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

The Clown in the Pulpit

The Scottish preacher and theologian Thomas Chalmers, in a sermon on "The necessity of the Spirit to give effect to the preaching of gospel," declared:

How little must the presence of God be felt in that place, where the high functions of the pulpit are degraded into a stipulated exchange of entertainment, on the one side, and of admiration, on the other! and surely it were a sight to make angels weep, when a weak and vapouring mortal, surrounded by his fellow-sinners, and hastening to the grave and the judgment along with them, finds it a dearer object to his bosom, to regale his hearers by the exhibition of himself, than to do, in plain earnest the work of his Master, and urge on the business of repentance and of faith, by the impressive simplicities of the gospel.

William Plumer, commenting on this, makes clear that no minister should seek to be dull, sour and morose. I do not think that either man would be against the natural use of wholesome humour in its proper place, and to some extent that is a matter of personality. Nevertheless, says Plumer, the preacher should not be "a buffoon, not a jester, not a trifler" (37). Ted Donnelly, in his outstanding volume on heaven and hell (Banner), warns that   Continue at Jeremy Walker

5 Essential Elements for Pulpit Preaching

If I had gone to a homiletic class to learn to preach, I might actually preach more eloquently, however, I would probably rely upon my knowledge of how to preach well, rather than leaning upon the effectual work of the Holy Spirit through those means. That’s just me. Please don’t misunderstand. I would not, by any means, dissuade anyone from attending a homiletic class to learn to preach better. If you have the wherewithal to attend a homiletic course, then by all means, do so. If you don’t have the means financially to attend a homiletic course, this bit of advice may be helpful to you whenever you preach the gospel in the pulpit of a local church.

1. Approach God’s Word to be preached in humility.

There is only one Prophet who has ever preached God’s Word with impeccable verity: Jesus Christ, the Righteous. The very best of our proclamations are so filled with the corruptions of flesh that we will all fall short of the glory of God. The preaching of Christ’s glorious gospel requires all of grace from start to finish. Recorded in John 5:39, Jesus said,

Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

Jesus Christ is infinite and eternal God as well as the incarnate, crucified, risen and exalted Son of Man. If all the scriptures are about Him, and He is infinite, eternal, and all glorious, the best of all the most eloquent sermons preached, teached, speeched, and screeched by redeemed men will never fully express Christ and Him crucified. It is eternal truth. We must humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift us nearer Himself to be further humbled in His majesty. Ever endeavor to approach the pulpit with godly fear and trembling.  Continue at Justification By Grace

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Are Mennonites Following the Good Shepherd or the Green Shepherd?

“… if The Green Shepherd turns up in your pulpit, please speak up and tell your pastor you would rather hear an emphasis on the Lord Jesus Christ, the “Good Shepherd,” and His burden for lost sheep — not His burden for climate change.”

Jan Markell, The Church of Climate Change: Here Comes The Green Shepherd

Is the MB Herald going the way of the Green Shepherd?

In the October 2011 MB Herald called Sustainable Lifestyles is an article called Riding the Green Wave which encourages readers to get on board with nine tips for creation care action. These ideas come from A Personal Path to Environmental and Societal Sustainability from ocho.uwaterloo.ca. A complete, more comprehensive list where these tips appear to be drawn from can be found at the following link:  Check it Out HERE

Church-Planting and Pulpit-Priority

If you have tuned in to church-planting chatter lately, you may have heard something along these lines: “We’re more about community, you’re about a Sunday event.” “We’re more about being missional, you’re more about a pulpit.” It’s an emphasis on community and/or mission, over preaching.

Similarly, I recently heard this advice: “If you are on your way to the Sunday gathering and see your neighbor painting his fence, forget the gathering, turn around, go home and get your paintbrush.”

Now, serving our neighbors for the gospel is faithful, no doubt. Painting your neighbors fence could be in-roads to sharing the only message that saves. 

Genuine biblical community is a non-negotiable for the local church.

Dangerous Dichotomies

Even so, among church-planting discussion, there seems to be a false distinction between “community” and “missional,” and the ministry of the pulpit. There is a temptation to consider the pulpit a less fashionable, or even an optional, accoutrement to real, church-planting ministry.    Keep Reading>>>

The Pastor and His Pulpit

The life of a minister is the life of his ministry.” This adage is as true now as ever. In fact, ministerial integrity is an indispensable element of any sustained credibility among a discerning people with whom we have pastoral intimacy. Such intimacy leaves us vulnerable to be known for who and what we really are in relationship to the saving truth in which we traffic. A pastor-flock relationship characterized by the biblical description in which mutual intimacy is essential (John 10:14), consistent and comprehensive integrity is imperative if one is to have a ministry that is both compelling and believable.

A short article does not permit me to identify the many categories in which this integrity ought to be jealously desired, diligently pursued, and carefully maintained. Some of these categories are addressed in the previous articles. I will touch upon three areas of paramount importance, namely, personal, domestic, and pastoral integrity. Keep Reading...

Why You Should Raise Up Preachers in Your Church

I was overcome with joy this Sunday as I listened to a young man preach God’s word in my church: he was faithful to the text, he heralded the gospel of Jesus, he stirred my soul. Tragically, many church planters and pastors never experience this. They never share their pulpits. Fear, pride, and laziness generally drive this, and it harms Christ’s church, and, ironically, the planter himself. Continue Reading>>>

The Pastor and His Pulpit