What Is Mormonism? A Baptist Answer - TIME

What Is Mormonism? A Baptist Answer

The Most Potent Tool In Your Preaching Arsenal: Prayer
Alex McFarland
www.AlexMcfarland.com

The pastorate (or any form of Christian work) comes with a level of busy-ness that can cause even the most dedicated leader to neglect time in prayer. But prayer is absolutely essential to effective ministry, especially as it relates to preaching. Charles Spurgeon’s reliance on prayer was legendary. It is said that as he was preaching in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, a team of intercessors would be praying in a room underneath the pulpit area. Spurgeon called this “the powerhouse of the church.”

Preparation, preaching, and prayer

Prayer may not immediately come to mind as a homiletical resource, but it is certainly the most valuable tool in preaching. The responsibility of preaching must be wed to the discipline of preparation - which should include prayer. Prayer should be as much a resource in sermon preparation as are lexicons and commentaries. From conception through gestation and delivery, personal and corporate prayer enable a sermon to take on a life of its own. Without doubt, prayer (or lack of it) will determine the end results of our preparation and presentation.

SermonCentral.com: Free Sermons, Illustrations and Outlines

Is There Such a Thing as a Complegalitarian?
Mark L. Strauss
Bethel Seminary, San Diego

One of the most divisive issues in the evangelical church over the past few decades has been the discussion surrounding the role of women and men in the church and the home. This debate pits “complementarians,” who believe that men and women have distinct God-given roles in the church and the home, against “egalitarians,” who believe that the new age of salvation in Christ means full equality of gifts, calling and church office. Complementarians point especially to 1 Timothy 2:11-15, where Paul tells Timothy that he does not allow women to teach or exercise authority over men. Egalitarians point to Galatians 3:28, where Paul says that former divisions based on ethnicity (Jew and Gentile), social status (slave and free), and gender (male and female) have been overcome “in Christ.”

SermonCentral.com: Free Sermons, Illustrations and Outlines

Willow Creek Association - WILLOW Magazine - 15 Innovations the Church Should Embrace Now! - Issue 3, 2007
15 Innovations the Church Should Embrace Now!
1 Chronicles 12 contains a listing of the 12 tribes that helped David establish his rule as King of Israel. All the tribes are described as warriors except for the tribe of Isaachar. They are referred to as leaders. And it says they understood the temper of the times and knew the best course for Israel to take.
Innovators are part of the tribe of Isaachar. They are trend spotters and trendsetters. They refuse to do ministry the way it has always been done. They don’t repeat the past. Innovators create the future. They don’t do ministry out of memory. They do ministry out of Imagination.
We asked several “Isaachar” leaders to give us their views on what innovations the Church should be immersed in. Here are their responses.
Podcasting - circuit riding at the speed of light
In addition to your weekly messages, how about spicing it up with special editions? Try doing interviews with church neighbors, the mayor, volunteers, staff intros., etc. If it’s worth preaching it’s worth podcasting. Any church of any size can exponentially increase its impact via MP3 technology.

Good Article — Those long in the pastorate and those little in the pastorate should appreciate its thrust.

LeadershipJournal.net - So Many Christian Infants

Leader’s Insight: So Many Christian Infants
Why are we so good at leading people to faith and so bad at prodding them to maturity?
by Gordon MacDonald, Leadership editor at large

I have been musing on the words of Martin Thornton: “A walloping great congregation,” he wrote, “is fine and fun, but what most communities really need is a couple of saints. The tragedy is that they may well be there in embryo, waiting to be discovered, waiting for sound training, waiting to be emancipated from the cult of the mediocre.”

“Saints,” he says. Mature Christians: people who are “grown-up” in their faith, to whom one assigns descriptors such as holy, Christ-like, Godly, or men or women of God.

An Exercise for Preachers | PreachingToday Blog | Discussing the Art & Craft of Biblical Preaching

An Exercise for Preachers by Steve Mathewson

Let me share a great exercise for preachers. I recently stumbled across it while preparing a five-year ministry plan for the church I serve.

The exercise is to prepare a one-paragraph philosophy of preaching statement. I did this recently as part of writing a larger ‘philosophy of ministry’ statement. Our church needed a statement like this to clarify our identity and our approach to doing ministry. When I prepared the paragraph on preaching, it forced me to revisit basic questions about the ministry of the Word. Why do I preach? How do I preach? What do I preach? Yes, I’ve wrestled with those questions before, and I’ve settled on the answers. But thinking through them again renewed my focus and my passion for preaching Scripture.

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/639