Saturday Links
Most of the Christian books, sermons and theological material that my father gave me as a boy failed to catch my attention; but, for some reason, I’ve never forgotten Nancy Demoss’ chart contrasting proud/broken people. I need this more today as a husband, father, pastor and friend than when I was young.
We are all telling a story, living by a story, evangelizing a story. One story is ancient and rugged. The other modern and banal. One confronts. The other caresses. One truly saves. The other falsely succors. Choose your story wisely. For one starts grim, but ends in life. The other looks cheery and ends in death.
What, I wonder, if the conservative evangelical church world came to be dominated by a symbiotic network of high profile and charismatic leaders, media organisations, and big conferences?
After listening to preachers of many different denominations and having been a preacher for over sixty years, I find the following observations by Keith Drury to be particularly cogent. According to him, these are the twenty-one skills of great preachers.
Why it doesn’t matter if people don’t remember your sermons
We need to pray that our preaching would be effective and not so much that it would be memorable.
What is Church Planting to You?
Church planting. What is it to you? Make sure you know before you go.
Avoiding Three Big Church Planting Mistakes
- Planting for the Wrong Reasons
- Planters who are Not Teachable
- Planters who Plant Churches in their Heads
Can a Dying Church Find Life? Six Radical Steps to “Yes”
- A leader must rise and be willing to lead the church toward radical transformation regardless of the personal costs to him.
- A significant group in the church must admit that they are desperate for help.
- That same group must confess guilt.
- The group must have an utter, desperate, and prayerful dependence on God.
- The church must be willing to storm the community with love.
- The church must relinquish control.
The Deep Immersion Approach to Deep Work
Notice, this immersion approach to deep work is different than the more common approach of integrating a couple hours of deep work into most days of your schedule, which we can call the chain approach, in honor of Seinfeld’s “don’t break the chain” advice
