on the Call of Ministry and the Gospel by Jonathan Edwards. Edwards writes,

The inability of the instruments that God makes use of to do his work appears from their imperfections. First, in that they are creatures and finite beings. If ministers were angels incarnate and had the wisdom and strength of angels and could speak with the tongues of angels, it would be all one [it would make no difference]. If God hid himself and withheld his influence they would be creatures still and their power and knowledge would be limited. The highest angel in heaven cannot convert one soul if God does not set in. Conversion is the peculiar work of God. There are some works that none can do but God, not men nor angels, such as creation and such as raising from the dead and such as the conversion of the soul which is both a creation and a resurrection. The grace of God is a gift that never any can bestow but God. It is a jewel that God has in his own keeping and never commits to any but his own Son to bestow. If ministers knew perfectly the circumstances of every soul, knew all his thoughts and the workings of his heart and so knew how to suit the word exactly to his taste, if he could set forth the gospel in the most powerful, moving and convincing manner that the nature of words will allow of. Yet if the matter be left there and God does nothing, nothing will be done.

And let me read one other section from this same sermon.

And ministers should beg of God that his Spirit may accompany their administration. If their own abilities and performances are but mean, lowly, yet if they have a true love to souls and desire of advancing the kingdom of Christ, God is able to make the weapons of their warfare mighty to the pulling down of strongholds as he made David that appeared so weak and insufficient a warrior to prevail over Goliath without sword or shield or spear only with the instruments of a shepherd. And if they have ever so great strength of natural power and ever so great gifts, yet if they depend upon their own abilities and look that everyone should be persuaded and converted by their gifts and eloquence, there is danger that God will withhold his Spirit. And then it will all be in vain.

Is there anything that sends a chill down your spine more than the thought of coming to the end and discovering all was in vain? Effectiveness in your preaching really is utterly and completely dependent upon God.

… and God is faithful!

God is faithful. I don’t want to separate those two parts of number six. Originally, those were going to be two different points, but I thought that if I said the first part without quickly saying the second part we would all faint, overcome by anxiousness rooted in an insufficient trust in God.

Listen to the words of our friend John Piper in The Supremacy of God and Preaching:

How utterly dependent we are on the Holy Spirit in the work of preaching. All genuine preaching is rooted in a feeling of desperation. You go to your study and you look down at your pitiful manuscript and you kneel down and cry, ‘God, this is so weak. Who do you think I am?’ What audacity to think that in three hours my words will be the odor of death to death and the fragrance of life to life. My God, who is sufficient for these things?

I think it was Lloyd-Jones who said, “To me there is nothing more terrible for a preacher than to be in the pulpit alone without the conscious smile of God.”

We are utterly and completely dependent on God, but God is faithful! Yes, we are utterly and completely dependent on him for strength, illumination, and insight—during the study, the writing, and the preaching. God must perform a miracle every Sunday.

And you know what? Every Sunday he does perform miracles. And he delights to do it! He really uses our preaching for real transformation. God gives gifts and he intends to use them to accomplish something. You can trust God for that. Spiritual gifting both requires faith and encourages faith. So thinking about the reality of spiritual gifting will shift your focus from self-confidence to trust in God.

Role of the Holy Spirit

God works through the active ministry of the Holy Spirit during your preparation. I am so encouraged by this growing awareness of the Spirit’s activity during sermon preparation. For me, the Spirit’s activity shows up primarily in the writing stage, even to the giving of words and phrases.

I began a faith-building process of having a notepad to my side where I put a little checkmark every time I felt like God had just given a word or a phrase. And it was wonderfully encouraging to see the number of checkmarks after a period of three hours of writing. There was a giving of words and phrases repeatedly. I felt like I was being borne along by the Spirit.

You still need careful, diligent study. And during the preaching event it is not always something you will be directly conscious of, though sometimes you might be aware of, God’s presence in a unique way. I don’t know how to say it—something bigger than yourself is in the pulpit.

So I am learning to cultivate a greater awareness of God’s presence given through his Spirit. And I have a greater desire for God’s presence by his Spirit. All the hope of our ministry lies in the Spirit of God operating on the spirits of men. Any genuine change is a distinct work of God. We are completely and utterly dependent on God and God is faithful.

The prayers of the people

Implore the prayers of your people on your behalf. Yes, you might do this in a self- promoting or self-absorbed way. That is a possibility. But it doesn’t have to be. Ask them to pray regularly for you. Ask them to pray for spiritual empowerment. Ask them to pray for humility. Ask them to pray for boldness. Ask them to pray for words.

I believe there is a particular eagerness on God’s part to bless his people as they gather on Sunday mornings and to bless them particularly with his word. So ask your people to pray. And, if possible, have a group of them praying with you on Sunday morning.

Early on in our life as a church, we started a prayer gathering at nine o’clock on Sunday morning—not just for the pastoral team, but for the people of the church as well. I had no idea how much strength I would derive from that. It is a sweet time. We end, typically, by gathering around whoever is going to preach that day. It can be a little awkward sometimes, but I tell you I cannot wait to one day see what God did through those prayer meetings every Sunday morning. Even as an old man sitting on a rocking chair some day, I’ll remember those moments with great fondness.

The prayers of a close ally

I believe preaching prospers under the prophetic voice of a close ally. A godly wife is a gift, and she has a role to play. You need to implore her to fulfill this role, to carry this burden with you, to pray for you, to speak to you specific words of encouragement (not just nice things, but biblical encouragement)—putting courage, faith, and hope in your heart.

Remember that wonderful little moment when Jonathan goes out and finds David in the wilderness. Scripture says, “And Jonathan, Saul’s son, rose and went to David at Horesh, and strengthened his hand in God” (1 Samuel 23:16). That’s a role your wife should be playing and one she is positioned to play like no one else.

7. Preaching is a Costly Act of Love

I believe preaching is ultimately an act of love, but it’s a costly act of love.
E.M. Bounds writes, “Life-giving preaching costs the preacher much—death to self,

crucifixion to the world, the travail of his own soul. Crucified preaching only can give life. Crucified preaching can come only from one who has been crucified.”

Given what Bounds says, how should you pray? I think you should pray, “God give me love for these people that goes beyond my awareness of the cost. I know the cost. I feel it every week. Would you please give me a love for these people that goes beyond the cost? Give me a love for you and your word that on Sunday morning shines for people to see. Help me to lay down my life so that my preaching can give life.”

And it’s an act of love to spend yourself every Sunday. Guys, you can’t make this up. It flows out of care. It flows out of love. Do you care about what you are saying? Do you care about the people you are saying it to? Or do you primarily care about yourself in the preaching? Does the love of Christ control us (2 Corinthians 5:14)? Are the words of Paul—“For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified”— the standard set for the content and the character of your preaching (1 Corinthians 2:2)?

Mike Bullmore

Mike Bullmore served as the senior and founding pastor of Crossway Community Church in Bristol, Wisconsin for 25 years. He has recently transitioned out of that role but remains active in teaching and training pastors. He is a founding member of the Gospel Coalition. Mike lives in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in his boyhood home, with his wife Beverly. They have three grown children and four grandchildren to date.

How to Join a Church Well

1) Have Biblical Reasons // Let what you’re looking for in a church be shaped by Scripture. Clarify what are primary issues (such as the doctrines of the gospel and Scripture), important secondary issues (such as church governance), and preference issues (such as music and communication). [See 1 Cor 15:1-6, 1 Tim 3-4]

2) Live Church Life // Become part of the church life and experience it for yourself. Don’t keep the church at arms length, seek to know it from the inside as you pray about whether God has called you there. [See Acts 2:42-46, 1 Cor 10:23-25]

At Cross of Grace there are four core commitments in our life together:

Attend church gatherings
Join a Community Group
Be discipled and disciple others
Evangelize in your own life and with the church

3) Seek Pastoral Help // Walk through the membership process with the pastors of the church. They’ll provide help in understanding the beliefs of the church, what church membership means in the church, and the mission and vision of the church. After prayer and counsel, walk through the process of joining the church as a member. [See Titus 1-2, Acts 20]

4) Pursue Healthy Relationships // Becoming part of the church means investing in relationships with others in the church as you get to know them. Don’t simply attend, befriend others by being a good friend. [See Ephesians 4, 1 John 3]

5) Serve and Contribute Generously // God has designed each member to make a unique and meaningful contribution to the whole body, explore where that is for you. Contribute your time, talents, and money in order to advance the gospel in the city and beyond. [See John 13, 1 Cor 12]

6) Encourage and Bless // Make it a point to encourage everyone you encounter in the church, helping build up the body of Christ. Often the encouragement of new members is a key means of grace to members who have been laboring faithfully for years. [See 1 Cor 1: 4-9, Ephesians 4:25-5:21]

How to Leave a Church Well

1) Have Biblical reasons // Examine possible reasons for leaving a church using Scripture. Seek to be clear about primary issues (such as key doctrine), secondary issues (such as church ministry philosophy), and preference issues (such as music style). [See 1 Cor 15:1-6, Acts 15, John 17]

2) Live Church Life // While walking through a decision about whether to leave, don’t simply withdraw from attendance. Rather, stay involved so you can make a healthy decision and leave on good terms with all. [See 1 Cor 10:23-25, Hebrews 12:14]

3) Seek Pastoral Help // Talk to a pastor about your possible reasons for leaving. By God’s grace, your pastors will want what’s best for you and seek to provide helpful counsel. It may also be wise to seek wise counsel from trusted friends on the matter. [See Proverbs 11:14, Prov 19:20-21, James 1:5]

4) Pursue Healthy Relationships // Do your best to pursue reconciliation if there has been any hurt or brokenness. Talk honestly and graciously with people close to you in church about leaving. [See Colossians 3:13, Matthew 5:21-26, 1 Cor 13]

5) Serve and Contribute Generously // Don’t slowly back away but stay engaged until there’s clarity. When possible, try to strengthen and help places you’ve been involved before you go (such as finding a replacement on a service team etc.). [1 Cor 12 & 14]

6) Encourage and Bless // Wherever you can see God’s grace in a church, encourage people in those areas even as you go. Leave blessing others around you as you go whenever possible. [1 Thess 5:11, Romans 15:1-2]

Introduction

Here’s the first thing we want to say before you even dive into this class: Thank you.

Thanks for being part of what God is doing at Cross of Grace Church. If you’re reading this chances are that you’ve been around our church at least a little bit. You’ve probably gone through the tough first step of showing up at a new church (or at any church) for the first time. You’ve probably sung some songs with us, heard someone preach the Bible, met a few folks from the church, and maybe even gotten connected to a small group or ministry. You’ve already blessed us by being part of what God is doing here.

Thanks also for taking this step of trying to get to know the church and its foundational beliefs better. You’re going to invest some time exploring this with us and we’re grateful for that. Our hope is that the time will be well spent and stir you to love Jesus more, help you consider whether God is calling you to be part of what he’s doing at Cross of Grace, and give you a vision for reaching the world around you with the good news about Jesus.

Here are a few tips for getting the most out of this material:

As we go through it make notes of questions you might have. There will definitely be time to ask questions and dialogue about these things. If anything is unclear, mark it and we’ll do our best to clarify it during our Q&A time.
In addition to the lesson we teach we’ll have several short FAQ papers that go along with that week’s lesson. We encourage you to read them to get a full picture of who we are.
After each lesson we’ll give you a homework assignment. Don’t worry these aren’t burdensome or long but they’re an important way to engage with the class.
If you see an area of potential disagreement between you and the church’s beliefs, let’s talk about it. We see this as a place for great conversation.
Our Members Agreement is provided at the end and is a good summary of our commitments to one another as church members.
Our full Statement of Faith is also provided in our Agreement for reference and is a good summary of our beliefs on any topic.

Our deep prayer is that as we look at God’s word together we’ll all come away with a deeper desire to follow him, build with a church family, and make an impact on the world around us. May God bless you as you study.

-Ricky Alcantar

My Burden For Preaching: Priority and Passion

Written By C. J. Mahaney

The following text was transcribed from the introductory message to the Pastors College preaching conference on February 12, 2008.

