Tag: Church

Ministry Monday

On By BrianIn Ministry Moments

Here are some helpful posts on worship for pastors and worship leaders:

What Is Worship? – Matt Mason (TGC Worship)
Some helpful summaries…

Scripture in Worship – Joe Thorn
Because God’s word is what revives the soul, makes us wise, enlightens the eyes, and is the means by which God sanctifies us (Ps. 19; Jn. 17:17), we should be eager to give it a prominent place in our worship. While it is common to read the Scripture with the sermon and before the Lord’s Supper, I want to suggest 5 more places in worship where the word of God can be lifted up.

Truth We Believe and Songs We Sing – Matt Smethurst (Gospel Coalition)
Sound theology should shape everything we do in corporate worship. But what does that mean for music in particular? Don Carson recently sat down with worship leaders Keith Getty and Matt Boswell to discuss the relationship between the truth we believe and the songs we sing.

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some must-read posts about the church:

Church as an Oasis of Grace – Trevin Wax

Cultivating a Gracious Climate in Your Church – Jared Wilson

Is Your Church a Learning Community? – David Wells via Kevin DeYoung

Create a Contrast Culture in Your Church – Jonathan Leeman (Gospel Coalition)

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day applying some of these great ideas!

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points1 Comment

Here are some good posts related to the church for your weekend reading.  As a pastor, I’d highly recommend the last two.

How To Stop Church-Killing Gossip – Justin Taylor

The Difference between Congregational Worship and a Concert – Justin Taylor

How To Criticize a Preacher – David Murray
So you’ve heard a sermon and you’re not happy. You feel the preacher got it badly wrong in either his interpretation, his words, his manner, his length, his whatever.
What now?

Praying for Your Pastor – Joe Thorn
There are a number of ways we should be praying for our leaders in the church, but as we approach Sunday I want to encourage you to pray for your pastors and their preaching in 4 specific ways.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day with your local church!

Ministry Monday

On By BrianIn Ministry Moments

Here are some helpful posts on preaching:

6 Bullet Points on Preaching – Tim Challies
The Apostle Paul had a lot to say about preaching, but I think the majority of it can be grouped under six main headings or ideas. You could, of course, extract specific teaching points from each one, but I think there’s value in looking at them in a broad sense. Here is what Paul says about the preaching of God’s Word…

3 Questions To Ask of Your Sermon – Trevin Wax
The more I’ve thought about these questions, the more I am convinced that pastors ought to ask these questions of every sermon they preach. Teachers ought to ask these questions of every lesson they prepare. The questions are a helpful guide to keeping Christ as the focus of our ministry.

Preaching That Cuts to the Heart – Tim Keller (via Gospel Coalition)
Put another way, you should preach the truth, not just your opinion; you should preach the good news, not just good advice; and you should preach to make the truth real to the heart, not just clear to the mind.

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts to ponder as you gather with your local church this Lord’s Day:

The Excitement and Anticipation – Tim Challies
…there is value in elevating the preparations we make for worshipping in the local church, and elevating the anticipation we feel for Sunday morning’s sermon.

How to Listen to to a Sermon – Phil Ryken (Reformation 21)
So what is the right way to listen to a sermon?  With a soul that is prepared, a mind that is alert, a Bible that is open, a heart that is receptive, and a life that is ready to spring into action.

How to Listen to a Sermon – Justin Taylor
More resources to consider on this important topic.

Ten tips for going to church with your family – Christine Jensen
Church-going should not be a drudgery and mere duty. If you treat it as such, so will your children. If it is an opportunity to meet the Lord and to meet the Lord’s people, why would we not greet it with enthusiasm and expectation? Do we really think that will happen?

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for you to consider this weekend:

So You Want to Sin, Do You? – Tim Challies

10 Ways to Resist the Devil – Tim Challies

12 Ways to Preserve Christian Unity – Tim Challies

Can Life Have Meaning Without God? – James Anderson (Gospel Coalition)

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day worshiping the Lord with your local church!

Passion Points

On By BrianIn Church Collection, PASSION Points

Our church had VBS this past week, which means I have been really busy the last two weeks – and so the lack of blogging.  But I’m back, and here are some good posts to consider as you prepare to meet together with your local church tomorrow:

Pastors Need Your Care Part 1 – Jason Helopoulos
Pastors Need Your Care Part 2 – Jason Helopoulos
As a pastor, I can affirm that these are some great suggestions.

How Much Time Do Pastors Spend Preparing Sermons? – Thom Rainer
Most church members give little thought to the amount of time it takes a pastor to prepare each sermon. In reality, sermon preparation is a large portion of a pastor’s workweek. Unfortunately, this work is invisible to typical church members. They don’t realize the enormous amount of time it takes just to prepare one sermon.

Why I Pray Publicly for Other Churches – Greg Gilbert
Each week, I choose one or two churches and pray for their services that day. I pray for the church to be attentive to the Word of God. I pray for the pastor to speak boldly and accurately from the Bible. I pray for people to be convicted of their sin, for Christians to be encouraged in the faith, and for non-Christians to be converted. I also thank the Lord that we live in a city where we are not the only church in which the gospel is proclaimed.

8 Ways Satan Keeps You From Worship – Thomas Brooks (via Tim Challies)
Satan wants to keep you from worshipping the One he hates. He wants to keep you from doing the right thing, whether that is spending time alone with the Lord in Scripture and prayer, attending and participating in public worship services, or any other thing that will draw you closer to the Lord. Here, courtesy of Thomas Brooks, are eight ways Satan will keep you from worship.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day!

