If there were ever a verse that should discourage people from becoming preachers, it is James 3:1, which reads “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.”  I can testify that most Sundays, there is truly a deep sense of responsibility (in my younger years I might even say dread) that comes with attempting to preach from God’s Word. This incredible book, that has been interpreted in so many ways over the centuries by people far wiser than me, holds the key to life for those who would hear and respond to it.  But what people hear will depend on what I say, how I interpret those sacred words.  And woe to me if I teach something contrary to what God intended.  Not many should presume to be teachers, indeed.

One of the worst things about the Internet is how it preserves forever the things that you have said and done.  I have been preaching at NewLife for over four years now, and when I look back at some of the sermons from my “early years,” I sometimes cringe at some of the things I said.  Of course, what’s worse is that I know this means that in four more years I’ll be looking back at the things I am preaching today, and I’ll more than likely be cringing at some of the things that I am saying right now!  The problem is, of course, that I don’t know what those things will be, or I would stop saying them!

Every Sunday morning, before the service begins, I spend time praying with a brother from our church.  And every Sunday, there are two verses that bring me great comfort and courage as I prepare.  The first is Isaiah 55:10-11, which is listed above.  God’s promise is that His word will not return to Him empty, but will accomplish what He desires and achieve the purpose for which He sent it.  This passage encourages me that if I will focus more on what God has said in the Bible and less on my own thoughts and opinions, I’ll be in good shape, because His Word will accomplish what He desires and achieve the purpose for which He sent it.

The second passage is 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, in which Paul writes, “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”  That passage is always a beautiful reminder to me of the paradox that is the Christian life.  When we have it all together, when life is perfect, when we know what we’re doing, is when we are actually the weakest spiritually, because we have no need for God.  But when we are suffering, when we are weak, when we are undergoing hardship and persecution, as long as we are depending on God’s grace, that is when we are actually our strongest.  When I get up to preach on a Sunday, in all my weakness, that is a beautiful thing to know.  Those two verses give me comfort that even though the responsibility of interpreting and preaching the Word of God should not be taken lightly, it should also not be avoided simply because of my weaknesses.

What do you think of topical sermons?

Over the past three and a half years at NewLife, I have tried different approaches to preaching.  For some series, I preach through a book of the Bible (e.g. Colossians) or the life of an important person (e.g. The Life of David).  For other series, I stay more topical (e.g. Death and the Life after that, Why Believe?).  My current sermon series, which I have called “Practical Christianity,” falls more on the topical side, in that each week deals with a specific topic (love life, parenting, work, money, etc.), but I am coming at it from the perspective of how to work out the implications of the gospel into each realm of your life (as Paul said in Philippians 2:12-13 – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose).

I am interested in your answer to this question because there are some churches that preach almost entirely topical sermons.  In these kind of churches, for example, there will be a series on what the Bible has to say about money, followed by a series on parenting, followed by a series on conquering your fears, and then one on love, sex, and marriage.  On the other hand, there are other churches that preach entirely verse-by-verse, going through one book of the Bible after another until you understand what it means and how it applies to your life today. 

I see strengths and weaknesses in both approaches, but I am curious to hear what you think.  Consider the following questions:

1) Is one approach more “right” or “Biblical” than another?
2) Has one approach helped you more in your spiritual growth than the other?
3) What do you see as the strengths and weaknesses of preaching topically vs. preaching verse-by-verse?

If you’ve got an opinion, please share your comment below.

“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” (Romans 10:13-14)

The impact that study had made on those teens was one of the reasons I wanted to do a sermon series with the whole church. However, as I studied the book, read commentaries, and listened to other sermons on the Song of Solomon, I found myself moving away from the Tommy Nelson-style of preaching, which in many ways treated the book as a how-to manual for Biblical love, dating, and marriage. The more I meditated on the book, the less I felt it was meant to be read as a how-to manual. I still felt, however, that there were valuable lessons to be learned from the book, and that the book would make a good springboard from which to talk about the rest of the Bible’s counsel on love, sex, and marriage.

One of the preachers I listened to as I prepared for the series was Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington. Pastor Driscoll is a very influential and dynamic preacher and leader who has founded and grown a huge church in the midst of a very non-Christian city, and the timing of his Song of Solomon series was great as it gave me another voice to listen to as I prepared to do a series of my own. Pastor Driscoll has also become immortalized as “Mark the cussing pastor” by Donald Miller in Blue Like Jazz, as Pastor Driscoll is a funny individual who speaks to a crowd of mainly 20 & 30-somethings, and on occasion crosses the line of decency in the words he uses. In my opinion, Driscoll’s series, called “The Peasant Princess,” had lots of good insights but again fell too much into the “how-to manual” approach in my opinion for me to base my series on.

