preaching 101

This morning a student taking classes in pastoral ministry interviewed me on my approach to preaching each week at Compass. Interesting conversation. For your reading pleasure here is my relationship with every message I teach:

Monday: I’m never preaching again!
Tuesday: I’m thinking about preaching again…maybe even next week.
Wednesday: 1000 good ideas about the topic…what is the one solid point that needs to be made?
Thursday: Is Sunday really just a few days away?
Friday: I can’t look at it anymore! I hate it. I wouldn’t teach this message at gunpoint!
Saturday: It might not be as bad as I originally thought. This might actually be preach-able.
Sunday: I think it went pretty well. I don’t know how, but God used it in some way to point someone in the way to go.

great quote from “crazy love”

this excerpt comes from Francis Chan’s book “Crazy Love.”

“The American church is a difficult place to fit in if you want to live out New Testament Christianity. The goals of American Christianity are often a nice marriage, children who don’t swear, and good church attendance. Taking the words of Christ literally and seriously is rarely considered. That’s for the “radicals” who are “unbalanced” and who go “overboard.” Most of us want a balanced life that we can control, that is safe, and that does not involve suffering.”

Wow. Just thought i’d share what smacked me in the face.

Hard Times in the Heartland

Mark Gorveatte serves as our District Supt. … some time ago he passed along pretty powerful article… I share it with you here for your reading pleasure…

“Recession, fleeing firms and the auto slump stagger Michigan.”

Does that sound like a headline from yesterday’s newspaper? It could be but it is actually the lead line from a report in Time Magazine back on December 7, 1981.

Here are a few excerpts from that article: “Of the troubled states in the industrial heartland of the Midwest, Michigan is by far the hardest hit. Beset by nationwide recession, the migration of business to the Sunbelt and the auto industry’s slump, Michigan had an unemployment rate of 12.7% in October …
Worse is to come …

“The auto, which transported Michigan’s economy to affluence, has helped to stall it … In the past three years almost 300,000 auto jobs have been lost nationwide. So have an
estimated 500,000 to 600,000 laborers for parts suppliers and steelmakers. Michigan’s
share of that loss: 250,000 or more … “Business and personal bankruptcies tripled in the past two years.” (Time, December 7, 1981)

For some of you, it doesn’t take much effort to recall those hard times. For those who can’t
remember those difficulties, we’re experiencing our own today.

Michigan was at its high-water mark in terms of employment just 8 years ago, but has since lost
more than 400,000 jobs. It has lost a third of its manufacturing jobs, a rate higher than any other
state, and nearly half of its automotive jobs.

According to a study released by United Van Lines, a staggering 67.8 percent of its Michigan client
traffic was outbound in 2007. That rate is an all-time record high, eclipsing the previous 1981
record of 66.9 percent.

Last month the U.S. Census Bureau reported that Michigan lost 30,500 citizens from July 2006 to
July 2007.

What lessons are here for us?

fathers day

just got off the phone with my dad…wishing him a happy father’s day…now for a quick rest before an appointment this afternoon…looking forward to watching tiger woods try to pull out a victory in the us open later today.

ihop and hockey sticks

eating lunch as we speak with chase and miles…just hit some yard sales…found a hockey stick for chase…he was thrilled!

ihop and hockey sticks

eating lunch as we speak with chase and miles…just hit some yard sales…found a hockey stick for chase…he was thrilled!

ihop and hockey sticks

eating lunch as we speak with chase and miles…just hit some yard sales…found a hockey stick for chase…he was thrilled!

taylor mason was robbed

just finished watching last comic standing … taylor mason was a part of the auditions…I have heard him in person before…very funny guy…didn’t make the next round…off to bead

posting from my phone…

trying something new…posting from my cellular phone…watching last comic standing…very funny stuff…pete lee is an extremely funny guy…

Back At It…longer post ahead…

The past week of my life was spent with the three most important people in my life…Julie, Chase and Miles at one of my favorite places on the planet, Sandy Pines Resort.

For the past four years or so I have been invited to speak at the weekend service they hold at the resort and as a kind “perk” for speaking they provide you with a “park model” (think a half size mobile home much like the ones sold at this site) that they affectionately refer to as “the parsonage” – we braved the rains and power outage and had a blast just being a family!

I did still do some “work” during the week as I came back to Byron Center on Thursday night for High School graduation where because of my school board role, I sat on the platform and helped distribute diploma’s to the grads.

Quick sidebar: I have heard many a speech at a HS graduation but the speech that the salutatorian gave on “stealing home” was in my humble opinion the best I have ever heard. I can’t recall his name, but I wanted to stand and cheer when he was done!