Let me tell you why I am here. Jeff Purswell asked me to play a role this week and I hope I can serve you in some small way. But I am here because I am not satisfied with my preaching. I am here because I need to learn and grow. I am here because I am dissatisfied with my preaching. And I am glad I am dissatisfied with my preaching. In my experience, and if my evaluation of my soul is accurate, when I am dissatisfied with my preaching I think that is an expression of humility. When I am discouraged about my preaching I know that normally is an expression of my pride. I am dissatisfied with my preaching. There is no place I would rather be.

Also, I’m amazed to be here! I am amazed that God has called me to this task of preaching. Aren’t you amazed? In light of my sinfulness and God’s holiness, I stand amazed. I am amazed that I have been saved from God’s wrath by grace. And I am amazed that I have been set apart to preach saving grace to others. What a privilege that we have been called to this sacred task! What a privilege that we have been entrusted with this gospel! What a privilege that we are called by God to proclaim the gospel to his people and to those who are lost. How can this be? What explanation is there for the call of God on my life, the call of God on your life, to this sacred task?

It is good and wise at times like these to remember what you were prior to your conversion, and to never grow familiar with your conversion.

I want to remain affected by my conversion and amazed by this calling. I can distinctly remember the first moment I became aware of a call on my life. Not long after my conversion I was in Fort Lauderdale, Florida attending a baptist church. The individual who had first preached the gospel to me was a friend now living in Fort Lauderdale. When he returned home—since he was the only Christian I knew on earth—I went to Fort Lauderdale to be with him and attended the baptist church where he heard the gospel and experienced the miracle of regeneration. And one Sunday while driving back to my friend’s apartment, God distinctly gave an impression that I would one day do what I just observed. The impression was so ridiculous and so ludicrous to me that my immediate response was laughter. I laughed out loud at the impression that I would one day preach and address an assembled congregation! I have never forgotten that day.

There are two unforgettable experiences in my life. I have never forgotten the moment I experienced the miracle of regeneration. I can relive that for you as if it happened last night. And I have never forgotten the moment in Fort Lauderdale where I received an impression to my calling.

I am amazed that I am here. I trust you are amazed as well. Now to my burden.

2 Timothy 2:15

My burden for Sovereign Grace pastors is the priority of preaching. This is succinctly and profoundly captured in one verse by the Apostle Paul:

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15

This verse provides us with a profile of a ministry approved by God. And apart from the personal example of godliness, this verse describes the most effective way we can serve those entrusted to our care.

More importantly, this is the most effective way a pastor can please God. The task of preaching is clearly in view in this verse. As pastors called to preach, we are called to be diligent in our study of God’s word and discerning in our presentation of God’s word as we devote ourselves to this most important task of preaching God’s word.

Diligence in Preaching

First, we are called to diligence. “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed.”

Preparing a message is hard work. And preparation will never become less than hard work. Recently R. Kent Hughes stated that the great problem with preaching today is “homiletical sloth.” We are called to diligence. We are called to do our best in light of our accountability to God. One day we will be evaluated by God whether we were diligent in our study of God’s word and diligent in our preparation to preach God’s word.

One day it will be asked: By the grace of God, did you do your best? On that day will we be unashamed or ashamed? That day of accountability fast approaches, and may our experience this week motivate us—by the grace of God—to do our best so we can, standing before divine examination and evaluation on the last day, not be ashamed.

Discernment in Preaching

We are to “rightly handle” the word of truth. Our responsibility is to get the message right, give the message straight, and give the message clearly. We are to be diligent, we are to be discerning, we are to be devoted to teaching and preaching. Our personal devotion to preaching and the priority of preaching in our churches should be obvious to all.

Strong churches are built through gospel-centered preaching. This is not complicated or mysterious. Where there is effective preaching, churches will grow. And apart from effective preaching, churches cannot grow. Preaching is essential, not optional.

J.I. Packer writes, “I continue to believe in preaching and maintain that there is no substitute for it. And there is no power of sustained vision or close fellowship with God in the church without it.” Well, I am on record agreeing with J.I. Packer. There is no substitute for preaching and we are not in pursuit of an alternative.

John Stott writes, “Nothing is more important for the life and growth, health and depth of the contemporary church than a recovering of serious biblical preaching.” Nothing. Nothing is more important.

My Burden for Preaching

So in my remaining years, I have this privilege to transfer a conviction about the priority of preaching and a passion for preaching. I want to transfer that conviction to all pastors in Sovereign Grace and—perhaps more importantly—I want to transfer that conviction to the next generation called to serve in Sovereign Grace.

I know from my study of 2 Timothy and from a little study of church history that a commitment to preaching will sustain Sovereign Grace churches and will produce strong churches in Sovereign Grace long after I have passed from the scene.

Priority of Preaching and the Pastor’s Schedule

So if you are a senior pastor or participate in the responsibility to teach and preach in the church, this commitment to the priority of preaching should be reflected in your weekly schedule. If I were to meet with each senior pastor, I should be able to ask you for your schedule and see reflected a priority and passion for preaching. There should be blocks of time set aside during the week that you aggressively and fiercely guard, that reflect this conviction.

Especially for senior pastors, there is no more effective way you can serve and lead your church than to devote the hours necessary to diligent study of God’s word so that you might rightly handle his word and deploy his word to the church by addressing their hearts with gospel-centered preaching Sunday after Sunday. Apart from your personal example of godliness, there is no more important and effective way for you to serve your church.

It is not selfish for you to devote time to preparation and presentation of God’s word. It is serving for you to do so. And you are not serving your church as you should if you are not devoting the time necessary in preparation for the preaching task.

So this conviction about preaching should be reflected in the weekly schedule of a teaching pastor or those with teaching responsibilities. Your schedule should reflect your commitment to the priority of teaching and preaching.

Receiving Sermon Critique

Now here is a unique challenge I think we have in Sovereign Grace. I don’t think our incentive to grow in this holy task will come from the critique of church members. We have built—by the grace of God—a culture of encouragement. So normally after a message what you are going to hear from the average member of a Sovereign Grace Church is specific appreciation for a point in your message. Normally individuals do not provide you with a critique. Normally, they are grateful. And because God is so eager to bless his people, we can be confident that when we preach he will grant the gift of illumination. But that does not necessarily mean we have been sufficiently diligent in study or that we will one day be approved by God. So we must not depend on the functioning of the gift of illumination— which is an expression of God’s eagerness and desire to bless his people—to gauge our diligence and devotion.

I think our incentive for discernable growth in our preaching over time is located in this passage. Our incentive must be the approval of God. This must be my incentive. I want to please the Lord. I want him to approve.

And we must aggressively pursue those who are discerning about preaching, beginning with each and every member of the pastoral team and select members of the church. Those with discernment about preaching can help us grow in this task. And if we do not aggressively pursue them, likely they will not divulge any adjustment or correction.

Therefore what I seek to transfer as part of the culture among Sovereign Grace senior pastors is not only this conviction about the priority of preaching, but also desire to grow in preaching so there will be discernible growth evident in my preaching.

Growth in the preacher comes about primarily by a desire to receive the approval of God. Practically, I think it takes place as we aggressively pursue and invite critique from those on the pastoral team.

I can say to you that I am very grateful for all the encouragement I have received. I have been buried under encouragement in Covenant Life Church and in Sovereign Grace churches. But the defining moments of growth in my preaching have come through caring and discerning critiques of my preaching. And, therefore, I want to encourage you to pursue the critique of others.

The Priority of Preaching in the Priority of the Church

This commitment to teaching should be reflected in the schedule of the church, not just the schedule of the senior pastor. I am concerned that we haven’t given sufficient attention to the importance of the broader teaching diet of our churches. Sunday is critical, essential, and not optional. But I don’t think Sunday is sufficient.

I am grateful beyond words for small groups, and in no way do I want to create an adversarial relationship between preaching and small groups. Our small group leaders are heroic in their service. And we have derived immeasurable benefit from our small groups. But I am increasingly concerned there is insufficient teaching in our churches. I desire to see curriculum developed that addresses a diversity of topics and addresses every member of our church relevant to their season of life. And I would say right now from my vantage point (from the cheap seats) I think this is a weakness in Sovereign Grace.

So as you are receiving this instruction about how to improve your preaching, don’t confine this simply or solely to Sunday. I would like this priority to broaden so that the role of a pastoral team broadens in their expression of teaching to the church.

Cross Centered Preaching

Finally, a conviction about preaching is not simply a conviction about preaching in general, but a commitment to gospel-centered preaching in particular. And so this final statement here in 2 Timothy 2:15, “the word of truth,” is shorthand for the gospel. And it forms a critical aspect to our preaching.

In Sovereign Grace we are not simply committed to preaching. Yes, we are passionately committed to expository preaching. But we are passionately committed to gospel- centered preaching.

Recently I had the privilege to preach at a Sovereign Grace church in Fairfax, Va. During the week I received the following email from a member of the church. It’s really a wonderful summation and illustration of the fruit and effect of gospel-centered preaching.

This gentleman opens the email with an outline of his past. He is a recent member of the church and his history involves participating in another church in Virginia for around 15 years. Toward the end of his time at the previous church his pastor died suddenly of a heart attack. He goes on to talk about different circumstances and through those circumstances, he left the church. He identifies himself when he left as being very angry at the church and God’s people. He writes, “I went from being at church nearly every day of the week to only half-heartedly looking for a new church. From August 2003 to August 2004, I only attended church about half the year. The rest of the time I just slept in.”

He moved to Fairfax, Virginia in July of 2004 and some friends invited him to Sovereign Grace Church of Fairfax. This man writes, “From day one I knew that this was the place I was supposed to be attending.” And he talks about the remaining sin and the conflict within his soul. “After a few weeks of sermons focused on the cross I often left thinking, ‘Aren’t they going to talk about anything else? I know about the gospel.’” Later he humbly writes, “Obviously, I didn’t. Because from those first few weeks God proceeded to tear apart everything I had ever held as my beliefs about him, the gospel, as well as other beliefs about relationships with women, and being a godly man.”

He goes on to give more specifics and then he comes to this conclusion.

I can attribute these changes in my life to the amazing preaching that we receive. To finally hear preaching about the gospel has changed my life. While I think I knew the gospel, I had never fully understood what Jesus had accomplished for me. And the fact that I now stand ‘not guilty’ before a holy God and stand before him covered with Christ’s righteousness was something that just blew me away (and still does). And when I share these amazing new truths with my mom, who is a Christian, along with my dad, they are amazed, too. So here I am, three and a half years after coming to Sovereign Grace Church of Fairfax and being introduced to such gospel-centered preaching. I am a changed man. I am in love with Jesus more than I have been. In fact, it feels like I was saved again and maybe just saved for the first time. I love his church and his people. … The power of the cross is staggering.

Yes, it is. It is staggering. And may the staggering nature and effect of that cross be evident in and through our preaching so on that final day of examination and evaluation, we might, by God’s grace, be approved by God having done our best to serve those he died for and entrusts to our care.

C. J. Mahaney

C. J. serves as the Senior Pastor for Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville. He has authored several books, including The Cross-Centered Life and Humility: True Greatness. C. J. and his wife, Carolyn, have three married daughters, one married son, thirteen grandchildren and one great grandchild. C. J. cheers for the Washington Commanders, Washington Nationals, and University of Maryland basketball, and he cheers against the Dallas Cowboys, New York Yankees, and Duke basketball.

Preaching and Your Heart

Written By Mike Bullmore

The following text was transcribed from the introductory message to the Pastors College preaching conference on February 12, 2008.

The Battle of Preaching

We need to recognize that preaching and preparing to preach is not some neutral task. It is not just a matter of getting it done—as if you go through the right steps, a good sermon will come out. It is not so simple.

Just stop and think of what is at stake in preaching.

Your soul is at stake. The souls of your people are at stake. The reputation of the gospel is at stake. The health of a local church is at stake. There is so much at stake in your preaching. And nothing of consequence goes unchallenged. So there is a battle being waged for preaching.

I find the following C.S. Lewis quote useful: “There is no neutral ground. Every square inch and every split second of your life is claimed by God and counter-claimed by Satan. There is no neutral ground.” And certainly your preaching and your preparation to preach are not exempt from challenge. In fact, I think they are more vulnerable.

Later in this conference I will be sharing a particularly pitched battle that I faced for an extended period of months linked directly to this task of preaching. The battle had nothing to do with the challenge of finding illustrations, or organizing the message, or developing an outline, or even text work. It was all about the fight for faith and the fight for joy and the fight against self.

