The Primary Reason I’m a Preacher — John MacArthur

“Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.” — 1 Peter 2:1-3

While preaching on the verses above, in a sort of aside, John MacArthur stated his primary reason for being in the ministry. I personally believe it is also the primary reason the Lord has blessed his ministry:

If Peter was going to exhort his congregation through this letter, he could have chosen a number of approaches to this. He could have said to them, “You need to read the Word.” That’s what Paul said in 1 Timothy 4:13. He could have said, “You need to study the Word so that you’re not ashamed, rightly dividing it,” as Paul said in 1 Timothy 2:15. He could have said what the psalmist said in Psalm 19:14 what Joshua 1:8 says, what Paul said in Philippians 4:8, he could have said, “Think on the Word, meditate on the Word.” He could have said what Paul said in 1 Timothy 4:11, “Teach the Word.” He could have said what Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:2, “Preach the Word.” He could have said what it says in Acts 17:11 about the Bereans, “Search the Word.” He could have said what is instructed to us in the armor of the Christian in Ephesians 6, “Take the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God,” or wield the Word, but he didn’t. I suppose he could have said what is in Psalm 119:11, “Hide the Word.” Put it in your heart. All of those things are certainly critical.    Continue at Eric T. Young

15 Pointers for Preachers

1. Preach doctrinally. Don’t only teach Bible doctrines such as justification and sanctification in your Sunday school. Preach these doctrines also during your worship service.  

2. Preach discriminatorily. Address both believers and unbelievers in your preaching. Don’t assume that everyone in your congregation is saved. But don’t think either that no one is saved.

3. Preach applicatorily. Apply your text to your listeners. With the use of practical illustrations, help them apply your message to their daily life. Remember a sermon without an application is like a lecture. You are preaching, not lecturing.

4. Preach clearly. Organize your thoughts. Avoid high-sounding words. Consider the children in your congregation. If you have to employ a big word (e.g. justification), explain it using simple words.

5. Preach evangelistically. Yes, preach against sin, but don’t stop there. Preach about salvation too. If you preach the Law without the gospel, you will make your congregation despair. Further, don’t think that the gospel is only for unbelievers. Believers need it as well for their sanctification.    Continue at Biblical Spirituality

Twelve Ways to Be a Godly Leader

This blogpost was not easy to compose. Writing about godliness is never easy, for to do so is to imply you’ve figured out how to walk in holiness. I make no such claim here. I struggle like everyone else to be pleasing to God in all I do. So I write these words to myself as much as to anyone else.

Charles Spurgeon is one of my favorite writers, even though his writings often challenge me deep in my heart. These words (first directed to preachers, though applicable to all Christian leaders) are especially gripping:

It is a shocking state of things when good people say, “Our minister undoes in the parlor what he has done in the pulpit; he preaches very well, but his life does not agree with his sermons.” . . . God help us so to live that we may be safe examples to our flocks!

If you’re a Christian leader, think about these ways to be a “safe example” to the flock:

1. Prioritize the Word in your personal life. The Bible is God’s inspired Word, written by men carried along by the Holy Spirit as they wrote  (2 Tim. 3:16-17, 2 Pet. 1:20-21). Through His Word, God equips you to do His work. You simply cannot live a godly life apart from knowing and following the Bible.   Continue at Chuck Lawless

10 Ways to Listen to Christian Leaders

If you’ve read my blogs here, you know I, like Dr. Rainer, am an introvert. I’m inclined toward aloneness, quiet, and listening. I listen a lot, actually—especially to people in positions of leadership. I’m convinced that if you want to learn about leaders, you should listen to their words.

1. Do they greet others? The best leaders I know say, “Good morning” and ask, “How are you?” They understand that relationships facilitate achieving a vision, but that’s not why they speak to others. They’re just kind people who know that others matter. They recognize the affirming power of a few words, for a few moments, to a few people. A leader who walks past others without greeting them is simply too self-absorbed.
2. Do they speak more about themselves or about others?  The focus of a leader’s words reveals the leaning of the leader’s heart. In the course of a day, do you hear about their activities, exploits, knowledge, and renown more than you hear about others? Good leaders point to others, knowing that their responsibility is to build an organization bigger than themselves. Their very words honor the teams that make their effectiveness possible.   Continue at Chuck Lawless

New Look at the Prince of Preachers

Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) is a towering figure in church history, in most widely read preacher outside of Scripture. So voluminous, in fact, was Spurgeon's output that more written material exists from him than from any other Christian author, living or dead.

