From Prison to the Pulpit: A Stunning Story of God's Grace

Every Christian has an "impressive" testimony. There aren't Varsity and JV versions, because there aren't Varsity and JV sinners. "Dead in our trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1-3) described all of us before God butted in (Eph. 2:4).

But while all testimonies are miraculous, some are unusually gripping and encouraging. Mez McConnell has one of those stories.

Once an abused, addicted, homeless, Christian-despising criminal, Mez now serves as senior pastor of Niddrie Community Church in Edinburgh, Scotland, and founder of 20 Schemes, a ministry dedicated to building gospel-centered churches for Scotland's poorest communities ("schemes"). Here's their vision:

Our long-term desire is to see Scotland's housing schemes transformed by the good news of Jesus Christ through the planting of gospel-preaching churches, ultimately led by a future generation of indigenous church leaders. . . . We believe building healthy, gospel-preaching churches in Scotland's poorest communities will bring true, sustainable, and long-term renewal to Scotland's schemes.   Continue at Matt Smethurst

What Made Spurgeon a Great Preacher?

In many ways, C.H. Spurgeon’s ministry was nothing less than amazing: the crowded auditories that assembled to hear the “Cambridgeshire lad” in the 1850s and that continued unabated till the end of his ministry in the early 1890s; the remarkable conversions that occurred under his preaching and the numerous churches in metropolitan London and the county of Surrey that owed their origins to his Evangelical activism; the solid Puritan divinity that under-girded his Evangelical convictions-something of a rarity in the heyday of the Victorian era during which he ministered for that was a day imbued with the very different ambiance of Romanticism; and finally, the ongoing life of his sermons that are still being widely read around the world today and deeply appreciated by God’s children.

What accounts for all of this? Numerous reasons could be cited, many of which may indeed play a secondary role in his ministerial success. For example, in a fairly recent biography of Spurgeon, Mike Nicholls emphasizes the importance of Spurgeon’s voice to his success as a preacher.  He possessed, Nicholls writes, “one of the great speaking voices of his age, musical and combining compass, flexibility and power.”   Continue at Michael A.G. Haykin

Before You Phone Your Preacher

"Call the preacher, he's the only one to reach her, and there ain't no time to lose." Country singer Martina McBride's slightly irreverent tune strikes a chord with me. When life grows chaotic, ministry morphs into headaches, or dreams turn into nightmares, call the preacher.

I did and felt slighted by the initial response.

"Dr. George Robertson's first available opening is next month, Gaye. If we need to get you in sooner, perhaps we can arrange a phone call?"

Preferring a face-to-face meeting, I waited my turn. When that day arrived, I made one mistake. I told my husband about the appointment over breakfast.

Jim dropped his fork and looked up with a devilish grin. "We okay? You're not going to report me or something, are you?"

I reached over and squeezed his hand. "Course not. It's my ladies' Bible study. These women have huge needs, and I have few resources. I just felt the senior pastor ought to know what's going on. I've been waiting weeks to see George."

Jim went back to breakfast. "Uh huh. You know these hash browns are great, honey."

I frowned. "Uh huh? What do you mean by that? Fess up. You don't think meeting is a good idea, do you?"   Continue at Gaye Clark

Archibald Alexander Publications Online

Of the plethora of American theologians almost none are as interesting to study about as the Rev. Dr. Archibald Alexander. Alexander was the first professor at Princeton Seminary and a powerful evangelist and preacher. In addition to his multi-variegated ministry, he was a prolific theological writer. A fairly comprehensive list of his published works were listed in his biography, The Life of Archibald Alexander D.D. first professor in the Theological Seminary, at Princeton, New Jersey.  Many of Archibald Alexander’s publications were published together here. You can buy a collection of many of his works from Logos here. Below you will find the list from the biography and links to as many of these works as are available for free at Google Books and Internet Archive:

A Sermon at the opening of the General Assembly. Philadelphia, 1808.

A Discourse occasioned by the burning of the Theatre in the City of Kichmond, Va., on the 26th of December, 1811. p. 129.

“An Inaugural Discourse delivered at Princeton.” New York, 1812.

A Missionary Sermon before the General Assembly p. 149

A Brief Outline of the Evidences of the Christian Religion. Princeton, 1825. 12mo.  Continue at Nicholas T. Batzig

Death of Snake Handling Preacher Shines Light on Lethal Appalachian Tradition

(CNN) – Mack Wolford, one of the most famous Pentecostal serpent handlers in Appalachia, was laid to rest Saturday at a low-key service at his West Virginia church a week after succumbing to a snake bite that made headlines across the nation.

Several dozen family, friends and members of Wolford's House of the Lord Jesus church in tiny Matoaka filled the simple hall for the service, which lasted slightly more than an hour. At the request of pastor's widow, Fran Wolford, media were forbidden inside the building.

 

Wolford's own dad was a serpent handler who died from a snake bite in 1983.