I bring up Mark Driscoll because this past week, John MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California and author of numerous books, including the MacArthur Study Bible, rebuked Driscoll and his method of preaching on the Song of Solomon, as well as the preponderance of ‘sex sermons’ in churches these days with four lengthy blog posts entitled “The Rape of Solomon’s Song.” If you are interested, you are welcome to listen to Driscoll’s sermons hereat and to read MacArthur’s critique here. Since we just completed our series last month, and since I have made similar observations about church “sex series” over the past year (see the February 10th, 2009 and July 8th, 2008 posts), I thought it would be worth reflecting on some of the objections MacArthur raises.

“Apparently the shortest route to relevance in church ministry right now is for the pastor to talk about sex in garishly explicit terms during the Sunday morning service… Sermons about sex have suddenly become a bigger fad in the evangelical world than the prayer of Jabez ever was. Everywhere, it seems, churches are featuring special series on the subject. Some of them advertise with suggestive billboards purposely designed to offend their communities’ conservative sensibilities.”

I made this point in my February 10th, 2009 post. The motivation to preach on sex often seems to be that it can be the fastest way to get people’s attention and grow your church, not to glorify God or correct false teaching on love and sex being preached by the culture or by the church. I know I needed to check my motivation before preaching to be sure it wasn’t why I was preaching on the Song of Solomon.

“But the language Scripture employs when dealing with the physical relationship between husband and wife is always careful—often plain, sometimes poetic, usually delicate, frequently muted by euphemisms, and never fully explicit… [Song of Solomon] is, of course, a lengthy poem about courtship and marital love. It is filled with euphemisms and word pictures. Its whole point is gently, subtly, and elegantly to express the emotional and physical intimacy of marital love—in language suitable for any audience… Tom Gledhill wisely sums up this point in his IVP commentary on Song of Solomon (pp. 29-31): To unpack metaphors and unwrap euphemisms [in Song of Solomon] may mean that our thoughts spiral out of control, and we end up by committing adultery in our imaginations. So if the interpretation of Scripture proves to be a stumbling block, and a cause of offence to some who believe, what then? . . . Once a particular line of interpretation has been suggested, it is difficult to avoid seeing explicit sexual allusions everywhere, until the whole work becomes saturated in references to genitalia, intercourse and explicit sex.”

As I prepared to preach on the Song of Solomon, I came to the realization that there would be no value in trying to figure out every metaphor or guess at what body parts and actions the writer might be referring to. There is a reason the Song of Solomon is written as veiled metaphor, and to try to explain each allusion robs the song of its beauty and purpose and can turn it into something that causes men and women to stumble. I’m thankful I came to this conclusion, even as I listened to many sermons or read commentaries that sought to explain every little metaphor. The overarching themes of servant love, covenantal marriage, and the need for grace and forgiveness, were ultimately what deserved the greatest attention.

“We’re assured [in these sermons] moreover that the shocking hidden meanings of these texts aren’t merely descriptive; they are prescriptive. The secret gnosis of Solomon’s Song portray obligatory acts wives must do if this is what satisfies their husbands, regardless of the wife’s own desire or conscience.”

This point that Pastor MacArthur made was unfair in that he was referring to an older sermon by Pastor Driscoll where he preached the things described in Song of Solomon as things God commands people to do, instead of the most recent series where he was careful to say that the book is descriptive, not prescriptive. Nevertheless, the point remains that Song of Solomon is a book describing love between a man and a woman, and is not a set of laws on what we can or can not do in a relationship. It describes a love relationship from which we can learn a great deal, but does not require us to do what they do.

One of the things I gained most from Pastor MacArthur’s evaluation of current preaching on sex and the Song of Solomon was the importance of preaching and speaking in order to honor God rather than please men. Getting graphic in discussion of love and sex and even making jokes might win you the laughter of man, but in the end gains nothing if it compromises the beauty of what God intended or the sanctity of the pulpit. In the end, it is best to keep in mind the words of Paul:

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. (Ephesians 4:29)

But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person– such a man is an idolater– has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. (Ephesians 5:3-5)

Any thoughts? If you were a part of the Song of Solomon series, do you feel it was edifying and God-honoring? Or were there ways in which it crossed the line into something that was not appropriate for God’s church? If you have any feedback, feel free to email or call me or post a comment.

Not sure if that represents three months worth of sermons at your local evangelical church or adult education courses offered at the local high school?  I’m not sure either these days.