A 15-year project in the making, Tom Nettles's new book, Living by Revealed Truth: The Life and Pastoral Theology of Charles Haddon Spurgeon (Christian Focus), distills in 700 pages Spurgeon's life, ministry, and theology. According to one decent preacher, this biography will be the "standard for a long time."

I corresponded with Nettles, professor of historical theology at Southern Seminary and one of America's foremost Baptist historians, about whether the "Prince of Preachers" was a lousy theologian and inadequate expositor, what Spurgeon would say to evangelicals today, and more.

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You write that Spurgeon's soul was "spilled out into his letters." What do these letters uniquely reveal about his life and thought?   Continue at
Matt Smethurst

How To Criticize A Preacher

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?

Well, I’m not going to tell you exactly what words to use. I’m simply going to give you ten questions to ask that I hope will produce the right words and the right way to say them should you ever have to offer criticism to a preacher.

1. Have I understood him correctly? Give the preacher the benefit of the doubt. Ask yourself, “Am I putting the worst possible construction on this?” Perhaps check with your husband or wife, “Did I hear this correctly…?”   Continue at David Murray

What Is A Preacher? 8 Positives

We’ve already looked at ten negative answers to the question, “What is a preacher?” Today, the prophet Ezekiel is going to give us eight positive answers from chapter 33 of his book.

1. The preacher is a sinful man

Six times in chapter 33, God called Ezekiel “son of man,” and many other times throughout the book. Though called to a prominent position, he was a “son of man” and therefore a sinful man. A preacher is not an angel, nor a perfect specimen of humanity, but a flawed human being liable to errors and mistakes from time to time. The best of men are still men at their best.

2. The preacher is a called man

The preacher is not only called by other men and women (Ezekiel 33:2), but also by God (v. 7). Preachers must not be self-made and self-sent but God-made and God-sent.

For the preacher, that means that he doesn’t give up at the first sign of difficulty. If God has called, he must run with His message.    Continue at David Murray

See also:

 How Many Hours Must a Pastor Work to Satisfy the Congregation?

7 Tips for My Younger Preacher Self

One of my fellow elders teaches at a local seminary. He sometimes invites me to speak to his students from a pastor's perspective about sermon preparation, preaching, and church ministry. During a recent lecture, one of the students asked me, "If you could go back and give advice to yourself as a beginning preacher, what would you say?"

I've been preaching now for more than 15 years. I don't know if that's enough time to make me a Jedi Knight preacher who's fit to train newbies. But it does feel long enough to think of what advice I would give to myself if I could go back in time.

Here are seven suggestions for new preachers based on self-reflection, as well as from observing new preachers over the past decade and a half.

1. Preach the Word

This first word of advice should go without saying, which probably means we need to say it a lot: preach the Word. Commit at the outset of your ministry to expository preaching. What is expository preaching? It's when the preacher makes the point of the text to be the point of his sermon, which is then applied to the congregation.    Continue at Jeramie Rinne

Why Ministers Need the Wilderness

“It takes a crucified man to preach a crucified Savior.” –Alexander Maclaren

“I abhor the thought of God being robbed of his glory…” That was part of the response that a young man was giving in one of my seminary classes. I shudder as I type the latter part of his comment. “…and if that means the damnation of infants then so be it”.

It’s not my concern to throw this dude under the bus. Truthfully, I see some of myself in him. Getting so wrapped in theology, idealism, and the way things ought to be that I forget the way that things actually are. Grace will likely grab hold of this young man and transform him. Jesus has a way of doing that. While we roll our eyes at statements like this (and maybe rightly so) Jesus moves in and administers grace. Grace that crushes…but grace still.