“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). And dying is no fun. And the preacher dies all the time. Nothing in preaching goes unchallenged.

In a recent survey of Sovereign Grace pastors on the question, “What are your two or three biggest challenges in preaching?” one pastor’s answer that most struck me was very simple: “Not being discouraged after I preach.” After reading this one I paused for a moment. Who of us doesn’t deal with this discouragement? Sometimes some point in the sermon doesn’t go well, but mostly our discouragement after the sermon is a matter of the heart.

Nothing of consequence goes unchallenged.

Naming the Struggles

So we are going to start with heart issues. First, I want to give you the opportunity to simply recognize some struggles by name. There is great value in naming things, in being able to say, “Yes, that is what I struggle with.”

I have a distinct memory of lying in my bed next to my wife. I was reading and she was over here scribbling something. I didn’t even know what she was doing, but she was writing. And after a half an hour of this I heard my wife’s little voice, “Well, there’s the truth of it.”

For that half-hour she was trying to name a particular battle of her heart. And she was taking the time to put it in words. There is value in naming and defining struggles specifically. And then after I heard her say, “Well, there is the truth of it,” I heard her say, “And for this Christ died.” She was preaching the gospel to herself, and taking the time to get clarity on a heart issue.

First, I want us to name things so that we are not dealing with fuzzy emotions or experiences that are hard to deal with if we don’t identify them. Second, I want to equip you with weapons to fight with, to wield the word with reference to these heart issues.

Heart Battles in Sermon Preparation

This session was a very interesting session to prepare. It required reflection, the kind of reflection we ought to be doing all the time. These struggles grow out of my own analysis of my own experience and I suspect that there is going to be, to some degree, a correspondence with your experience as well. So here are some things I want to share with you, and mostly bring God’s word and its ability to speak, convict, instruct, and encourage us.

Listen to these quotes in light of sermon preparation.

Bruce Theileman writes, “The pulpit calls those anointed to it as the sea calls its sailors; and like the sea, it batters and bruises, and does not rest. To preach, to really preach, is to die naked a little at a time and then to know each time you do it that you must do it again.” In fact, real soon.

You can get yourself worked up into a lather. On Saturday night you start thinking, “I got to do this again in eight days, and then again in 15.” And you can really get yourself worked up because you have got to keep doing this. Sundays are relentless. They are like waves on a beach. They just keep coming.

I have come to value this other quote as well. E.M. Bounds writes, “Life-giving preaching costs the preacher much—death to self, crucifixion to the world, the travail of his own soul. Crucified preaching only can give life. Crucified preaching can come only from one who has been crucified.”

Now I want you to think of these quotes in terms of your sermon preparation because it’s in sermon preparation where the real dying happens. It is in sermon preparation where the real travail takes place. Therefore it’s in sermon preparation where the greatest heart challenges are experienced. It is not that there are none happening when you are actually preaching. But it’s amazing what goes on emotionally and psychologically and spiritually (even moments of inexplicable terror) in sermon preparation.

The Five Heart Challenges

We need to pay attention to these words of Solomon: “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23). And it’s from the heart flow the springs of your preaching, too.

As we look at these challenges know that these grow out of my own reflection. I recognize I am not alone. So even though this is somewhat idiosyncratic, I believe this is going to apply to all of you and I believe the challenges (in some form) are common.

I have organized five challenges from the least to the greatest, although I suspect that some of you will find one or two of these as your greatest. So don’t automatically take my ordering of these as reflective of your situation as well.

And just an encouraging note here, guys. I have seen growth in every one of these five challenges over the past 10 years. I am so grateful for that. And even though there is a little bit of reluctance in saying that (I am not taking any credit for it), I want you to be encouraged by the fact that there is growth, evident growth in each one of these. So do not give in to helplessness.

1. LAZINESS VS. HAPPY LABOR

In any important work, there is a temptation to avoid the work—and especially when the task is a multifaceted type of task (like preaching). Preaching is not a simple thing. There are multiple levels and that itself can induce a little trepidation because you might be good at one dimension and not at another. So it is not just a challenging task, an important work, but a multi-layered work that demands all sorts of things from you. And because of that there can be a temptation to avoid the work.

As a student at Trinity, I have a distinct memory of hearing someone say, “Pastoral ministry is a place where lazy men can hide.” And for some reason I saw the truth of that and I saw the potential of that for myself. It scared me. It scared me then and that possibility scares me now. Pastoral ministry is a place where lazy men can hide.

In the face of this there must be a conscious purposing to work, to labor, to find a certain Pauline purposefulness—“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed” (1 Corinthians 15:10-11).

Or think of what Paul said to Timothy—“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). Notice the emphasis in this verse. Paul does not content himself with making this point once. Or later—“Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you” (1 Timothy 4:13-14). To “devote yourself,” of course, doesn’t mean to try them but to do them with regularity.

I’m reading through Preach the Word: Essays on Expository Preaching: In Honor of R. Kent Hughes (Crossway, 2007) and John MacArthur has an essay on this topic. Listen to what he says.

“Since nothing is as important as the word, no energy expended by anyone in any field should surpass the effort of an expositor seeking to rightly divide the word. Yet this is too seldom the case as Jay Adams correctly observes, “I have had the opportunity to hear much preaching over the last few years, some very good, some mediocre, most very bad. What is the problem with preaching? There is no one problem, of course. But if there is one thing that stands out most, perhaps it is the problem I mentioned today. What I am about to say might not strike you as being as specific as other things I have written, yet I believe it is at the bottom of a number of other difficulties. My point is that good preaching demands hard work. From listening to sermons and from talking to hundreds of preachers about preaching, I am convinced that the basic reason for poor preaching is the failure to spend adequate time and energy in preparation. Many preachers, perhaps most, simply don’t work long enough on their sermons.”

Or consider this pastoral evaluation of a young minister who has just been visited by John Wesley. Get this picture in your mind. Wesley has gone on his circuit, having established a church, and now he is going around listening to the young preachers who have been placed into pulpit ministry. He hears one particular young man preach and then goes home and writes a letter that includes this paragraph.

“What has exceedingly hurt you in time past, nay, and I fear to this day, is want of study. I scarce ever knew a preacher who read so little. And perhaps, by neglecting it, you have lost the taste for it. Hence your talent in preaching does not increase. It is just the same as it was seven years ago. It is lively, but not deep; there is little variety; there is no compass of thought. Study only can supply this, with meditation and daily prayer. O, begin! Fix some part of every day for private exercise. You may acquire the taste which you have not: what is tedious at first, will afterward be pleasant. It is for your life; there is no other way; else you will be a trifler all your days, and a pretty, superficial preacher. Do justice to your own soul; give it time and means to grow. Do not starve yourself any longer. Take up your cross and be a Christian altogether. Then will all the children of God rejoice (not grieve) over you.”

How would you like to receive that evaluation?
So, guys, with reference to this first heart challenge of laziness, purpose to roll up

your sleeves and get to work. Don’t be afraid to work. Learn to love work.
The contradistinction to laziness is happy labor. We introduced this phrase into our

life as a church a couple of years ago when preaching through Romans chapter six talking about sanctification. It is work, but it is a good work. It is a happy work. So is it with preaching. And you will find much of the time, once you dive in, it turns to very happy labor. But if it is always a chore, guys, I think you should reconsider your calling.

2. SELF-PITY VS. JOY

I think all of us to some degree or another are tempted to self-pity. I remember early on when the waves of the constantly recurring Sunday would be sinking in, I would find myself driving on Saturday morning to the place where I study, and seeing all the men out doing what men do on Saturdays. All of the sudden mowing the lawn looked really attractive. I wanted to do that. Or I would park next to somebody at the stop light see a father with a son, and I would think, “I think he is going to Home Depot. I could be going to Home Depot.” All of the sudden there was this, “I want to fix that door that I haven’t wanted to fix for three months.” Whatever they were doing, I wanted to be doing it. And it was a form of self-pity.

Later in the week the temptation became stronger to go into the office with the intention of just quickly getting something and three hours later I’d still be in the office. There were phone calls that came in and emails that needed immediate response.

Now, I recognize these tendencies differ from what I am going to share with you from Acts. I am arguing from the greater to the lesser because if it is true here, how much more should it be true with something that is not quite as taxing as persecution.

… they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.” Acts 5:40-42

There ought to be a sense of privilege to our labor. To help us, meditate upon 2 Corinthians 4:7-15. You know the context there, where Paul is perplexed and distraught, but then he answers in each case. Read and reflect on Paul’s responses.

If at some point the joyfulness over your privilege in preaching doesn’t kick in, likely there is self-pity that needs to be addressed.

3. MANIPULATION OF SCRIPTURE VS. INTEGRITY

There is a strong temptation—sometimes a remarkably strong temptation—to suit texts to your purposes. Sometimes there will be a temptation to suit a whole message to your purposes. More often you will find moments in your preaching where you will want to make a text do for you what it’s not intended to do.

I don’t think I have ever prepared a sermon where at some point I don’t face that particular temptation of wanting the word to suit a particular purpose or a particular trajectory.

I get a sense that something is not right. For me it registers in the gut. I feel some dissonance. Guys, pay attention to that. Ask, “Why am I feeling uncomfortable right now?” Well, it is because you are doing something you ought not to be doing. It is your conscience kicking in. And you have got to stop and pay attention to that dissonance.

Listen to Lloyd-Jones from his book Preaching and Preachers (which should be on your short list of books to read).

“I well remember the first time I heard a certain famous preacher on the radio. He told us that he was going to preach on turning the place of your crucifixion into a garden. One wondered immediately as to the possible source of that theme. He soon told us that his text was to be found at the beginning of the 18th chapter of John’s gospel where we read, ‘In the place where he was crucified there was a garden.’ That was what the text said. But, you see, the sermon was on turning the place of your crucifixion into a garden. But there was nothing about that in the text. There was a garden there. The garden was there before the crucifixion. It was not the crucifixion that produced the garden. However, in order to give himself the opportunity of preaching a very sentimental sermon about how people suffering from illnesses could and should react to their trial, he did violence to his text. He told us that good people who took it in a beautiful spirit and never grumbled and never complained turned their place of crucifixion into a garden. We were then treated to a series of affecting sentimental stories of such people for about 25 minutes to a half an hour. Now there is only one thing to say about this. That is utter dishonesty.”

In fact, in the same context he uses a much stronger word for it—“prostitution.” We may be motivated to address a certain situation in the congregation or (even worse) to make our sermons look better. Lloyd-Jones continues,

“We must be honest with our texts; and we must take them always in their context. That is an absolute rule. These other men do not observe that; they are not interested in that, they are always looking for ‘ideas.’ They want a theme, an idea; and then they philosophise on that, giving expression to their own thoughts and moralising. That is utterly to abuse the Word of God.”

I recognize the situation to which Lloyd-Jones refers is a bit extreme, but the temptation is very real. We need to seriously consider the warning in 2 Corinthians 4:2—“But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.”

However frequently you preach, there remains a temptation to tamper with the word of God. We can read 2 Corinthians 4:2 and conclude, “Nope, I don’t do that.” But we need to ask ourselves the question: What does tampering with God’s word look like for me? Or, where am I tempted to tamper with God’s word?

We are talking about a trust issue. Paul says, “by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience.” By your handling of God’s word you build trust in your people. And that trust can be compromised. Most of pastoral ministry is about trust. The trust that takes so long to cultivate is so easy to break by tampering with the word of God. And the little trust you think you gain by tampering with God’s word is nothing compared to the quiet, steady building of trust by an open statement of the truth.

4. PRIDE VS. “CONTEMPT OF PRAISE”

These last two struggles are the big ones. The first three are real. Laziness is real. Self-pity is real. Manipulation of Scripture is real. But I think we take a quantum leap from three to four.

So now we reach pride. I recognize it is a huge category and I am thinking of a particular form of pride here—the desire for recognition. I don’t know what was behind that guy’s comment who said, “The greatest challenge I face is the discouragement after I preach.” But I know for me, behind that statement would be pride—the desire to be recognized, to get some credit, to be acknowledged. There is a remarkably strong and, I think, a remarkably persistent temptation to want some recognition, some credit, some acknowledgement. And this usually comes after you have been preaching for a few years.

