Growing leaders in any facet of life are always trying to answer the same question: "What's next?" During a season of growth, it might be tempting to consider settling down, playing it safe. It might seem reasonable to rest and enjoy. What appears to be a summit may actually be a plateau. A good leader will be thinking ahead ... "What's next?" When we find ourselves in the midst of a struggle, it's easy to ask "What's next?" and to expect that the answer means a release from our tension and conflict. That may be the answer; it also may not be the answer. The answer may lie in what God wants to teach us during the journey. Emerging stronger, we ask again "What's next?" Asking "What's next?" keeps us focused on the future -- on growing, developing, learning, and maturing. What's next for you?
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"“Once in seven years I burn all my sermons; for it is a shame if I cannot write better sermons now than I did seven years ago.” John Wesley Upon returning home after my dad died, I found a collection of notes and outlines from sermons I had delivered back when I was a teenager. As I read through them, it was as if I was having an out-of-body experience. "Did I really say that?" was a common thought that kept popping in my head. If I could have found every person who had happened to hear one of those messages, I would have apologized on the spot. Did they contain gross errors? Not necessarily. Often it was a matter of how I said something -- or the dogmatic certainty about issues that I no longer was dogmatic about it. Those were messages I had preached when I was 15-17 …
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“The test of a preacher is that his congregation goes away saying, not, 'What a lovely sermon!' but 'I will do something.'” -- Billy Graham Confession time: there have been times in my preaching past when I was more concerned with crafting a lovely sermon than I was about inspiring people to action. I imagine I am not alone among pastors. The temptation is always there. In searching for a story or movie clip, is it to enhance the loveliness of the message or to prompt a response by the listener? Am I interested in finding the right turn of a phrase in order to impress my audience or to challenge them? Good marketing include what is known as a "call to action." It answer the "so what?" question. So what am I supposed to do about what I've just seen or heard? A call to action explains the next…
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"Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith." -- Henry Ward Beecher There are a number of anxious people in our world -- and I don't mean the larger, global world, but your little corner of the landscape. We encounter anxious people at work, next door, and around the kitchen table. What is anxiety? Anxiety is anticipating something bad or dangerous happening and worrying about it before it happens. And many times, it never happens. On the other hand, faith is anticipating what God is capable of doing and waiting hopefully for it to happen. Fear or faith. Anxiety over what hasn't happened or hoping for what could happen. The choice is yours.
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While bouncing around Google looking for a John Wesley quote (how theologically nerdy is that!), I came across a great blog post from a pastor in New Zealand. I pass it on to you. ****************** Come and Watch Me Burn Spirituality might well be a frequent topic of conversation today – but when it comes to the preacher, it is one of the hardest issues to master. How significant is the state of the preacher’s walk with God when it comes to measuring the impact of their sermons? This issue isn’t discussed much because it doesn’t quite fit as a natural component in the ‘art’ of preaching. It tends to remain assumed and so it can receive very little attention. It thus becomes an opaque issue, lurking uncomfortably in the background, unaddressed. However it is my conviction that the preacher’s spiritual state is utterly crucial for the effective ministry of…
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