I was concerned that day as I thought about this young man pastoring a church. I was worried for him and for his congregation. Mostly because broken men don’t say things like that. Even if it were theologically true, broken men just don’t speak like that. As I’ve gone through seminary for a few years now I am becoming convinced that students should have to spend at least one semester in the furnace of suffering before we can graduate.

Jesus was 30…    Continue at Mike Leake

Eight Most Frequent Preaching Distractions

Most pastors preach or speak in a public forum 150 to 200 times a year. Many do more than that. Over time these preachers have the ability to discern if the congregation or audience is following them or if their minds are in another world.

Preachers are also too familiar with distractions. While it’s the way of life of someone who gets in front of people to speak, it is no less annoying.

I asked a number of pastors to share with me the most frequent distractions they experience while preaching. Here are there responses in order of frequency. I also took a representative quote from one of the respondents for each item.

1. People walking around. “It happens every time someone walks in the service or leaves the service while I’m preaching. All heads turn to see the movement. I might as well be speaking an alien language while the person is moving. No one is paying attention to me.”
2. People talking to each other. “It’s obvious they’re not listening to me if they are talking to each other. And it really gets me when they put their hand in front of their mouths, as if they can cover up the fact that they are talking.”
3. People looking at their watches. “Yep, I know it’s been a bad or long sermon or both when people can’t wait to get out. The ‘watch watching’ is the key indicator.”
4. People yawning. “So I worked on this sermon 15 hours and this guy can’t stop yawning. Maybe he was up all night, but I would rather him stay home and sleep.”
5. People frowning. “I always wonder if they are ticked off at me or my sermon. Maybe they had a bad day with their spouse. Maybe their team lost last night, but I can’t help but take it personally.”
6. People sleeping. “There is a deacon in my church whose favorite nap time is while I’m preaching. It doesn’t help that his wife gives him the elbow about ten times each sermon.”
7. People texting. “You might be able to argue that they are taking electronic notes, but I know better. Some of the young people in our church can’t go ten minutes without texting someone.”
8. Cell phones ringing. “We ask for all phones to be silenced before the service begins, so it’s not as bad as it used to be. But I did a funeral one time and the deceased’s son’s phone rang. He actually started talking to his hunting buddy while I continued my message.”   Continue at Thom Rainer

What Does “Evangelical” Really Mean?

Can we trust the word evangelical anymore? It doesn’t look like it. In a recent article from The Independent, a UK newspaper and news website, Reverend Steve Chalke was heralded as a “prominent evangelical pastor” who has said that he now supports “monogamous same-sex relationships.” (You can read the full article at this link.)

Now, often when we read the word evangelical in reference to believers, we think of theologically conservative Christians who uphold the authority of God’s Word. But Steve Chalke is not upholding the authority of God’s Word, at least not in reference to homosexual behavior.

In fact, Chalke also denies the doctrine of Christ’s penal substitutionary atonement. You see, this doctrine teaches that because of Adam’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden, all were made sinners (Romans 5:19). Furthermore, Romans 3:23 tells us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Since God is holy and just, He must punish sin, but instead of punishing us, He punished His Son, who served as our perfect substitute.

So, how can we be spared God’s judgment for sin? Well, that’s the key to substitutionary atonement. Scripture tells us that Christ was “wounded for our transgressions” and was “bruised for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5). God came to earth in the form of the God-man Jesus Christ, lived a perfect life, died, and rose again three days later … to save all those who would believe! Romans 1:16 tells us that the gospel of Christ “is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.”   Continue at Ken Ham

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Vertical Church

Harvest Bible Fellowship is a network of churches on the move. It seems as if every week brings a report of a new church plant somewhere in the world. From what I have observed locally, these are solid churches whose pastors love God’s Word and where people are being transformed by the gospel. James MacDonald is the founder of this movement and he refers to them as “vertical” churches. What MacDonald wants is for every local church to be a place where people have “a weekly experience with the manifest glory of God.” The local church is to be the one place where people experience what they can experience nowhere else.