Usually, during your first year or so of preaching, you are occupied with looking for feedback. It’s not as if this heart issue isn’t operating, but it’s after you have been preaching for a while that this particular sin starts to kick in. You begin desiring to be recognized as responsible for the change happening in the church. Something unusual is happening in a person’s life, and you want to know that that somehow this change is the product of your preaching. There is a great desire to be recognized by your people, by your peers, and by those who lead you.

Listen to this bluntly realistic assessment from John Chrysostom. It captures preaching in a nutshell.

“It is impossible to acquire this power [of preaching] except by these two qualities: contempt of praise and the force of eloquence. If either is lacking, the one left is made useless through divorce from the other. If a preacher despises praise, yet does not produce the kind of preaching which is ‘with grace, seasoned with salt,’ he is despised by the people and gets no advantage from his humility….”

Let me translate that into familiar language—it’s impossible to acquire power in preaching, except by these two qualities: humility and a preaching gift. If one is lacking, the other is made useless through a divorce from the other. If a preacher is really humble and he despises praise, yet doesn’t produce the kind of preaching seasoned with salt, he is despised by the people and gets no advantage from his humility. In other words, you might be the most humble guy in the world, but if you can’t preach there is no sense in just being humble in the pulpit.

However, Chrysostom continues.

“… And if he manages this side of things perfectly well, but is a slave to the sound of applause, again an equal damage threatens both him and his people, because through his passion for praise he aims to speak more for the pleasure than the profit of his hearers.”

Now in battling this, nothing has been more instrumental for me than Paul’s words: “But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself” (1 Corinthians 4:3). Another translation has it, “It matters little to me.” That is the phrase that I have put in my heart. That phrase is a weapon for me. Paul says, “I am not even controlled by my own evaluation of myself.” Think about that for a moment. My assessment of myself is virtually as irrelevant as the assessment of anyone else. “It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart” (vv. 4, 5).

Now here is another little phrase that I use as a weapon. One word—“Then.” Not now, but “Then each one will receive his commendation from God” (v. 5).

From the beginning of this chapter in Corinthians, categories of stewardship, faithfulness, and the approval of God are all built around God’s perspective. This will help you to remain fully invested in the task, while sitting very loosely to yourself. That is hard to do. But this perspective will help because you can’t solve the problem by just withdrawing. So the way to solve the problem is by preaching 1 Corinthians 4:3-5 to yourself.

For clarity, I want to unpack a couple of things.

First, when Paul says, “It is a very small thing,” he doesn’t say, “I don’t give a rip what you think.” Paul is not removing himself completely from human accountability. As Christians we are instructed to walk in integrity and pastors are instructed to maintain a good reputation so our conduct adorns the gospel. But here Paul speaks of what I call the virtual irrelevancy of human praise.

Secondly, Paul is not assuming a full acquittal. A clear conscience is a wonderful thing. There is a sweet serenity and energy in having a clear conscience. But Paul still recognizes that though he is not aware of anything against himself, he is not thereby acquitted. He is not elevating anyone’s opinion of himself (including his own) because it’s not reliable and, more importantly, it carries no authority.

So what is the liberating truth that sets us free from wrongly elevating what others think of us? It is right there. God is the one I answer to. What counts is God’s evaluation. So Paul says, verse five, “Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God” (v. 5).

One day—both as believers and as pastors—we will stand before God. Before long, guys, this life is done. It is a vaporous breath compared to eternity. And on that day when this short little life ends, eternity will stretch out forever in front of our eyes and the only thing that will matter is God’s opinion.

Success is faithfulness

Success is faithfulness. Draw an equation between those. Success is faithfulness and that is what God is looking at. What a sobering truth!

But what I want you to see this morning is that this truth is not just sobering—it is also liberating. There is a marvelous freedom in those who don’t live for the approval of others because they are focused on their accountability to God.

Let’s be clear. If you are in Christ you are standing before God on that day. God’s acceptance and his love for you is absolutely secure. The Bible is clear. But faithful stewardship is expected from “each one” (v. 5). Stewards are required to be found faithful to the call of God. And the wonderful thing is that when we live under this truth, God helps us to be faithful. What marvelous freedom! This truth will help you work hard as a faithful steward every day and sleep like a baby at night, not consumed with what other people think about you.

5. UNBELIEF VS. BELIEF

Finally—and the greatest heart challenge, I believe—is the issue of unbelief versus simple belief.

Men, this is a weekly battle you will fight until you die. We can grow here, and I mentioned at the outset I am thankful for growth. God has been so kind. But God will never bring you to a place in this lifetime where the exercise of faith is not necessary.

Now I’m very encouraged by the fact that you don’t need a lot of faith. I love the image of a gear—your faith as a gear. You might have a tiny little gear. Or you might have a bigger gear through years of walking with Christ, praying, and reading your Bible. But God’s grace is an even bigger gear. See, the size of your gear is not the most important factor. All that matters is that your gear is engaged with the gear of God’s grace. Unbelief disengages. So whether your gear is tiny or huge, just make sure it’s engaged.

I remember at a leadership conference Mark Dever preached on the first chapter of Ezekiel. At the end of that message Mark used a sentence that, when I first heard it, my eyes opened in shock. Mark said, “someday we can throw aside this wretched faith.” And I thought, “This sounds kind of blasphemous. This wretched faith?” A moment later I realized he was comparing faith with sight. We will see in the future, now we walk by sight.

We must exercise faith in two areas—during sermon preparation and in the preaching event.

Faith in Sermon Preparation

First, you must exercise faith in your sermon preparation because every Sunday you will come to a point where you face a wall. You will either think, “I must choose another text,” or “I wonder if so-and-so can preach this Sunday?” Or you will struggle with the question, “Am I even called?”

Of course, the futility of that is if you go to another text you are just going to have the same experience, but with a lot less time to deal with it. These are places you must push through by faith.

There will come a moment, a crisis of faith. And here you still have to exercise faith. By standing on particular theological convictions about the objectivity of God’s word, you can exercise your faith. He said something and he intends this truth for the good of his people. And by the way, he called you to speak it. These are all theological convictions upon which you stand to exercise your faith with reference to sermon preparation.

Faith in the Preaching Event

Secondly, we need faith for the preaching event. Regularly we will be faced with situations like Ezekiel faced when the sovereign Lord took him down into that valley with all those dry bones and said, “Son of man, can these bones live?” (see Ezekiel 37:1-14).

What would you have said? “I don’t think so.” Ezekiel actually speaks in a way that is very diplomatic. “Only you know, sovereign Lord.” The rest of that passage is a wonderful instruction for your heart in preaching. Not only does God say, “Speak,” but then Ezekiel gets the privilege of watching the bodies come together. But they are still dead and God says, “Keep preaching. Prophesy to the wind.” And then the breath comes in and they come to life and form a mighty army. The word of the Lord accomplished this. What a great reminder.

Another passage I regularly call to my mind is Isaiah 55:10-11.

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

I think this passage is the clearest statement of the efficacy of God’s word in Scripture. I love the expanding of that metaphor to build your faith. What a great thing to remind yourself as you are walking up to the pulpit—“but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

What does belief look like? I think faith in preaching takes the form of peace, the absence of anxiety. And I think it will also take the form of trust which takes the form of ardent, expectant prayer all throughout your sermon preparation and in special desperation as you step up to the pulpit.

We have recently been singing as a church the song “Speak, O Lord” by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend. Our church started singing this several months ago, and I want to sing this every Sunday because it gives our people a chance to pray what you have been praying all week long—“Words of pow’r that can never fail; let their truth prevail over unbelief.”

Things I Have Found Particularly Helpful

Let me end with a few things I’ve found particularly helpful in battling these heart challenges. I’ve broken them down organizationally, strategically and spiritually.

1. Organizational: Rhythm of weekly preparation

The first is organizational. Establish a rhythm of weekly preparation and prioritize long- range planning. I will develop one entire chapter on each of these areas, but I just want to mention them in this context because I’ve found them to be helpful not just in getting the work done, but also in battling these heart challenges. I think failure to establish a rhythm of weekly preparation will regularly put you in a place of vulnerability. You are going to be tired. Spurgeon’s Lectures To My Students includes a chapter titled, “The Minister’s Fainting Fits.” At first this chapter title gives me images of an English woman fainting. But Spurgeon is talking about faintheartedness, what he calls “soul trouble.” In that chapter he gives five reasons why you will experience this and six occasions when you will experience this (and many of those have to do with the work in preparation). So if you don’t have a rhythm of weekly preparation you will put yourself in a position of vulnerability to these heart issues. This lack will tempt you with every one of the heart challenges. It will tempt you to laziness. It will tempt you to self-pity. It will tempt you to manipulation. It will tempt you to pride (although your pride in this case will take the form of fear) and it will tempt you to unbelief.

So be organized and disciplined with your time. Be tenacious about this. I think C.J. said “fiercely guard” this. Block out your sermon preparation time and then use it. God himself has asked you to devote yourself to this. Don’t neglect your study and your preparation.

2. Strategic: Take retreats

The second is strategic. Take retreats. Take them for the refreshment of your soul. Take them for soaking in God’s word. Take them for focused planning. Take them for personal evaluation. I try to include all four of these priorities in my retreats.

And if one of these five heart issues brings conviction, I would encourage you on your next retreat to set aside some time to address that issue. Likely you will not get everything solved in one retreat, but you must take time to articulate the struggle and then discover where God’s word speaks. Then you can meditate on God’s word with reference to that struggle and receive the ministry of God by his Spirit.

You must get out in front in your planning. You have got to get out in front in terms of anticipating implications of your preaching. You have got to get out in front in your praying. You have got to get out in front in your believing. And I think you have got to get out in front in your fighting.

I cannot recommend highly enough the practice of strategic retreats. For the last nine years I don’t know of any other practical thing that has been greater fuel than this rhythm of retreats. I commend them to you.

3. Spiritual: Specific spiritual mechanisms to battle temptation

The third is spiritual. Adopt and employ specific spiritual mechanisms to battle your temptations.

Know your challenges. So you read a chapter like this and you might say, “Yeah, that is my struggle.” Or maybe you take some time to discover other personal struggles. I am just encouraging you to know yourself. Don’t let these things be fuzzy internal experiences. Take some time to identify, name, and articulate the struggle.

Now, let’s keep in mind David Powlison’s message from the last leadership conference on over-introspection.3 I was so encouraged by this message and his statement that getting to the heart issue takes about three minutes to discern. You don’t need to labor long to get at the root of your sin. Don’t labor your whole retreat in trying to discover the heart issue. But don’t skip this stage either.

Know what weapons need to be wielded. This is where your growing grasp of God’s word will serve you as you continue through your Christian life, reading Scripture over and over again. Weapons are going to be put in your hands. Particularly identify the truth that speaks to your temptation and speak it. Take your thoughts captive. Let God’s word do its work of renewing your mind.

I find that immediate results may not be noticeable, but I can testify over time that God’s truth reshapes your thinking. And so rehearse, “it matters little to me … it matters little to me… it matters little to me.” Some people will accuse you of brainwashing yourself. I have never ever heard a person accuse a fifth grader who is memorizing the multiplication tables of brainwashing. Never. Why? Because it’s true and really useful. The same thing with God’s word—it’s true and remarkably useful. So use it.

Use every battle as an opportunity for growth. Don’t just win the battle. You can have a collection of independent fights without gaining momentum. So leverage the battle for the next time. Husband the opportunity. Make sure you are not just helping yourself in the moment, but you are building momentum for the next battle.

Let me give you an example. Let’s say you struggle with unbelief. Once again you find yourself thinking, “God, I just don’t think anything is going to happen tomorrow when I preach.” And then God shows himself faithful. Now if you don’t build something with that, if you don’t put that somewhere, you’ll be exactly in the same place next week with no ground gained. Rather say, “God, you have shown yourself to be faithful once again. Forgive me. Here is another opportunity and, Lord, I think next time I will be less inclined to doubt you. Help me to remember this.”

Mike Bullmore

The Books That Shaped Us… and Where to Get Them

Written By Ricky Alcantar

Several great books were mentioned in the last Sovereign Grace Journal, The Books that Shaped Us. We wanted to provide a full list of those books and where to get them. We have also included the summary of each book taken from the back or listing. We hope this serves you as you look for your next read!