I’ve been posting some thoughts on the seeker-sensitive approach to church ministry over the past few weeks.  One of the hallmarks of this approach is topical preaching designed to speak to “felt needs.”  For example, in a seeker-sensitive church, you’re likely to hear a series on parenting, or managing your money, or dealing with anxiety, with sermons that draw on Biblical wisdom in order to teach you God’s way to raising teens, balancing your budget, or living stress-free.  The goal is to attract people to church by speaking on relevant topics, and then to help people see how the gospel and the way of God is the answer to what they’ve been looking for, better than all the other wisdom out there. 

As a preacher, I’ve struggled with whether or not to adopt this method of preaching.  On the one hand, this is what many people seem to want to hear – “tell me how the Bible applies to my day-to-day life, like raising kids, keeping my marriage together, and doing well at work.”  It seems like more people would come to church and people might be more attentive if I would do sermon series like “how to have a great marriage” and “how to raise great kids.”  And that’s understandable – there’s usually little to be gained from a poor sermon on Leviticus that the preacher can not apply to the hearer’s personal experience.  But on the other hand, it’s pretty clear that God didn’t arrange the Bible according to neat and easy topics – there is no “Book of Workplace Behavior” or “The Gospel of Great Sex God’s Way,” nor is the gospel primarily about how God can help you have your best life.  If the gospel is primarily about our complete lost, sinful, and self-centered condition and our need for the salvation found in Jesus, and how experiencing that salvation will eventually transform us in every aspect of our lives, then is that compatible with seeker-sensitive, topical preaching?

As I mentioned last week, most churches that use seeker-sensitive methods do so out of a deep desire to see people come to Christ, and their commitment to be as creative as possible in order to reach that goal.  This is why I have a hard time agreeing with the harshest critics of the seeker-sensitive movement, because I think they often falsely characterize these pastors as just wanting to grow their church for the sake of ego.  For example, I recently heard a panel discussion from the Ligionier’s Conference which included Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and RC Sproul, theologian and pastor and host of Renewing Your Mind radio broadcast.  They were asked their opinion of the seeker-sensitive movement, and their answer was essentially, “it’s a horrible thing” (I recommend watching the 7 minute piece at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2zvqQ1w-Os).  Their opinions are worth careful consideration, as both of these men are heavyweights in the evangelical community, and they make some excellent points theologically, but I think they falsely conclude that such churches never get around to preaching the gospel. 

I have found that one of the dangers of topical, seeker-sensitive preaching is that you may end up never preaching on major themes and sections of the Bible.  If your preaching calendar is driven more by the felt needs of people, when would you preach through the prophets, for instance?  Unless your community is really striving for a good rebuke for failing to live up to God’s standards, you would have no reason to preach through Jeremiah or Ezekiel.  The result, therefore, can be a skewed perspective on what the Christian faith is all about.  The average listener can come away thinking that it’s about how faith in God can give us what we want instead of learning that it’s about centering our lives around what God wants. 

However, I think it can be beneficial to help people understand what the whole Bible has to say about a certain subject, like money or marriage.  When Paul wrote his letters to churches in Corinth or Galatia, or in his pastoral letters to Timothy, he took time to address the issues that were facing those particular churches in those unique cities.  For example, in 1 Corinthians he addresses marriage (ch. 7) and food sacrificed to idols (ch. 8), all in the context of how the gospel affects our view of those things.  Therefore, I think it’s very appropriate to preach on issues that affect a certain congregation, if it is done in the light of how the gospel transforms our handling of money, or stress, or work, for example.

 My counsel would be to occasionally preach topical series, but not to preach them in such a way that it sounds no different than any other man-centered, self-help message you can hear in the marketplace today.  God’s will is not just for you to get out of debt and have a healthy savings account; it’s for you to have been so transformed by the gospel that your trust is in Him and not your bank account, and as a result you become a generous person whose treasure is in heaven.  God’s will is not just for you to communicate well with your spouse and be appropriately affectionate; it’s for you to have been so transformed by the gospel that a husband loves his wife as Christ loves the church, and the wife submits to her husband as the church submits to Christ.  And His will is not just for you to learn relaxation and stress-relieving techniques, but to be so transformed by the gospel that you know that the one who gave His son for you will give you everything you need, and that he has conquered every enemy – even death – so you have no need of worry.

In the end, I don’t think seeker-sensitive, topical preaching is evil if it is done with the perspective of how the gospel transforms your view of the topic.  If it is done in this way, it can be relevant to those outside the church without compromising the central message of salvation or the radical nature of the gospel-transformed life.