Unity in Fellowship

On By BrianIn Book of Acts, Church Life

In Acts 15, the Jerusalem Council requested the Gentile believers to avoid food offered to idols, food that had been strangled, and food with blood still in it.  Why focus on food issues?  Because eating together was and still is an important part of fellowship, and these three things would offend the Jewish believers.  If Jewish and Gentile believers are going to have fellowship together, eat together, and find unity together, then the Gentiles need to strive to avoid offending their Jewish brothers and sisters in Christ.

We too must strive not to offend each other.  We all have different personal convictions regarding behavior based on our age, how we were raised, where we have lived, and more.  We ought to strive not to offend each other in what we do.  We may need to agree on some things we will all avoid so as not to offend each other.

We have all seen one child figure out that something bugs another child, and so this first child goes out of their way to do that something just to irritate the second child.  Scripture teaches us to do the opposite.  If we know something offends someone, we should graciously strive not to do it.  Pursue unity in fellowship.

But notice also that the Gentiles were only given three things to avoid so as not to offend their Jewish brothers.  But the Jewish believers held many more personal convictions from the Mosaic Law, and the Gentiles were not expected to keep the Law to please them.  There was still a lot of room for Gentiles to do things that the Jews would find offensive, but the Jewish believers had to avoid being offended.

We too must graciously strive not to be offended.  We can’t expect others to follow our personal behavior convictions, or judge them when they don’t.  We must avoid being offended by what our brothers and sisters in Christ do.

If you go out in the rain in a t-shirt, you will soon be soaked.  You need a rain slicker, so the rain “slicks” off of you.  When you go to church, don’t wear a “t-shirt” in which every offense soaks in until you are drenched with anger.  Wear a “rain slicker”, so the offenses just slick off of you.

In sum, we all need to focus on ourselves.  Graciously strive not to offend.  Graciously strive not to be offended.  Pursue unity in fellowship.

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

8 Reasons to Read Christian Biographies – Paul Tautges
Whether it is the lives of the Puritans, leaders of the Reformation, or faithful believers who lived nearer to our own day, the story of another Christian’s life often lifts our eyes from our own ministries and circumstances to see something bigger.

On Not Losing the Gospel in the Next Generation – Don Carson (via Justin Taylor)

The Church of Earnest Prayer – Kevin DeYoung
Our prayer is often dull because there is so little earnestness in it. We pray as if no one is listening. We pray as if nothing will happen. We pray as if nothing were at stake. We pray without vim or vigor, without passion, without purpose. We pray to pass the time not to pull down blessings from heaven.

Why Should You Go to a Prayer Meeting? – Erik Raymond
Sometimes we forget that prayer is a privilege. And it is not a cheap privilege. When we pray we are communing with the God of the universe, the originator and sustainer of all life. Further, we are talking to our Father. He is more than a cosmic superintendent he is our caring Savior. This family relationship, this access was purchased with the highest price, the royal currency of Christ’s blood. Don’t allow yourself to crowd out privilege with inconvenience.

Why Going to Church on Sunday Is an Act of War – Daniel Darling
When your weary legs rise for another verse of the chorus and you offer praise to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, you are saying, in effect, that the reigning prince of the power of the air, Satan (Ephesians 2:2) is really not the King He thinks he is. There is another King, another Kingdom and it’s coming one day in it’s fullness and power. When you gather with your fellow believers and worship Christ, you are saying to the rest of the world that man is not ultimate. You are saying that the great movements of this world may have some power, but ultimately they are part of God’s gathering of history to Himself and for His kingdom. When you worship the risen Christ every Sunday at your church, you are telling the world that in your life, for this moment, Christ is ultimate. He is to be worshipped above all else. You’re making a statement that there is Someone deserving of more adulation and worship than the lesser things to which we pledge allegiance. You’re inviting them to ask you, “Why do you think the Kingdom of God is better than the Kingdom of man? What is it about Christ that gets you to roll out of bed, get dressed, get your family dressed, hop in the car, and go to church every single Sunday?

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day!

The Test

On By BrianIn Church Life, Habit of Stewardship, Heart3 Comments

Summer is here.  And with summer comes numerous activities that compete for our time.  And some of those activities are on Sunday mornings, competing for our time with the Lord and his people.  It may be a game, a race, a family get-together, a trip to the beach, a work picnic, or any number of other things.  Each alternative Sunday morning activity represents a test.

  • It is a test of our priorities.  Will we choose what Christ offers or what the world offers?  Will we choose Christ or that activity?  Which will be first?  Which will take the priority?  The early church devoted themselves to coming together for the Word and prayer.  Paul risked his life to plant and build up local churches.  Will we share their commitment?  Our world is filled with idols that many people worship, but on Sunday mornings the church gathers to declare that there is one true God.  We gather to celebrate the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We gather together to worship the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  What could possibly be more important than that?
  • It is a test of our attitude.  We could come every Sunday to church, but with the wrong attitude.  We could come bitter because we really want to be doing something else.  We could sit through the sermon impatiently, hoping it will end soon so we can go and do what we really want to do.  Or we could gather expectantly, excited to see what God might do among us.  We could gather joyfully to worship the Lord through singing and prayer and His Word.  What is our attitude?
  • It is a test of our witness.  Like it or not, church is a public expression of our commitment to Christ.  Our neighbors see if we leave for church each week.  Our families see if we are committed or not.  If we don’t have a strong commitment to church, it communicates to others that Christ really isn’t that important to us.  And if it isn’t important to us, why should it be important to them?

So this summer when those alternative activities come up, go to church.  Tell your family you will be late to that family get-together.  Tell your coach you can’t make the game.  Save that trip to the beach for another time.  You already have plans for Sunday morning.  You have a prior commitment.  Make church a priority, with a good attitude, as a good witness for Jesus.