1. The Holiness of God by R. C. Sproul

Central to God’s character is the quality of holiness. Yet most people struggle to define what God’s holiness precisely is. Many preachers today avoid the topic altogether because people don’t quite know what to do with words like “awe” or “fear.”

R. C. Sproul, in this classic theological work, puts the holiness of God in its proper and central place in the Christian life. Drawing from both the Old Testament and the New Testament, he paints an awe-inspiring vision of God that encourages Christians to become holy just as God is holy. With depth and eloquence, this timely book addresses:

What Sproul calls the “trauma of holiness”
How we reconcile God’s justice with his love
How to know if we are moving forward in our pursuit of righteousness

Once you encounter the holiness of God, your life will never be the same.

2. Knowing God by J. I. Packer

For half a century, J. I. Packer’s classic has helped Christians around the world discover the wonder, the glory, and the joy of knowing God.

Stemming from Packer’s profound theological knowledge, Knowing God brings together two key facets of the Christian faith―knowing about God and knowing God through a close relationship with Jesus Christ. Written in an engaging and practical tone, this thought-provoking work seeks to renew and enrich our understanding of God.

3. Transforming Grace by Jerry Bridges

Isn’t it time to stop trying to measure up?
Too many of us embrace grace for our salvation but then leave it behind in our everyday lives. We base our relationship with God on our performance rather than on His love for us. But our performance can never earn us the love we so desperately crave. Renowned author Jerry Bridges’s Transforming Grace is a fountainhead of inspiration and renewal that will show you just how inexhaustible and generous God’s grace really is. Live confidently in God’s unfailing love, as you learn about:

The sufficiency of grace
Holiness as a gift of God’s grace
What it means to appropriate God’s grace
Our calling to be free

Now with an added study guide for personal use or group discussion so you can dive deeper into this staple of Jerry Bridges’s classic collection. Abandon the treadmill of performance and step into a daily life of guilt-free intimacy with our Creator.

4. The Cross and Christian Ministry: Leadership Lessons from 1 Corinthians by D.A. Carson

In this exposition of 1 Corinthians, D. A. Carson presents a comprehensive view of what the death of Christ means in preaching and ministering to God’s people. He explains the key biblical principles for dynamic, cross-
centered ministry and how to put the cross at the center of Christian life.

5. How Long, O Lord? Reflections on Suffering and Evil by D.A Carson

This clear and accessible treatment of key biblical themes related to human suffering and evil is written by one of the most respected evangelical biblical scholars alive today. Carson brings together a close, careful exposition of key biblical passages with helpful pastoral applications. The second edition has been updated throughout.

6. Showing the Spirit: A Theological Exposition of 1 Corinthians 12–14 by D.A Carson

Eschewing extremes, Bible scholar D. A. Carson explores the controversial subject of the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer and in the life of the church. Unpacking 1 Corinthians 12-14, as well as touching on relevant passages in Acts, Carson faithfully follows the evidence of the text and offers an honest look at the strengths and weaknesses of both charismatic and non-charismatic viewpoints.

7. A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities from Paul and His Prayers by D.A. Carson

Carson calls believers to revolt against superficiality and find again the deeper knowledge of God at Paul’s school of prayer. Strong expositional study.

8. Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson by D.A Carson

D. A. Carson’s father was a pioneering church-planter and pastor in Quebec. But still, an ordinary pastor-except that he ministered during the decades that brought French Canada from the brutal challenges of persecution and imprisonment for Baptist ministers to spectacular growth and revival in the 1970s.

It is a story, and an era, that few in the English-speaking world know anything about. But through Tom Carson’s journals and written prayers, and the narrative and historical background supplied by his son, readers will be given a firsthand account of not only this trying time in North American church history, but of one pastor’s life and times, dreams and disappointments. With words that will ring true for every person who has devoted themselves to the Lord’s work, this unique book serves to remind readers that though the sacrifices of serving God are great, the sweetness of living a faithful, obedient life is greater still.

9. The Cross of Christ by John Stott

“I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. . . . In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?” With compelling honesty John Stott confronts readers with the centrality of the cross in God’s redemption of our pain-filled world.

Can we see triumph in tragedy, victory in shame? Why should an object of Roman distaste and Jewish disgust be the emblem of our worship and the axiom of our faith? And what does it mean for us today?

From one of the foremost preachers and Christian leaders of his generation, The Cross of Christ is a classic, accessible, and compelling look at the work of Christ. At the cross Stott finds the majesty and love of God disclosed, the sin and bondage of the world exposed. More than a study of the atonement, this book brings Scripture into living dialogue with Christian theology and contemporary issues. What emerges is a pattern for Christian life and worship, hope and mission.

In honor of John Stott’s one hundredth birthday, this centennial edition includes an updated foreword by Alister McGrath and a new timeline of Stott’s life. A study guide equips individuals and groups to more deeply reflect on and apply the book’s message.

10. Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist by John Piper

Experience the Lifelong Pleasures of Knowing God!

Satisfaction…Happiness…Joy. According to John Piper, the pursuit of pleasure in God is not only permissible, it’s essential.

Desiring God is a paradigm-shattering work that dramatically alters common perspectives on relating to God. Piper reveals that there really is no need to choose between duty and delight in the Christian life. In fact, for the follower of Jesus, delight is the duty as Christ is most magnified in His people when they are most satisfied in Him.

Constantly drawing on Scripture to build his case, Piper shows why pursuing maximum joy is essential to glorifying God. He discusses the implications of this for conversion, worship, love, Scripture, prayer, money, marriage, missions, and suffering.

Piper beckons us to approach God with the hedonist’s abandon. Finally, we are freed to enjoy Jesus—not only as our Lord and Savior, but also as our all-surpassing, soul-satisfying Treasure.

Desiring God may turn your Christian world upside down. And that will be a good thing, for the glory of God, and for your deepest joy.

Includes a study guide for individual and small group use.

11. The Pleasures of God: Meditations on God’s Delight in Being God by John Piper

Isn’t it true—we really don’t know someone until we understand what makes that person happy? And so it is with God!

What does bring delight to the happiest Being in the universe? John Piper writes, that it’s only when we know what makes God glad that we’ll know the greatness of His glory. Therefore, we must comprehend “the pleasures of God.”

Unlike so much of what is written today, this is not a book about us. It is about the One we were made for—God Himself. In this theological masterpiece—chosen by World Magazine as one of the 20th Century’s top 100 books, John Piper reveals the biblical evidence to help us see and savor what the pleasures of God show us about Him. Then we will be able to drink deeply—and satisfyingly—from the only well that offers living water.

What followers of Jesus need now, more than anything else, is to know and love—behold and embrace—the great, glorious, sovereign, happy God of the Bible.

12. Overcoming Sin and Temptation by John Owen

John Owen’s writings, though challenging, are full of rich spiritual insights. In this unabridged volume, editors Justin Taylor and Kelly Kapic have edited three of Owen’s classic works―Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers, Of Temptation: The Nature and Power of It, and The Nature, Power, Deceit, and Prevalency of Indwelling Sin. They have updated the author’s language, translated the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and footnoted difficult or unknown phrases, all without sacrificing any of Owen’s original message. These three treatises on temptation, sin, and repentance are theologically robust and insightful while also being accessible to modern readers. Overcoming Sin and Temptation will help a new generation benefit from the writings of this remarkable Puritan.

13. The Mortification of Sin by John Owen

‘This battle will last more or less all our days.’ In this abridgement of a classic work, The Mortification of Sin, the famous Puritan John Owen shows the need for Christians to engage in a life-long battle against the sinful tendencies that remain in them, despite their having been brought to faith and new life in Christ. Owen is very insistent that believers cannot hope to succeed in this battle in their own strength. He sees clearly that the fight can be won only through faith in Christ, and in the power of the Spirit. Fighting sin with human strength will produce only self-righteousness, superstition and anxiety of conscience. But with faith in Christ, and with the power of the Spirit, victory is certain. The temptations in times like Owen’s and ours are obvious on every side; the remedy to them is clearly pointed out in this practical and helpful book.

14. Holiness by J. C. Ryle

‘Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots’ is perhaps J. C. Ryle’s best-known and, arguably, best-loved book. Although many things have changed since 1877, when this book was first published, one thing remains the same: ‘real practical holiness does not receive the attention it deserves.’ It was to remedy this attention deficit, and to counter false teaching on this most important subject, that Ryle took up his pen.

The twenty-one chapters in this enlarged edition highlight:

– the real nature of holiness

– the temptations and difficulties which all must expect who pursue it

– the life-transforming truth that union with Christ is the root of holiness

– the immense encouragement Jesus Christ holds out to all who strive to be holy.

Holiness, as with all of Ryle’s works, is clear and concise, penetrating and practical.

Amazon Westminster: https://www.wtsbooks.com/products/spiritual-depression-martyn-lloyd-jones-9780802813879

15. Spiritual Depression by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

This enduring collection of twenty-one sermons by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, each originally delivered at Westminster Chapel in London, carefully and compassionately analyzes an undeniable feature of modern society from which Christians have not escaped — spiritual depression.

“Christian people,” writes Lloyd-Jones, “too often seem to be perpetually in the doldrums and too often give this appearance of unhappiness and of lack of freedom and absence of joy. There is no question at all but that this is the main reason why large numbers of people have ceased to be interested in Christianity.”

Believing the Christian joy was one of the most potent factors in the spread of Christianity in the early centuries, Lloyd-Jones not only lays bare the causes that have robbed many Christians of spiritual vitality but also points the way to the cure that is found through the mind and spirit of Christ.

16. John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace by Jonathan Aitken

Most Christians know John Newton as the slave ship captain who famously converted to Christ on the high seas and then penned one of the greatest hymns of the faith: “Amazing Grace.” Less well-known is Newton’s significance in his own day as an evangelical icon, great preacher and theologian, and important influence on abolitionist William Wilberforce. In this fascinating biography, Jonathan Aitken explores many facets of Newton’s eventful life story, helping readers better understand his remarkable conversion and passionate fight to end the slave trade. The first modern account to draw on Newton’s unpublished diaries and correspondence, this colorful and historically significant portrait provides fresh insights into the life and legacy of one of the most important Christians of the 18th century.

17. John Newton by Catherine Swift

The amazing story of the “Old Converted Sea Captain” whose hymns are still loved today.

John Newton (1725-1807) was a British sailor whose life of sin took him to the western coast of Africa, where he became a virtual slave before getting involved in the African slave trade. His dramatic conversion during a violent storm in the North Atlantic, however, did not end his involvement with slave trading. It would be six years before he gave up his career as a sea captain and went on to become an Anglican clergyman.

Dissatisfied with the hymns of the day, Newton began writing his own, many autobiographical in nature, and is remembered for “Amazing Grace,” “How Sweet the Name the Name of Jesus Sounds,” and “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken.” In his latter years, he played a leading role in Wilberforce’s political campaign against slave trading.

From a “wretched” prodigal son to a crusader against slavery.

18. Letters of John Newton

This book is a 2020 re-print of “Letters by the Rev. John Newton, originally printed 1869. It contains several letters never published before 1869, with Biographical Sketches and Illustrative Notes by the Rev. Josiah Bull, M.A. Religious Tract Society.
Mr. Newton was a great and useful, if not a very accomplished letter-writer. His homely good sense, and his practical piety, made his correspondence very valuable, especially in his letter-writing days. He himself published several series of his letters—’ Omricon,’ ‘Cardiphonia,’ and ‘Letters to a Wife,’” in addition to which several volumes of posthumous letters were published. Mr. Bull tells us that there are yet more. He has made a selection from these various collections, has added some unpublished ones, classified them under the names of Newton’s different correspondents, and prefixed to each series a short biographical notice. Thus, he has put together a very interesting volume, which will be prized by many to whom the volumes referred to are inaccessible. In good sense and instructiveness, if not in intellectual power, Newton’s letters deserve to be placed by the side of Samuel Rutherford’s.

19. Seeing with New Eyes by David Powlison

Have you ever had the experience of getting angry, upset, or worried about something—only later to discover some crucial fact you hadn’t known? Or have you ever been delighted with something or someone, and later found out you’d been had? Something you had not taken into account explained everything in a different way. You had no reason at all to be upset—or happy. When you began to see more fully, everything changed. Seeing with New Eyes is a book about taking into account something that changes everything.

