Category Archives: Prayer

HOW TO DETERMINE A CHURCH’S SPIRITUAL VITALITY

My good friend, Tim, asked me how I determine the spiritual vitality of a church. There are many important questions to ask, but the two below have always cut through the fog for me. They have never failed in giving me a good idea of a church’s true health.

*What does your church’s ministry of prayer look like? How does the weekly schedule show its priority? How many attend? What is prayed about? Is there a godly desperation manifest in the prayers?

*Is there an emphasis on comprehensive discipleship/Christian formation? Does it address a full-orbed list of areas like aging and apologetics, theology of work and missions, etc.?

PRAY FOR OUR SONS!

Deloitte flew David to Hyderabad, India where he is training accountants.  Chris is en route to Guadalajara, Mexico where he will be teaching Bible and philosophy at The Lincoln School.

PIctures of Face Time with David and with Chris just as he was leaving.

 

A COMMON OCCURRENCE IN PREACHING

The following is not an uncommon occurrence for me while preparing to preach…

Not always, but there are certainly times of struggle either to make sense of the text and/or to make sure I really believe it.  As the Puritans liked to say, make sure to preach to yourself before you preach to others.  Really believing the Word of God is more difficult than determining its proper meaning.

Then God brings light, many times much light, and I can’t write fast enough.

It is one reason I don’t like to preach every week.  The process of preparation is best if I have months to mull and consider a text.  I want to stew on it for a long time.

I take many notes and ask many questions.  Commentaries come at the end to make sure I am in the ballpark of sound exegesis.

All this is one reason why I wish lead pastors preached less frequently.  It would be better for them and for the congregation.

 

PRAYING THE LORD’S PRAYER

I am currently reading through all my sermons.

One from 1993 was on The Lord’s Prayer. An early church document for worship (Didache) said we ought to pray The Lords Prayer three times a day. I also had a note that the Lord’s Prayer has become rote for many people when ironically the purpose of the Lord’s Prayer was to protect us from simply going through the motions! See Matt 6:7,8.

OREGON SHOOTINGS

An excerpt from my forthcoming book, God, What on Earth are You Doing? an Honest Conversation:

I often say that we Americans know how to cry, but not lament.  Crying can simply be sadness over circumstances we do not like.  Lament is a deeper cry of the soul that brings one’s sorrow to God and wrestles with it there.  One wise pastor says, “In this fallen world, sadness is an act of sanity, our tears the testimony of the sane.”[1]  Those in this category have internalized the great themes of the Bible, not in the stereotypical Sunday school sort of way, but in a way that has produced lasting fruit over the course of many years. 


[1] Zack Eswine, Spurgeon’s Sorrows: Realistic Hope for Those who Suffer from Depression (Geanies House, Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2014), 30.

TESTIMONIES OF GOD’S FAITHFULNESS CAN BE TRICKY TO COMMUNICATE

As Christians, we love hearing testimonies of God’s faithfulness.  It encourages us when our own faith is failing.  We are reminded that God still works in peoples’ lives.  All this is good.

The tricky thing is the hearer must be careful to not become like Simon Magus.  You may recall how he wanted to do miracles just like Peter and John.  Simon erroneously thought he could pay for something like this.  We are not as crass, but we hear how God answered someone’s prayer and we look for the secret which made it all come about.  Let’s say the person communicates that God convicted her to fast one day a week.  Ah, that is the trick.  If I fast one day a week, I can also count on God answering some of my most cherished prayers.