Vertical Church is part manifesto and part instructional guide and is one of those unusual and unfortunate books that combines genuine strengths with disappointing weaknesses. The first half of the book is strong and provides a biblical basis for a vertical model of the local church; the second half is far weaker in explaining how to create one.

The Strengths of Vertical Church

 

Vertical Church has many notable strengths. The discussion of verticality is very helpful and provoked the pastor in me to think carefully about the worship services at my church and the role of church leaders in providing an experience of God’s glory and majesty. Our role is not simply to check off a list of boxes—singing, Bible-reading, preaching, prayer—but to lead people in an encounter with the living God. MacDonald’s desire to glorify God in every facet of the church’s life is laudable and challenging. He shares a great deal of wisdom earned through many years of ministry while critiquing both the church growth movement and those traditional churches that don’t care to grow at all.  Continue at Tim Challies

Ways to Profit From an Expository Sermon

From a preacher's perspective, it's our happy task before God to craft and deliver a sermon that's worth listening to, attending to, learning from, and retaining. Any regular reader of this blog probably attends a church whose pastor takes this as a solemn, joyous, exhilarating, devastating, God-given duty.

On that assumption, then, how can you gain the most value from the sermon?

I'll tailor my remarks specifically to profiting from an expository sermon in a book-study series. Some of these suggestions will apply to any Biblical sermon, but I have in mind a series that progresses through a book of the Bible.

1. Pray in advance. Pray for your preacher, because sermon preparation is both a science and a spiritual exercise. It's his part to "consider," but he needs the Lord to "give understanding" (2 Tim. 2:7). Pray for yourself, because you need the work of the Spirit to open your eyes to your riches in Christ (Eph. 1:16-19). Pray for others who come, including unbelievers, that the Lord might open their hearts to respond to the truths of God which your pastor will preach (Acts 16:14).
2. Read the passage in advance, asking yourself questions, or imaging the questions you might be asked. Priming the pump is a terrific way to learn the most. It's always both humbling and a blessing to have read a passage, and then to see it anew when a brother brings out valid insights that had never occurred to us.   Continue at Dan Phillips

Preachers and Their Critics

You'll build a great church, pastor, if you ever learn how to communicate.

Listening to that sermon was like drinking from a fire hydrant.

I'm so disappointed! I wanted you to give God all the glory. And you missed it!

Your preaching is too intellectual.

Your preaching is too practical.

You don't talk enough about social justice.

You talk about social justice too much.

Your preaching is over people's heads.

Your preaching isn't deep enough. Give us meat, not milk. 

I have heard all these statements, or at least these sentiments, about my preaching. Some have fallen asleep during my preaching. One woman shook her head in disagreement as I taught on election, while others have argued with me while I was still in the pulpit. I've had folks corner me after church to debate theology. Second-hand reports have informed me of church members who weren't getting anything from my preaching. One guy said he felt like he was sitting in class (too many points, I suppose). Others have graciously and gently met with me face to face to confess that they were not being fed.

Some of these criticisms surprised me. Some felt unfair. A few hurt. Some were well-deserved (especially the "fire hydrant" comment). Occasionally they roll off, but the fact I remember so many of them proves they stick. Every experienced preacher could add to the list. Personal criticism is one of the job hazards of Christian ministry.

It's also one of the great benefits. Preachers need and value feedback. And we need more than just the compliments (though we appreciate those, too). There are no perfect preachers. We all need iron-sharpening dialogue with hearers about both our content and delivery. So don't read this article as a whining complaint from a beleaguered pastor who can't take it anymore. I don't want people in my congregation to stop giving critical feedback for fear of bruising my ego.    Continue at Brian Hedges

The Curse Of Motivational Speaking

Last Sunday, a young man came to see me after our church service. He is the kind of guy who shows up at church once in a while and then disappears for a season. My guess is that he goes around churches sampling sermons and looking for answers. On this visit, he asked that I help him to overcome a failure in his life, and it was a failure to progress. He said that his greatest problem is that he does not believe in himself. Could I help him believe in himself so that he could become successful?