This work is the first of three planned books written by David Powlison on the topic of counseling. But it’s counseling with an unusual twist. Intentionally helpful conversations—that’s all counseling is—look different when you look at them from the perspective of seeing God. You see people and their troubles in a different light. Seeing with New Eyes discusses life’s struggles, about conversations that seek to be helpful, about how to think through the things people struggle with, about skillful pursuit of personal and interpersonal objectives.

Powlison’s book explores how with God in the picture, it changes the way people think about “problems,” “diagnosis,” “strategies,” “solutions,” “cures,” “changes,” “insights,” and “counseling.” When the lights go on, the reader sees God and know that God sees them. Not one of these “counseling” words can stay the same. The world is still populated with the same problems begging for help (in fact, seeing God, you see more problems!), but it’s as different as José or OK, reality or fantasy.

The goal of Seeing with New Eyes is to help the reader see God in the counseling context. How can we see what he sees, hear what he says, and do what he does? As we grasp this, we will become more thoughtful in understanding people, and more skillful in curing souls.

20. Speaking Truth in Love by David Powlison

Have you ever wondered how to be a more effective counselor? Have you ever looked for a better way to talk to difficult people? Have you ever wanted to express faith and love more naturally in your relationships as a Christian?

Speaking Truth in Love is a blueprint for communication that strengthens community in Jesus Christ. The principles outlined in this pivotal work are specific to counseling, yet extend to marriage, family, friendship, business and the Christian church.

Practical in its approach yet comprehensive in its scope, Speaking Truth in Love follows the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation (CCEF) model and is sure to become required reading for anyone interested in pursuing a career as a counselor, particularly biblical Counseling, or anyone else who longs for ways to redeem relationships.

21. How Does Sanctification Work by David Powlison

Many popular views try to reduce the process of Christian growth to a single template: Remember past grace. Rehearse your identity in Christ. Avail yourself of the means of grace. Discipline yourself. But Scripture portrays the dynamics of sanctification in a rich variety of ways. No single factor, truth, or protocol can capture why and how a person is changed into the image of Christ.

Weaving together personal stories, biblical exposition, and theological reflection, David Powlison shows the personal and particular ways that God meets you where you are to produce change. He highlights the variety of factors that work together, helping us to avoid sweeping generalizations and pat answers in the search for a key to sanctification. This book is a go-to resource for understanding the multifaceted, lifelong, personal journey of sanctification.

22. Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change by Paul David Tripp

Paul David Tripp’s masterpiece on ministry will transform how you view yourself and engage with others. God radically changes people, and he offers us the opportunity―and the ability, by his power―to be involved in that change. We can live not just as grateful objects of his love but as effective instruments of his love in the lives of the people around us. Have you been satisfied by too little? Content with small changes in your life and the lives of others? Unsure of how to help others and uncomfortable when you encounter their needs? You don’t need to start with a strategy or technique, Tripp argues―you need a renewed imagination! Only then can you grasp what is real but unseen and live accordingly. The kingdom of God is near, and it takes us far beyond our personal situations and relationships, making ordinary people a part of God’s extraordinary plan for the world. This guidebook shows us how.

23. Depression: Looking Up from a Stubborn Darkness by Edward T. Welch

Where Is God in the Struggle? Looking away from despair towards hope can feel risky. What if God doesn’t come through for you? What if you don’t feel instantly better? Instead of offering simple platitudes or unrealistic cure-all formulas, Edward T. Welch addresses the complex nature of depression with compassion and insight, applying the rich treasures of the Christian gospel, and giving fresh hope to those who struggle. Depression can be a crippling mental health issue, but with the faith in God new hope can be discovered and a path to becoming a healthy happy Christian again can be found.

24. CrossTalk: Where Life and Scripture Meet by Michael R. Emlet

Your friend just left his wife. You catch your child posting something inappropriate on the Internet. Someone in your small group is depressed. A relative was just diagnosed with an incurable disease. When those you know and love experience trouble, you don’t want to hand out pat answers or religious platitudes. Instead, you want to offer real hope and help from God’s Word.

You know the gospel is true, but how does an ancient book, written thousands of years ago, connect with our twenty-first century problems as Christians? In CrossTalk: Where Life and Christian Scripture Meet, Michael R. Emlet gives you the tools to connect the Bible to your life and to the lives of your family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers. You will learn to understand people and God’s Word in ways that promote gospel-centered, rich conversations that help you and those you know grow in love for God and others.

This book will make the whole Bible come alive to you. Instead of platitudes, you can offer a cup of living water to those who are struggling in this broken world.

25. Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood by Wayne Grudem and John Piper

A Guide to Navigate Evangelical Feminism

In a society where gender roles are a hot-button topic, the church is not immune to the controversy. In fact, the church has wrestled with varying degrees of evangelical feminism for decades. As evangelical feminism has crept into the church, time-trusted resources like Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood help remind Christians of what the Bible has to say.

In this edition of the award-winning best seller, more than 20 influential men and women such as John Piper, Wayne Grudem, D. A. Carson, and Elisabeth Elliot offer thought-provoking essays responding to the challenge egalitarianism poses to life in the church and in the home. Covering topics like role distinctions in the church, how biblical manhood and womanhood should work out in practice, and women in the history of the church, this helpful resource will help readers learn to orient their beliefs with God’s unchanging word in an ever-changing culture.

26. Spurgeon: A New Biography by Arnold Dallimore

This book will meet the need of those completely ignorant of Spurgeon and his vast achievements, but will stir also the interest of all who value his unique ministry.

27. Christ-Centered Worship by Bryan Chapell

The church’s worship has always been shaped by its understanding of the gospel. Here the bestselling author of Christ-Centered Preaching brings biblical and historical perspective to discussions about worship, demonstrating that the gospel has shaped key worship traditions and should shape today’s worship as well.

This accessible and engaging book provides the church with a Christ-centered understanding of worship to help it transcend the traditional/contemporary worship debate and unite in ministry and mission priorities. Contemporary believers will learn how to shape their worship based on Christ’s ministry to and through them. The book’s insights and practical resources for worship planning will be useful to pastors, worship leaders, worship planning committees, missionaries, and worship and ministry students.

28. Christ-Centered Preaching by Bryan Chapell

In this complete guide to expository preaching, Bryan Chapell teaches the basics of preparation, organization, and delivery–the trademarks of great preaching. This new edition of a bestselling resource, now updated and revised throughout, shows how Chapell’s case for expository preaching reaches twenty-first-century readers.

29. Why We’re Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be) by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck

You can be young, passionate about Jesus Christ, surrounded by diversity, engaged in a postmodern world, reared in evangelicalism, and not be an emergent Christian. In fact, I want to argue that it would be better if you weren’t.

The Emergent Church is a strong voice in today’s Christian community. And they’re talking about good things, like caring for the poor, peace for all men, and loving Jesus. They’re doing church a new way, not content to fit the mold. Again, all good. But there’s more to the movement than that. Much more.

Kevin and Ted are two guys who, demographically, should be all over this movement. But they’re not. And here’s why—they do life founded upon orthodox beliefs about God, propositional truths about Jesus, and the authority of Scripture.

In Why We’re Not Emergent, Kevin and Ted diagnose the emerging church from both a theological and an on-the-street perspective. They pull apart interviews, articles, books, and blogs, helping you see for yourself what it’s all about.

Provocative yet playful, this book seeks to show you why being emergent isn’t the only, or even the best, way to be passionate about Jesus Christ.

30. Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck

This book presents the case for loving the local church. It paints a picture of the local church in all its biblical and real life guts, gaffes, and glory in an effort to edify local congregations and entice the disaffected back to the fold. It also provides a solid biblical mandate to love and be part of the body of Christ and counteract the “leave church” books that trumpet rebellion and individual felt needs.

Why We Love the Church is written for four kinds of people—the Committed, the Disgruntled, the Waffling, and the Disconnected.

31. What is the Mission of the Church?: Making Sense of Social Justice, Shalom, and the Great Commission by Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert

Christians today define mission more broadly and variably than ever before. Are we, as the body of Christ, headed in the same direction or are we on divergent missions?

Some argue that the mission of the Church is to confront injustice and alleviate suffering, doing more to express God’s love for the world. Others are concerned that the church is in danger of losing its God-centeredness and thereby emphasize the proclamation of the gospel. It appears as though misunderstanding of mission persists.

Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert believe there is a lot that evangelicals can agree on if only we employ the right categories and build our theology of mission from the same biblical building blocks. Explaining key concepts like kingdom, gospel, and social justice, DeYoung and Gilbert help us to get on the same page―united by a common cause―and launch us forward into the true mission of the church.

32. The Hole in Our Holiness: Filling the Gap between Gospel Passion and the Pursuit of Godliness by Kevin DeYoung

What does it mean to be holy? Why should we care? And how can we change?

The hole in our holiness is that we don’t care much about holiness. Or, at the very least, we don’t understand it.

This is a book for those of us who are ready to take holiness seriously, ready to be more like Jesus, ready to live in light of the grace that produces godliness. This is a book about God’s power to help us grow in personal holiness and to enjoy the process of transformation.

33. Men and Women in the Church: A Short, Biblical, Practical Introduction by Kevin DeYoung

A Biblical Primer on Men and Women in the Church

There is much at stake in God making humanity male and female. Created for one another yet distinct from each other, a man and a woman are not interchangeable―they are designed to function according to a divine fittedness. But when this design is misunderstood, ignored, or abused, there are dire consequences.

Men and women―in marriage especially, but in the rest of life as well―complement one another. And this biblical truth has enduring, cosmic significance. From start to finish, the biblical storyline―and the design of creation itself―depends upon the distinction between male and female. Men and Women in the Church is about the divinely designed complementarity of men and women as it applies to life in general and especially ministry in the church.

34. Impossible Christianity: Why Following Jesus Does Not Mean You Have to Change the World, Be an Expert in Everything, Accept Spiritual Failure, and Feel Miserable Pretty Much All the Time by Kevin DeYoung

The apostle Paul described the Christian life as a race, but to many believers it feels more like a punishing obstacle course. Fearing they’ll never be able to do enough or give enough or be enough, they see themselves as spiritual failures. But Scripture offers good news: even in ordinary life, Christians can be faithful, fruitful, and pleasing to God.

Impossible Christianity reassures readers that they don’t need to feel a collective sense of guilt for sins in the past and solve every societal problem in the present. Through biblical wisdom and engaging personal stories, Kevin DeYoung challenges the misconception that we need 40 hours in the day just to be good Christians. By reflecting on what Jesus actually taught about Christian discipleship, readers will be newly encouraged to pursue single-minded devotion to God and find lasting joy in a life of sincere and simple obedience.

35. Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book About a (Really) Big Problem by Kevin DeYoung

“I’M TOO BUSY!” We’ve all heard it. We’ve all said it. All too often, busyness gets the best of us.

Just one look at our jam-packed schedules tells us how hard it can be to strike a well-reasoned balance between doing nothing and doing it all.

That’s why award-winning author and pastor Kevin DeYoung addresses the busyness problem head on in his newest book, Crazy Busy — and not with the typical arsenal of time management tips, but rather with the biblical tools we need to get to the source of the issue and pull the problem out by the roots.

Highly practical and super short, Crazy Busy will help you put an end to “busyness as usual.”

36. The Good News We Almost Forgot: Rediscovering the Gospel in a 16th Century Catechism by Kevin DeYoung

If there is “nothing new under the sun,” perhaps the main task now facing the Western church is not to reinvent or be relevant, but to remember.

The truth of the gospel is still contained within vintage faith statements. Within creeds and catechisms we can have our faith strengthened, our knowledge broadened, and our love for Jesus deepened.

In The Good News We Almost Forgot, Kevin DeYoung explores the Heidelberg Catechism and writes 52 brief chapters on what it has shown him. The Heidelberg is largely a commentary on the Apostle’s Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord’s Prayer, and deals with man’s guilt, God’s grace, and believers’ gratitude. This book is a clear-headed, warm-hearted exploration of the faith, simple enough for young believers and deep enough for mature believers.