On Saturday I had the opportunity to officiate at the wedding of Dan Goodman and Erin Kyser. Dan and Erin have been a part of Compass since the beginning and both of them serve regularly. Their reception was held at Bowen Mills and was absolutely beautiful! As I type these words they are somewhere on a beach in the Dominican Republic enjoying their honeymoon. Congrats to Dan and Erin!

Coming This Sunday :: Crazy Love – The Summer of Love

Three weeks ago I stumbled across a book called, Crazy Love by a pastor named Francis Chan. I read the thing cover to cover in the course of three days. Simply put, it is the most challenging book that I have read in quite some time.

We had planned an entirely different direction for this weekend, but after reading the book I made the decision to call an audible and use the book and its themes for our summer series. The gist of the book is this: God’s overwhelming, hot-pursuit love for us… if accepted… should radically change the way we live.

A few highlighted portions from my reading of the book…

* When I am consumed by my problems — stressed out about my life, my family, and my job — I actually convey the belief that I think the circumstances are more important than God’s command to always rejoice… that I have a “right” to disobey God because of the magnitude of my responsibilities.

* The point of your life is to point to Him.

* The very fact that a holy, eternal, all-knowing, all-powerful, merciful, fair, and just God loves you and me is nothing short of astonishing. The wildest part is that Jesus doesn’t have to love us… [and] the irony is that while God doesn’t need us but still wants us, we desperately need God but don’t really want Him most of the time.

* Are we in love with God or just His stuff? Imagine how awful it would feel to have your child say to you, “I don’t really love you or want your love, but I would like my allowance, please.”

* People who are obsessed are raw with God; they do not attempt to mask the ugliness of their sins or their failures. Obsessed people don’t put it on for God; He is their safe place, where they can be at peace.

* After the apostle Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, people “were cut to the heart and said… ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’” (Acts 2:37). The first church responded with immediate action: repentance, baptism, selling possessions, sharing the gospel. We respond with words like Amen, Convicting sermon, Great book… and then are paralyzed as we try to decipher what God wants of our lives.

Added Value :: Some misc stuff that I have read recently…

Doomsday Alert – Nuclear war will begin next Thursday, June 12, or sooner, according to the latest prediction of self-proclaimed prophet Yisrayl “Buffalo Bill” Hawkins, the founder of a religious sect in Abilene, Texas.

“It could be turned loose before then,” Hawkins told 20/20 for a report to be broadcast tonight. “You’re going to see this very soon, really soon,” he said.

Hundreds of truck trailers have been loaded with food and water on the group’s 44-acre compound, in preparation for the coming war.

Unfortunately for Hawkins, it is not the first time he predicted the outbreak of nuclear war.

Most recently, Hawkins set Sept. 12, 2006 as the beginning of the end.

Reasons Muslims Convert to Christianity

A recent survey of 750 Christians who had converted from Islam revealed five common reasons why they choose to follow Christ.

Why Muslims Convert
1. The lifestyle of Christians. Former Muslims cited the love that Christians exhibited in their relationships with non-Christians and their treatment of women as equals.

2. The power of God in answered prayers and healing. According to the survey, experiences of God’s supernatural work increased after their conversions. Often dreams about Jesus were reported.

3. Dissatisfaction with the type of Islam they had experienced. Many expressed dissatisfaction with the Qur’an, emphasizing God’s punishment over his love. Others cited Islamic militancy and the failure of Islamic law to transform society.

4. The spiritual truth in the Bible. Muslims are generally taught that the Torah, Psalms, and the Gospels are from God, but that they became corrupted. These Christian converts said, however, that the truth of God found in Scripture became compelling for them and key to their understanding of God’s character.

5. Biblical teachings about the love of God. In the Qur’an, God’s love is conditional; but God’s love in the Bible for all people was especially eye-opening for Muslims. These converts were moved by the love expressed through the life and teachings of Jesus.
(Source: Leadership Journal, Winter 2008, Vol. XXIX, No. 1, page 13)

This is certain to make you think twice about visiting the hospital…according to the CDC: 99,000 people die annually from hospital-acquired infections…more here…

The First Church of Anywhere Archaeologists unearthed in Jordan what they believe to be the world’s first church, according to a report Monday.

“We have uncovered what we believe to be the first church in the world, dating from 33 AD to 70 AD,” said Abdul Qader al-Hussan, the head of Jordan’s Rihab Center for Archaeological Studies, to The Jordan Times.

He added that the discovery was “amazing.”

The nearly 2,000-year-old church was discovered underneath Saint Georgeous Church in Rihab, Mafraq, in northern Jordan near the Syrian border. St. Georgeous dates back to 230 A.D., and is considered the oldest “proper” church in the world.

Great Site :: many a link for public speaking …