I asked him whether he was a Christian. His answer was, “Do I really need to be a Christian in order to be successful? Are you telling me that all those successful people out there are Christians? Aren’t there general principles that I can apply to my life—whether I am a Christian or not—that can catapult me to success?” I challenged him to answer that question himself. After all, I was sure he had done enough rounds among motivational speakers to have the answer.

 

“That is the problem,” he said, “I have been told that such principles exist and I have tried them. They seem to work for a while and then I am back to my old self again. I want you to help me find that formula that will help me go forward and never slide back to the place where I do not believe in myself.” To cut the long story short, I finally persuaded him of the need for reconciliation with God before anyone can break free from the frustrating rut that God locks unreconciled sinners in.

 

I gave him a booklet to read, entitled, What is a Biblical Christian? When we met the following day, he was honest enough to tell me that he was disappointed with what he read because it was not telling him what he wanted to hear. “What I want to know is how I can be successful. This booklet did not say anything about that.” I repeated what I told him earlier. What he needed was not belief in himself but belief in a Saviour sent from heaven. He needed forgiveness as a foundation for his life.   Continue at Conrad Mbewe

Preachers on Preaching

Here are ten reminders for those who preach and teach the Word of God … as confirmed by some of history’s greatest preachers.

1. Effective ministry consists not of fads or gimicks, but of faithfully preaching the truth.

Charles Spurgeon: Ah, my dear friends, we want nothing in these times for revival in the world but the simple preaching of the gospel. This is the great battering ram that shall dash down the bulwarks of iniquity. This is the great light that shall scatter the darkness. We need not that men should be adopting new schemes and new plans. We are glad of the agencies and assistances which are continually arising; but after all, the true Jerusalem blade, the sword that can cut to the piercing asunder of the joints and marrow, is preaching the Word of God. We must never neglect it, never despise it. The age in which the pulpit it despised, will be an age in which gospel truth will cease to be honored. . . . God forbid that we should begin to depreciate preaching. Let us still honor it; let us look to it as God’s ordained instrumentality, and we shall yet see in the world a repetition of great wonders wrought by the preaching in the name of Jesus Christ.

Source: Charles Spurgeon, “Preaching! Man’s Privilege and God’s Power,” Sermon (Nov. 25, 1860).

2. Preaching is a far more serious task than most preachers realize.

Richard Baxter: And for myself, as I am ashamed of my dull and careless heart, and of my slow and unprofitable course of life, so, the Lord knows, I am ashamed of every sermon I preach; when I think what I have been speaking of, and who sent me, and that men’s salvation or damnation is so much concerned in it, I am ready to tremble lest God should judge me as a slighter of His truths and the souls of men, and lest in the best sermon I should be guilty of their blood. Me thinks we should not speak a word to men in matters of such consequence without tears, or the greatest earnestness that possibly we can; were not we too much guilty of the sin which we reprove, it would be so.

Source: Richard Baxter, “The Need for Personal Revival.” Cited from Historical Collections Relating to Remarkable Periods of the Success of the Gospel, ed. John Gillies (Kelso: John Rutherfurd, 1845), 147.  Continue at Nathan Busenitz

Should a Minister Preach the Funerals of Unbelievers?

Recently I argued that a Christian minister ought not officiate at wedding ceremonies for unbelievers. These weddings, I contended, represent the trivialization of the Christian ministry and a loss of pastoral courage. Since then, I've received lots of queries about funerals. Should a Christian minister preach the funeral of an unbeliever? That's a very good question.

Some of the saddest moments of my ministry have been in funeral homes, preaching for people I didn't know. Early on in ministry, I became the "go to" minister for a local mortician when one of his deceased passed away with no religious affiliation. I've seen almost empty chapels, with no one to do the eulogy but me. And I've seen full chapels of family members who clearly hated the deceased. I had one deceased woman's daughter tell me there was nothing positive she could think to say about her mother, nothing at all, except that she did feed the birds in her backyard.

Do I think it was biblically acceptable to preach those funerals? Yes. Would I do it again today? Yes.