DeYoung writes, “The gospel summarized in the Heidelberg Catechism is glorious, its Christ gracious, its comfort rich, its Spirit strong, its God Sovereign, and its truth timeless.” Come and see how your soul can be warmed by the elegantly and logically stated doctrine that matters most: We are great sinners and Christ is a greater Savior!

37. Grace Defined and Defended: What a 400-Year-Old Confession Teaches Us about Sin, Salvation, and the Sovereignty of God by Kevin DeYoung

Grace Is Too Precious a Doctrine to Settle for Vague Generalities

Grace―a doctrine central to the gospel―ought to be clearly defined so it can be celebrated, relished, and consistently defended.

In this book, Kevin DeYoung leads us back to the Canons of Dort, a seventeenth-century document originally written to precisely and faithfully define this precious doctrine.

The Canons of Dort stand as a faithful witness to the precise nature of God’s supernatural, sovereign, redeeming, resurrecting grace―when so many people settle for vague generalities that water down the truth.

In three concise sections―covering history, theology, and practical application― DeYoung explores what led to the Canons and why they were needed, the five important doctrines that they explain, and Dort’s place in the Christian faith today.

38. The Ten Commandments: What They Mean, Why They Matter, and Why We Should Obey Them by Kevin DeYoung

Are the 10 Commandments still relevant today?

Do they still apply? Which ones? What do they mean in light of God’s mercy revealed in Jesus?

Highlighting the timelessness and goodness of God’s commands, pastor Kevin DeYoung delivers critical truth about the 10 Commandments as he makes clear what they are, why we should know them, and how to apply them. This book will help you understand, obey, and delight in God’s law―commandments that expose our sinfulness and reveal the glories of God’s grace to us in Christ.

39. The Lord’s Prayer: Learning from Jesus on What, Why, and How to Pray by Kevin DeYoung

Bestselling Author Kevin DeYoung Explores Jesus’s Foundational Prayer

Christians know the importance of prayer, but the act of praying can be a real challenge. Some have the desire, but not always the will; others worry they don’t do it well. Books about prayer usually emphasize spiritual discipline, but that can foster more guilt than reassurance. So how can Christians improve their prayer life, embracing the privilege of communicating with God?

In The Lord’s Prayer, Kevin DeYoung closely examines Christ’s model for prayer, giving readers a deeper understanding of its content and meaning, and how it works in the lives of God’s people. Walking through the Lord’s Prayer word by word, DeYoung helps believers gain the conviction to develop a stronger prayer life and a sense of freedom to do so.

Concise, Inspiring Guide to Prayer: Examines Luke 11:1–2 and Matthew 6:5–9, gives biblical and historical context to each part of the Lord’s Prayer, and ends with a doxology
Accessible Resource for Many Readers: A great guide for laypeople and students as well as for pastors, church leaders, and ministry leaders
Versatile Resource: A useful reference for seminary review or personal devotional reading

40. Taking God At His Word: Why the Bible Is Knowable, Necessary, and Enough, and What That Means for You and Me by Kevin DeYoung

Can we trust the Bible completely? Is it sufficient for our complicated lives? Can we really know what it teaches?

With his characteristic wit and clarity, award-winning author Kevin DeYoung has written an accessible introduction to the Bible that answers important questions raised by both Christians and non-Christians. This book will help you understand what the Bible says about itself and encourage you to read and believe what it says―confident that it truly is God’s Word.

41. The Biggest Story Bible Storybook by Kevin DeYoung

104 Engaging Bible Stories for Ages 6–12 from Author Kevin DeYoung, Illustrated by Don Clark

The Bible is a BIG book about the BIGGEST story. Each page tells about the God who created the world, acted in history, and continues to act in the present. In The Biggest Story Bible Storybook, pastor Kevin DeYoung shares this grand story with children ages 6–12 through 104 short chapters.

Beginning in Genesis and ending with Revelation, DeYoung provides engaging retellings of various Bible stories, explaining how they fit into the overarching storyline. Each reading is coupled with beautiful illustrations by award-winning artist Don Clark and concludes with a reflective prayer. Perfect for bedtime stories or to read together as a family, both children and parents alike will experience afresh the captivating story of the Bible in an easy-to-understand, compelling way.

42. Daily Doctrine: A One-Year Guide to Systematic Theology by Kevin DeYoung

Learn Important Systematic Theology Topics Each Day with This Accessible One-Year Devotional

All thoughtful Christians want to better understand the Bible, its author, and its influence on their beliefs. In short―whether they recognize it or not―they want to understand theology. But many find the subject matter too academic, dense, or difficult to understand, and they lack proper study resources to help expand their knowledge of God and his written word.

Designed to make systematic theology clear and accessible for the everyday Christian, this devotional walks through the most important theological topics over the course of a year. Each month is categorized into broad themes, starting with the study of God and concluding with the end times. Written by bestselling author and associate professor of systematic theology Kevin DeYoung, each concise daily reading contains verses for meditation and application, building upon each other and easing readers into the study of systematic theology.

Written for Thoughtful Christians: Offers pastors, ministry leaders, and everyday Christians access to a theologically rich yet accessible study
One-Year Plan: Daily readings build off one another to help ease readers into systematic theology
Covers Important Theological Topics: Each month covers a different broad theological topic, including mankind, salvation, the church, end times, and more
Written by Kevin DeYoung: Pastor, bestselling author, and associate professor of systematic theology

The Year 2082 – A Prayer

Written By Jon Payne

A Word for the Second and Third Generations of Sovereign Grace

In the year 2082, my youngest son will turn 67 years old. If the Lord does not return by then (Come soon, Lord Jesus!), and if he is gracious to preserve us, Sovereign Grace Churches will turn 100 years old that year. Current children will see our 100th anniversary. I’ve been pondering that future celebration for some time now.

There are obviously denominations that have been around much longer and have had a much more significant impact in the world. I thank God for the churches and generations of believers in the broader body of Christ that have gone before us and have proven faithful. Motivated by their example, I’m pondering our future in Sovereign Grace. What will we be when our centennial comes? What should we be? And what can we do about it?

THE GENERATIONAL TRANSFER

We are currently experiencing the first broad generational transition in our denomination’s brief life. Sovereign Grace affirms doctrines that have been confessed throughout church history, but our little family of churches is very young. Born in revival, nurtured in grace, matured through trial, united in faith and practice, we now face this crucial generational test.

We can look to the future of our churches with confidence, not because of human gifting or wisdom, but because God is faithful. “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God” (Ps. 20:7).

And yet, we have a crucial part to play. To be a second or third generation member or pastor in Sovereign Grace is to have received a challenging and honorable assignment from the Lord. It is a slightly different calling from the founding generation and yet it is a pioneer calling in its own way. We are called to pioneer a faithful gospel transition from those who came before to those who will come after. We must ensure that our gospel heritage is our legacy—not because we care about our renown, but because we care about the renown of Christ through us. How do we go about this? Let me share four pitfalls we should avoid as we embark on this transferring adventure.

THE PITFALL OF IDOLIZING NEWNESS

First, we must avoid the danger of idolizing newness. A faithful first generation is “first” because they have rediscovered orthodox doctrines that have been neglected in some area or age of the church. In Sovereign Grace, it was exciting to hear “gospel-centered,” “the doctrines of grace,” and “New Testament church life” for the first time—and not just because they are biblical and true, but because they were also new to us. But a second and third generation in Sovereign Grace is not called to discover a “new” foundation or “new” first priorities, but to find fresh joy in preaching the same things. To keep the main thing the main thing for future generations, we must keep the same thing the main thing right now. This requires perseverance, creativity, courage, and the humility to embrace our place in God’s timeline. Like Timothy and Titus before us, we are called to guard the foundation and build upon it. We should develop doctrinally, we should keep growing, but without demoting the cornerstone we’ve received.

This generational calling has its own challenge. As D. A. Carson warns about another denominational transition, “One generation of Mennonites believed the gospel and held as well that there were certain social, economic, and political entailments. The next generation assumed the gospel, but identified with the entailments. The following generation denied the gospel: the ‘entailments’ became everything. Assuming this sort of scheme for evangelicalism, one suspects that large swaths of the movement are lodged in the second step, with some drifting toward the third.” We must resist the drift and keep the same thing the main thing.

THE PITFALL OF ASSUMING AFFECTION

Second, we must avoid the assumption that affirmation equals affection. As we’ve heard from Carson, “If I have learned anything in 35 or 40 years of teaching, it is that students don’t learn everything I teach them. What they learn is what I am excited about, the kinds of things I emphasize again and again and again and again. That had better be the gospel.”

The second and third generations of Sovereign Grace cannot, must not, assume that since our churches still affirm the same doctrines confessionally, we are still prioritizing those doctrines functionally and emotionally. Our centennial celebration must not find us affirming Christ and him crucified as a technical doctrine that no one shouts and weeps over. But if we are to shout and weep then, we must be shouting and weeping now at the person and work of Christ and the shocking mystery of grace.

This requires personal heart work and not assumptions, pressing for affections and not just accepting affirmations. We were not inspired by mere affirmation a generation ago, and our spiritual children will not be either. A hundred years of gospel zeal for Christ will require modeling affirmation and affection.

THE PITFALL OF PASTORAL APATHY

Third, we must discern and confront current doctrinal threats to our centennial legacy. Pastoral coasting leads to denominational shipwreck. Some threats will remain or be amplified from the past (for example, the unrelenting attack on Biblical sexuality), and some rejuvenated threats to Biblical authority, church faithfulness, and gospel centrality will arise (the idol of cultural power comes to mind).

Second and third generation pastors do not have to build from the ground up, but they cannot relax and presume upon their inheritance of churches and doctrines, lest they squander them in pastoral apathy. Doctrinal and pastoral vigilance, genuine partnership, prayer, and earnest preaching are our watchwords—lest our stewardship is squandered and apathy becomes our legacy. Lord, help us.

THE PITFALL OF SELF-TRUST

Finally, we must renounce self-trust for our future. All of the pitfalls above should be avoided, but none compare to the danger of self-trust. We were born by the power of the Spirit, and we will only continue by his power as well. “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain” (Ps. 127:1).

The future of the church rests in the hands of the Lord. As John Owen said on his deathbed, “I am leaving the ship of the church in a storm. But while the great Pilot is in it, the loss of a poor under-rower will be inconsiderable. Live, and pray, and hope, and wait patiently, and do not despond. The promise stands invincible, that He will never leave us, nor forsake us.”

We must commit the second and third (and fourth and fifth!) generations to the Lord. We are prone to wander, prone to leave the God we love, and any Biblical and gospel heritage is due to him. So we say now, “Lord, here’s our heart and our future, take and seal it for your courts above. ‘Tis grace that brought us safe thus far, and grace will lead us home.”

HIS GLORY ALONE

Should the Lord be pleased to preserve us for our 100th birthday, and should our gospel heritage become our legacy, it will be to his glory alone. Saints above and below will say, “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness” (Ps. 115:1)!

So—to my brothers and sisters in the second and third generations—let us build on Christ, our cornerstone, and watch over our gospel heritage. Let us pray that the favor of the Lord would continue to be upon us and that he would establish the work of our hands. And let us be confident and full of faith for the future, knowing that God is able to do far more than all that we ask or think. Lord willing, our 100th birthday will find our spiritual children and grandchildren weeping, shouting, and singing of Christ and him crucified.

This article is dedicated with affection and gratefulness to our fathers in the faith, the first generation of Sovereign Grace. Thank you for making Christ our foundation.

Jon Payne

Theological Distinctives

Membership Class

Cross of Grace Church

Intro: Why care about theology?

Everyone is a theologian // A.W. Tozer said famously, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” What we believe about God affects every part of our life. Do we believe God will judge us according to some moral standard? Do we believe we have purpose or are random? At Cross of Grace we’re not trying to help people become theologians–they already are. Each person has beliefs about God. We want to help people become good theologians.

Theology is for worship // J.I. Packer famously said “Theology is for doxology.” Studying God (theology) should lead to praising God (doxology). The more we learn about God the more we see the beauty and glory and majesty of what God has made. One of the results of devotion to the Apostles teaching in Acts 2 is that “awe came upon every soul” in verse 43. Understanding theology rightly produces awe and worship. After Romans 9-11 — one of the most theologically intricate sections of the whole Bible — the Apostle Paul ends the section shouting in praise in Romans 11:34-36 “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!… For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”

Theology is for life // We must have and understand faith rightly if we are to live rightly. In Matthew 28 Jesus commissions us to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them…teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Jesus calls His followers to teach others what He has taught them – about God, about humanity, about salvation. That theological foundation is meant to shape how they live. In Acts 2:37 the people hearing Peter’s sermon are “cut to the heart” and cry out “what must we do?” They believe something, it affects their heart, and it leads to a change in action.

