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May 23, 2012 • By David Murray • 0 Comments

How God can use your anxiety for good
Laura Turner appeals for less Bible quotations and more understanding.

Effective Bible Teaching: Geography
Understanding biblical geography can save you a lot of embarrassment.

The Difference between Normal Postpartum Stress and Postpartum Depression
Helpful checklist for young mothers and for pastors.

The fruit of the Spirit and your work
Loved this down-to-earth spirituality post from Matt Perman: “”When we are doing our work, we aren’t just doing work. We are engaging in an opportunity to display the fruit of the Spirit and manifest the character of God all day long, right here in the concrete realities of everyday life.”

40 lessons I’ve learned after preaching my 400th sermon
Some funny, some painful, most insightful.

Tabletalk on Logos
256 searchable issues for $300.

Normal sermon prep? Really?

May 22, 2012 • By David Murray • 10 Comments

In Sermon Prep: A Week in One Life, Stephen Um describes his normal process of preparing a sermon. Although there’s some helpful stuff in here, especially his last four points, and although he says “every pastor’s week looks a little different,” I think a lot of pastors will find it quite amusing - and perhaps a little disturbing too.

The amusing bit is to have what looks like about 20 hours to prepare a sermon. It reminds me of the time I heard Paul Tripp tell gasping pastors that no sermon should be preached with less than 35 hours of preparation! Talk about air leaving the room.

In my first congregation I had to prepare a minimum of three new sermons every week (every other week it was four). In my second pastorate, it was a steady diet of three sermon preps a week. Three is probably the norm for most UK pastors, mostly in small congregations with no staff. 15-20 hours to prepare a sermon sounds to us like an over-realized eschatology!

The disturbing bit for me was beginning sermon preparation with a group consultation rather than face to face with God and His Word. Stephen says:

For me, sermon prep starts on Tuesday morning when I gather my preaching staff (assistant pastors) for sermon discussions. We meet for about two and a half hours to read the text, talk it over, and pray that it would begin to shape us….By the end of our discussion, we will have determined a basic outline for the sermon, a general idea of where the sermon is headed.

I know its become strangely common for pastors to circulate their almost-completed sermon to fellow elders and other pastors before preaching, but this seems to be taking the co-operative sermon prep model way too far. What’s happened to the man of God prayerfully seeking a text and message from God, wrestling with the text face-to-face with God, seeking its meaning in dependence upon the Holy Spirit, and coming out to the people of God with a divinely-given message: “Thus saith the Lord…”

I really hope and pray that this kind of collaborative-group-sermon prep will not become the norm. Instead, let’s get our patterns and practices from some of the more tried and tested homiletics models of the past. It might spare Peter, Paul, Knox, Calvin, Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones some grave-turning.

10 ways to praise…people

May 22, 2012 • By David Murray • 9 Comments

“I had not noticed how the humblest, and at the same time most balanced and capacious, minds, praised most, while the cranks, misfits and malcontents praised least” (C S Lewis).

Well, we’d better learn how to praise others then. And that’s where Sam Crabtree’s book, Practicing Affirmation, is so helpful. I needed this book and have to say that it’s been the most influential book upon me so far this year.

But I don’t think it’s just me that needs it. As I highlighted yesterday, praising others does not come easily to Scots in general; and, I’m afraid, certain cultural trends are influencing even positive optimistic Americans in the same direction.

Today I want to summarize ten characteristics of good affirmation that I picked out of Sam’s book, together with some supportive quotes.

1. Good affirmations are God-glorifying
Although the chief end of man is to glorify God, God is glorified in us when we affirm the work he has done and is doing in others. (1)

We rob God of praise by not pointing out his reflection in the people he has knit together in his image. (18)

2. Good affirmations are God-centered
Paul’s practice is, “I thank God for you.” Yes, the person is refreshed by the expression of gratitude, but God gets the glory. We are wise to give God-centered thank-yous and God-centered affirmations. (18)

3. Good affirmations don’t wait for salvation
In the same way that Yellowstone Park is a reflection of common grace, unregenerate persons reflect graces not intrinsic to themselves. To affirm the beauty of their character is to draw attention to the undeserved grace that God has bestowed upon them in the form of faint echoes of Jesus, even in the presence of as-of-yet unperfected flaws in those same individuals. (32)

4. Good affirmations are honest (67)
Commend only the commendable. Phony commendations are simply deceptive and manipulative flattery.

5. Good affirmations don’t wait for perfection
We can truthfully say to an unregenerate four-year-old, “God is helping you become more . . .” and fill in the blank with qualities such as: careful with your things (as a steward), cheerful around the house as a singer…While the child’s growth in character is commended, God is identified as the source. (21)

6. Good affirmations encourage progress
Affirmation is not about lowering standards. It is about commending incremental progress toward those standards as those standards reflect the character of Christ. (71)

Behaviors that are rewarded and celebrated are more likely to be repeated. (74)

7. Good affirmations help evangelism
Consider this: we risk damning others by not praising them. There are people around us in peril of hell unless we commend them…Affirmation is a way to gain a hearing for the Gospel…Our listeners will be more inclined to hear us is they believe we’re not angry at them, but grateful for them. (20-21)

8. Good affirmations open the door to change
Just as bedside manner is not the most important thing a doctor provides for his patients, without it patients may resist more important medicines and procedures. (38)

Here then is the simple principle: people are influenced by those who praise them. Giving praise does wonders for the other person’s sense of hearing. (54)

9. Good affirmations refresh the affirmer
Part of God’s mercy to us when we refresh others is the boomerang effect he has designed into the universe: “He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.” (42)

10. Good affirmations build relationships
Geese honk encouragement and fly in formation. Skunks travel alone. (80)

I hope these quotes will encourage you to buy the book and join the geese. But what about when we have to be the skunk? What about the place of correction and rebuke? Sam devotes many pages to this in his book, and I hope to summarize his teaching on this tomorrow.

Then I want to round off the series by highlighting something that I think needs some clarification, and that’s a biblical definition of what constitutes a “good work.”

Practicing Affirmation Review (1): Scots don’t do praise
Practicing Affirmation Review (2): 10 ways to praise people
Practicing Affirmation Review (3): Is the “sandwich method” a lot of baloney?
Practicing Affirmation Review (4): Should we praise unbelievers?

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May 22, 2012 • By David Murray • 2 Comments

Credo Magazine
This is undoubtedly the most beautiful online Christian magazine I’ve come across. Content is great too. Click on “Expand” for a fine example of how to use technology for God’s glory.

Dropping out: Is college worth the cost?
Alex Chediak highlights a 60 Minutes documentary on Peter Thiel’s offer of $100,000 to drop out of college and pursue your innovation. And if you do go to college, here’s an article by Alex on How to thrive in College.

Prayer as pastoral work
“Prayer is vital pastoral work. But it doesn’t make for a conventionally attractive conference topic today like leadership techniques, growth strategies, and cutting-edge programs.”

The Elisha Foundation
Greg Lucas introduces two short Elisha Foundation videos with these words: “When disability wrecks your call to the mission field, perhaps disability is your mission.” If you click through to Youtube on the links at the top of each video, you can view them in full size. It’s worth the click.

Competitive Mothering
There’s definitely a book in this, Tim.

Three ways the NT writers quote the OT
These lectures look worth a listen.