A funeral is an entirely different matter than a wedding. A wedding is about the near future (near meaning the next 30 to 70 years or so). A funeral is about the past, and about the ultimate future (the resurrection from the dead). A wedding is the witnessing of vows, the calling together of a covenant between two persons. A funeral doesn't call any reality together. It commits the body of the dead to the earth and awaits the resurrection of both the just and the unjust.  Continue at Russell D. Moore

Are Your Sermons Too Long?

Here’s a bit of wisdom from the Prince of Preachers on sermon length:

Brethren, weigh your sermons. Do not retail them by the yard, but deal them out by the pound. Set no store by the quantity of words which you utter, but strive to be esteemed for the quality of your matter. It is foolish to be lavish in words and niggardly in truth. -C.H. Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, p. 71

 

There is no intrinsic value in an overlong sermon. Nor is there anything to boast about that a congregation has become conditioned to endure them. What constitutes a long sermon is a relative term anyway, isn’t it? In any case, a long-winded preacher is just as capable of wispy words as a short-winded one. 

Likewise, a short sermon is just as capable of filling a room with hot air as is a long one. Twenty minutes of gospel power would do far more for a congregation than forty minutes of gospel lite. Likewise, forty minutes of Biblical exhortation would hold the attention of God’s people far more than twenty minutes of pointless patter.  Continue at Denny Burk

Do You Know When You Were Saved?

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) -- Oct. 27 is an important date for me.

On that day, many years ago, I was a young kid walking alone under a starry sky in my hometown of Biloxi, Miss. I was grappling with who I was and what my life would mean. And there, looking up into the vault of space up there overhead, I trusted a Stranger in the Night to forgive me, and to take me wherever He wanted. The Gospel wasn't new to me, and the teachings of Jesus weren't new to me. Years and years of Sunday School and Baptist Training Union and Vacation Bible Schools were all back there. But, somehow, I just knew at that moment that the central point of all those things was true: the Gospel. It was as though I heard a voice.

The reason I write this is because my story isn't at all typical of most Christians I know, and many kind of feel guilty about that. Many believe if they really have embraced the Gospel, they ought to have a moment, a date, they can point to as the instant they passed from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light.

Sometimes our churches reinforce this misunderstanding. Preachers talk about assurance of salvation as though it were about remembering a past experience, and doing a mental autopsy on the sincerity of that. The people we allow to give testimonies in our churches and in our publications all seem to have a dramatic tale to tell.

That's not what the Gospel is about.   Continue at Baptist Press

Sexual Sin in the Ministry

For the last twenty years thousands men from across America struggling with sexual sin have come to our intensive counseling workshop. Over half were pastors and missionaries.

I wish our experience was unique.

Several years ago a seminary professor told me: “We no longer ask our entering students if they are struggling with pornography, we assume every student is struggling. The question we ask: ‘How serious is the struggle?’”

One missions agency told me that 80% of their applicants voluntarily indicate a struggle with pornography, resulting in staff shortages on the field.

Pornography is just one level of sin, a form of visual sex, or heart adultery. 

Physical adultery includes an affair, multiple affairs, prostitution, and homosexuality. Other sexual behaviors within the ministry are such heinous “unfruitful works of darkness . . . it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret” (Ephesians 5:11–12). To face the crisis we must correctly understand the nature of the problem, ask God to search our own hearts, and be committed to restore each one caught in sexual sin “in a spirit of gentleness” (Galatians 6:1).

I have pondered long and hard two questions: Why do people repeatedly return to sexual sin and why do people turn away from sexual sin?

Lured Toward Sin

First, I would say that after two decades of helping set free those held captive by sexual sin, I’m convinced that the concept of sexual addiction as a disease does not fully identify the seriousness of the problem. If we are going to get serious about the problem in the church we can ill afford to be misled in our thinking. The real problem is hidden deep within. The least bit of lust is an indication of vast corruption in the human heart. It is an enslavement that cannot be broken through any form of behavior management, recovery program, or counseling. The inside is so ravaged by sin that we can do nothing to change it.  Continue at Harry W. Schaumburg