On Doctrine, Unity, and Difference

Some in our day seek to avoid doctrinal or theological distinctions, believing that “doctrine divides.” But as we’ve seen, every Christian is a theologian, every Christian believes things about God and the world, the question is whether those beliefs are clear and accurate. We believe that doctrine clarifies and therefore actually leads to greater unity. We would rather seek to help people think biblically and well than not talk about doctrine. We want people rooted and grounded in Scriptural conviction.

We consider the following tenets of theology to be essential and required for orthodox Christianity:

Bible // We believe that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant word of God. We believe that these words are God’s words. Our task isn’t reinventing the Bible’s teaching for each new generation, our task is rediscovering the words of God for each new generation.

Trinity // We believe that God is one God in three persons. When Jesus was baptized we see the Son, hear the Father’s voice, and the Spirit comes and rests on Jesus. We are then commanded to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit (Matt 28:19). Even in Peter’s sermon in Acts 2 we see that God the Father sends God the Son Jesus and then that they send the Spirit.

Gospel // God is the judge, we are sinners, and we need salvation. Jesus makes possible our salvation through his sacrificial death on the cross. This message of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is of “first importance” (1 Cor 15). It’s of first importance in our theology. It’s also of first importance in our lives.

“Here is what I understand the good news to be: the good news is that the one and only God, who is holy, made us in his image to know him. But we sinned and cut ourselves off from him. In his great love, God became a man in Jesus, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross, thus fulfilling the law himself and taking on himself the punishment for the sins of all those who would ever turn and trust in him. He rose again from the dead, showing that God accepted Christ’s sacrifice and that God’s wrath against us had been exhausted. He now calls us to repent of our sins and to trust in Christ alone for our forgiveness. If we repent of our sins and trust in Christ, we are born again into a new life, an eternal life with God. Now that is good news.” – Mark Dever

Faith // Salvation comes through faith in Jesus. It is not through works or human effort that we can achieve salvation. Indeed it is “by grace you have been saved through faith” (Eph 2:8-9). Faith involves an agreement with the truths of the gospel as well as a placing of faith wholly in Christ for salvation and life. Faith results in us declaring “Jesus is my Savior” as well as “Jesus is my Lord.”

Distinctive Beliefs

We recognize that Christians can in good conscience differ from one another and still partner in the gospel. We thank God for brothers and sisters who differ from us and want to pray for them and support them as fellow Christians. We are grateful for such brothers and sisters and look forward to the day we are together in heaven with them.

We are also convinced by Scripture of certain theological distinctives and will teach and counsel from that perspective in our church. We believe it’s wise and helpful to have a clear articulation of what we believe above some important Scriptural topics. As we’ve said, we all have a theology, whether or not it is clear and thought-out. We want our theological convictions to share our life as a church. These are some of our doctrinal distinctives as a church:

Reformed // We believe in God’s sovereignty over all things including salvation.

We are committed to emphasizing God’s unique saving work in calling us and causing our hearts to respond, as well as the end of salvation being the glory of God. Scripture says clearly, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves” (Eph 1:4-6). This action by God in eternity past is sometimes called “election.” This choosing led to God calling us and drawing us to Himself: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44). When we had nothing to attract God to us, He chose us. When we could not come to Him, indeed when we would not come to Hm because of our sin (Romans 3), He drew us to Himself.

Continuationist // We believe that the Holy Spirit empowers Christians for ministry and that all the gifts seen in Scripture are available today.

God has given many and varied gifts to the church. These include seemingly “normal” gifts like administration and service (Rom 12:7), and the more unique gifts like tongues and prophecy (1 Cor 12:8-11). We believe that all the gifts described in the New Testament can be given by God today. We also believe that any spiritual gifts must be governed by the infallible word of God, that they should build up the body and advance the gospel, and that they should never become a distraction from everything else God has commanded us. We also believe that these gifts are vital and important for the church to fulfill its mission and therefore want to earnestly desire them and ask for them.

Complementarian // We believe that God has designed men and women with intentional difference to display His image and this has implications for the home and church.

We affirm the dignity and design of men and women as equal in value, and complementary in role. Every single human being is an equal image-bearer of God and full of dignity, value, and worth. We believe that receiving and celebrating God’s design leads to the flourishing of the family and the church. We believe that Scripture teaches that in marriage men and women have equal value but differing roles.

Husbands: According to Scripture, men bear the responsibility to lead through sacrificial servanthood in marriage (1 Cor 11:3). In Ephesians 5 men are commanded to love their wives as “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” So while men have responsibility to be spiritual leaders of their families, their leadership is exercised in self-giving love for their wife.
Wives: In Genesis 2 God calls Eve to be a “helper” to Adam—a word which means someone who brings strength to where it is lacking. Rather than being domineering, or being passive, wives are to come alongside and help their husbands, bringing strength to areas where they need strength and helping the family flourish.

Additionally, in our church we affirm the vital ministry of women—they are gifted and called and equipped for this service. At Cross of Grace both men and women may be called as deacons and set before the church as lead servants (1 Timothy 3). We also affirm that eldership in the church must be male in light of Scriptural teaching (1 Timothy 2:12-14, 1 Timothy 3:1-7).

Sexual Orthodoxy // We believe that the same God who gave the gift of sexuality has a specific design in how that sexuality should be expressed for His glory.

We affirm that God designed sexuality to be a beautiful and good gift — there’s a whole book called Song of Solomon about how good a gift this is. However, God also set out boundaries for sexuality, that it is meant to be expressed in the context of a one man- one woman marriage relationship. Why? Because as God says in Ephesians 5 it’s meant to carry the mystery of Christ and the Church, to be a picture of the Gospel.

Baptistic // We believe that believers should choose to be baptized as an outward symbol of an inward spiritual reality.

It seems clear to us that the command to be baptized was given to people who understand what it meant and were choosing to follow Jesus (Acts 2). Therefore we do not practice infant baptism. We believe that baptism is a clear act of someone declaring that they are following Jesus. We regularly as a church practice baptism during our Sunday services.

What if we differ from one another? If you see an area of potential disagreement, we see an opportunity for a great conversation. Please talk to the pastor or leader facilitating this class or talk to a pastor or leader in your membership interview. We would love to understand where you’re coming from, help you understand where we’re coming from, and clarify our beliefs. If there are wide and significant differences, we may both decide that a believer could be better served by a church closer to their beliefs. However, there may also be times where someone has a theological conviction different from ours and still desires to be part of what God is doing at our church. In that case we would want them to be willing to explore the issue further with us, understand that our teaching falls in line with our theology, and ask that they not be disruptive within the church or actively subvert the teaching of the church. Most importantly, we would seek to emphasize and praise God for our common areas of belief in God and the Gospel, which unite all Christians.

Toolkit: Welcoming Members

Written By Ricky Alcantar

Background

Our local community is unique and has a degree of transience from the nearby military base, federal workforce, and immigrants coming or going. This means that for the past several years it’s become common for us to welcome 50-100 members each year and it has forced us to think carefully about our process for welcoming members and integrating them with the church. Here is some of what we’ve learned.

Key Passage

Ephesians 4:[4] There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—[5] one Lord, one faith, one baptism, [6] one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. [7] But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. (ESV)

Statement of Faith

Sovereign Grace Statement of Faith: “As an expression of Christ’s universal church, the local church is the focal point of God’s plan to mature his people and save sinners.[10] Therefore, all Christians are to join themselves as committed members to a specific local church.[11] A true church is marked by the faithful preaching of the Word,[12] the right administration of the sacraments,[13] and the proper exercise of church discipline.[14] Even true churches are imperfect: they often contain a mixture of unbelievers hidden among the true flock[15] and are vulnerable to theological error and moral failure.[16] Yet Christ is unwavering in his commitment to build his church and will surely bring it to maturity.[17]” –12. The Church of Christ, The Local Church

5 Practical Helps

1. Your membership class is one of the most important things your church does: In thinking about our membership welcome we realized that the way we launch people into membership is like the way they will continue. While many parts of the church require our attention one of the most important is how we welcome and integrate new members.

Each new member absorbs your church culture and contributes to it
Each member of a previous church brings their own understanding of membership and theology that may or may not align with ours
Each conversation with a pastor is not one among many, but may be one of a handful that shapes the way they think about the church
Each membership welcome Sunday reminds the existing church of how we think about membership

2. Use your membership class to integrate not merely inform: A few years ago we realized that the work of teaching our theology and values sometimes meant the relational aspect of membership was getting lost. We didn’t merely want people to be informed about our beliefs, we wanted them to become part of the church and that means relationship. So we changed the format of our class and after teaching some we then broke down into small groups led by pastors or leaders in the church. For example, after our teaching on the gospel and discipleship we asked people to share their testimony. We were amazed at how quickly people got relationally connected through that. We continued this pattern for all three weeks of membership class and also found that people were also more ready and excited to join small groups, having seen the value of relationships in the church.

3. Welcome with consistency on Sundays: Having a set pattern of welcoming members, even similar comments and language, can provide a consistent definition of what membership means. While each elder has their own comments when they welcome members, we read the same Scripture passage and give the same key bullet points.

In our context we have a significant number of transient members from the military, university, and federal agencies. This helps us make sure that as people come into the church they are welcomed the same way, we emphasize the same principles each time, and over time the whole church has the same understanding of membership.

4. Recite something together: When members are welcomed, consider reciting a Scripture passage or a historic creed together. We recite the gospel section of our SGC Statement of Faith. It drives home the unity of the body together. We know of other churches that recite their whole membership agreement, or a historic creed. More than once I’ve been deeply moved hearing the whole church’s voice ring out together as we recite together.

5. Give a meaningful gift: A small but meaningful gift such as a study Bible and handwritten note from the pastors is a wonderful expression of care. While many of our elders do membership interviews we try to make sure that the person that did the final membership interview is the same person that writes a note in their Bible. Also, what particular gift you give out is a place to emphasize your values. Our area of El Paso, TX is a religious area but not one where many people read the Bible for themselves. That’s something we want to emphasize, then, through the gift of a study Bible.

Additionally, in our context we have a large number of military families and law enforcement agency employees. In that context, challenge coins often mark major events such as the completion of a training course. So at our church we give out challenge coins to new members that bear an emblem of our church on the front and a reminder of our mission on the back.

6. Be mindful of non-members: Paul assumes there will be people not part of the church, or even Christians, when we gather (see 1 Cor 14) so working hard to make sure we explain any unfamiliar terms, and explain membership briefly, is key. A few years ago we realized as a pastoral team that while our membership introductions were heartfelt, they were often full of language unfamiliar to those not part of our church, so we have made efforts to correct that.

Additionally, one of the recent trends in American church culture has been the great number of “de-churched” people and we try to take the opportunity to speak to that whenever we speak about membership. We live in an age where we cannot assume Christians understand why church membership is important and what it would mean.

Some Favorite Quotes

Spurgeon: “I know there are some who say, “Well, I’ve given myself to the Lord, but I don’t intend to give myself to any church.” I say, “Now why not?” And they answer, “Because I can be just as good a Christian without it.” I say, “Are you quite clear about that? You can be as good a Christian by disobedience to your Lord’s commands as by being obedient? There’s a brick. What is the brick made for? It’s made to build a house. It is of no use for the brick to tell you that it’s just as good a brick while it’s kicking about on the ground by itself, as it would be as part of a house. Actually, it’s a good-for-nothing brick. So, you rolling stone Christians, I don’t believe that you’re answering the purpose for which Christ saved you. You’re living contrary to the life which Christ would have you live and you are much to blame for the injury you do.” – Spurgeon
Cyprian: “He can no longer have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his mother.” — Cyprian, Treatise on the Unity of the Church, 6.

Attachments

Membership Sunday Script
“How to Join or Leave a Church” Handout
Membership Class: Introduction, Week 1, Week 2, Week 3
Appendices: Theological Distinctives, Church Governance