 

Mack Wolford, who was 44,  was bitten by his yellow timber rattlesnake at an evangelistic event in a state park about 80 miles west of Bluefield, in West Virginia’s isolated southern tip.

He enjoyed handling snakes during worship services, but it’s a tradition that has killed about 100 practitioners since it started in the east Tennessee hills in 1909.

In recent years, Wolford feared the tradition was in danger of dying for lack of interest among people in their 20s and 30s. It’s why he drove to small, out-of-the-way churches around Appalachia to encourage those who handle snakes to keep the tradition alive.

“I promised the Lord I’d do everything in my power to keep the faith going,” Wolford said last fall in an interview I conducted with him for the Washington Post Sunday magazine. “I spend a lot of time going a lot of places that handle serpents to keep them motivated. I’m trying to get anybody I can get.”   Continue at CNN

Preacher: Lead the Congregation into the Presence of God

It is something of a truism that seminaries are not great at teaching preaching. 

Thinking does vary on this: some believe that preachers cannot be taught, simply improved; others that you can take someone who cannot preach and make him a preacher.  What is certain is that any student who simply relies on the preaching experience he has in the seminary classroom will be inadequately prepared for the preaching ministry.   Seminary preaching needs to be supplemented with experience in the local church, at the old folks home etc.

Yet there is another thing that is not done well at seminary, something which is rarely noticed and which is consequently something of a dying art: pulpit prayer.

In fact, pulpit prayer should be a vital part of the worship service.  It is at those moments that the pastor has the task of leading the people into the very presence of God.  This is an awe inspiring task, not to be undertaken lightly.  Such leading should be clear, suffused with biblical allusions and shaped by biblical thought patterns.  It should be built on the foundation of a solid grasp of the mediation of Christ and should reflect that in its content. 

Often Protestants concentrate so much on the sermon or the singing as the contact point between God and the congregation that we forget the importance of prayer.  Yet corporate prayer is surely a means of grace (Shorter Catechism 88) and it thus requires that those leading worship pay as much attention to what they say in their prayers as they do to their sermons.  The congregation should come away from the service believing that they have met with a holy and gracious God; and public prayer is a key element of that.  Keep Reading >>>

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When Your Preacher Is Not John Piper

Many who have had the privilege of hearing John Piper preach in person would testify that it felt like a monumental event. His preaching powerfully combines truth and passion, leading to convicted and exhilarated listeners. After the sermon, certain hearers might leave wondering if they were just in the presence of a figure who will be talked about in future centuries.

Then they go back to their home church, where several things are different, including the preaching. Thankfully, the gospel is still proclaimed. In fact, the sermons are thoroughly biblical, but the ability of their regular preacher simply does not measure up to the phenomenal preaching they recently heard.

Unless you attend a church led by of one of the celebrated preachers of our day, you most likely have faced a similar situation. Either at a conference or on the internet, you have heard exceptional preaching, but each Sunday you're back in your simple little home church that hardly anybody beyond your town knows about, with its "nobody" of a pastor who will probably never preach to thousands.

What if your gospel-preaching pastor is not as good as one of the great orators of our day? Is it time to sell the house, pack up the family, and change churches? No, I don't think so. But what should you do? Keep Reading >>>

The Minister as Waiter

In Acts 6, we find that famous passage in which the occasion comes for the Apostles to designate the priorities of the Christian ministry. The twelve make it known to the congregation that, above all other ministerial responsibilities and worthy pursuits, they will devote themselves “to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Ac 6:4).

The Greek word translated “ministry” in that passage is diakonía. It comes from the verb diakonéō, the normal New Testament verb that is translated, “to minister.” While it eventually takes on the more technical connotation of what we think of as “Christian ministry,” its most basic meaning is to serve. In fact, it’s used this way in the very same passage. In Acts 6:1 we’re told of the problem that prompted the Apostles’ response: the widows of the Hellenistic Jews “were being overlooked in the daily serving (diakonía) of food.”

And the word is used in this most basic sense frequently throughout the gospels.

• Peter’s mother-in-law began ministering (diakonéō) to Jesus after He healed her. What was her ministry? The NASB says, “…she got up and waited on Him” (Mt 8:15, NASB).
• Similarly, the alert slave waiting for his master’s coming is said to wait on (diakonéō) his master and his guests (Lk 12:37, NASB).
• In Luke 17:8, the “unprofitable servant,” who is not thanked for doing his duty, is said to serve (diakonéō) his master while he eats and drinks.   Keep Reading...

“Scholarship” and Accreditation

The whole of conservative Christian “scholarship” boils down to one thing—accreditation. If schools didn’t seek accreditation from the state, they would not be forced to employ only those who have the degrees (“scholars”), but along with the best of these, they could also employ the people with the goods (real “teachers”).

It is a shame that Christian institutions proudly advertise that they are “fully accredited.” They ought to apologize for it. Read it all HERE

Luther on the Marks of a Good Preacher I

Do You Want to be a “Rock Star” Preacher?