Evangelism

Years ago a prominent figure in our brotherhood came to speak to our preacher's group in North Jersey. During his talk he made the statement that our exclusivity was killing our evangelism. Afterwards I happened to be in the car next to him headed for lunch. I took the time to disagree with his statement. I said that our inclusivity is killing our evangelism. I pointed out that ever since I've become a Christian (1973) I've heard that Churches of Christ were one of the fastest growing churches during the 50s. I have often wondered why no one suggested that we recapture the attitudes and message that was present back then. Some may not have liked that our brotherhood was decidedly exclusive in its message but back then we knew who was lost and who was saved. I don't believe that this alone made us evangelistic, but it certainly helped. When we become overly inclusive there is no need to evangelize because everyone appears saved.

Our society today as a whole has moved to the left in its quest to be tolerant. Tolerance means that we accept everyone and their message. No one is lost. So if we evangelize any group we insult them and society jeers at us. Remember when the Southern Baptists were lambasted in the media because they believed that Jewish people in general were lost? I believe firmly that if we don't know who is saved and who is lost then we won't evangelize. I'm not suggesting that we necessarily believe that we are the only Christians but I am saying we must have a clearly articulated message that gives a clear indication of what we believe is the message and the response to it. Without this as a minimum we will have an unclear path for evangelism.

God's dwelling

In going over the Scriptures on the Holy Spirit I noticed something that I had never noticed before. I don't know if any author has ever pointed this out. I don't remember reading it anywhere before. Well here goes.

In the Old Testament God tells Israel that He will be their God, they will be His people and He will dwell among them (Ex.29:44-46; Lev.26:12). When Jesus came to the earth, John records that the word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). And lastly, the Holy Spirit dwells in us (Rom.8:9,11). I think this is significant that each member of the Godhead took turns dwelling with us. I also believe that this should have an impact on how we understand the "indwelling of the Holy Spirit."

I mentioned in an earlier post that in our fellowship there have been two distinct teachings concerning the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. One believes that the Spirit indwells us representatively through the word. The other believes that the Holy Spirit is personally dwelling in us. I think both teachings miss the point of "dwelling." Dwelling isn't about location, it's about relationship. In the Old Testament God isn't telling the Israelites that He is only located among them (He's omnipresent) but that He has a special relationship that He has with no other nation. The same is true of the Christian. The Holy Spirit dwelling in us isn't about His location it's about Him having a relationship with us.

Look at Num.5:1-4 God has the Israelites send out unclean people from the camp because He dwells in their midst. When they send the people out of the camp, these people really haven't been removed from God's actual presence since He's omnipresent but they have been removed from Israel, with whom God does have a relationship.

When Solomon completed the temple, God demonstrated His presence by filling the temple with a thick cloud just as He did with the Tabernacle (1Kgs.8:11-13). Solomon later said that heaven and earth cannot contain God much less this temple (1Kgs.8:27). Surely this has to impact out thinking about the Holy Spirit. We must understand that when the New Testament speaks about the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, just as the Old Testament spoke about God dwelling in the temple, that what is in view is not location but relationship.

We might also look at this from another perspective. Instead of dividing the Bible into three historical dispensations (patriarchal, Mosaic, Christian) why not see the Bible in terms of ministerial dispensations - the Father's with Israel, Jesus' with the apostles, and the Holy Spirit's with the church. This is why each member of the Godhead dwells with us - it is part of His ministry.

I do believe that the miracles performed in the early church were proof of the Holy Spirit's dwelling in God's new people the church. The miracles in the Old Testament (the plagues in Egypt, the miracles during the period of the Judges, and the thick cloud in the Tabernacle and Temple) were proof of God's dwelling among the Israelites. I also believe that miracles are no longer necessary. But I believe that in the Old Testament God empowered people for service in non-miraculous ways (Ex.35:31-32) and the Holy Spirit continues to empower us in non-miraculous ways today (Rom.12:6-8). The continuing proof today of the Spirit's dwelling in us is the fruit of the Spirit (Gal.5:22-23). This is the Spirit's continuing ministry for the church.

Flustered

Yesterday I experienced something I've never experienced in the pulpit, I got so flustered I had to stop, say something, regain my thoughts, and then continue on. Now, I've lost my train of thought before, I've gotten flustered before, but I've never felt the need to say something. I've always just pretended like it was all part of my lesson. In essence I bluff and find my place. But yesterday I felt so lost that I was sure everyone else was seeing it as well. So I stopped and said something like, "I'm sure Barry Bonds has stepped up to the plate and not been able to swing, and that's what I'm experiencing." Then I got back in the "game" and continued on. Everyone afterwards was quite sympathetic and gracious. Some told me that I shouldn't have said anything because they certainly didn't notice. A lot of them told me it shows I'm human. Of course I already knew that. I just don't like my humanity popping up in front of the congregation. One visiting preacher shared with me a gaff of his from last week. It turned out to be a good experience - for me and the congregation.

Bob's Intelligence Type

Here is the result to my intelligence type.

Your Dominant Intelligence is Interpersonal Intelligence

You shine in your ability to realate to and understand others. Good at seeing others' points of view, you get how people think and feel. You have an uncanny ability to sense true feelings, intentions, and motivations. A natural born leader, you are great at teaching and mediating conflict. You would make a good counselor, salesperson, politician, or business person.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

Sermon Preparation

Kent Anderson brings up an interesting survey from Thom Rainer (Surprising Insights from the Unchurched), some preachers only spend two hours a week in sermon preparation. It sometimes takes me two hours just to find the images I want for my PowerPoint slides. Seriously, there are times when other factors in my week limit my sermon preparation time but I've always felt that at least 10 hours per sermon was a good investment. Charles Hodge has pointedly stated that preachers ought to spend one hour of study for every minute preached. That means I should spend 50 hours a week studying for my two weekly sermons (my sermons are typically around the 25 minute mark). 50 hours plus at least 20 more in meetings, visits, etc. I'm not a work-oholic. Instead I spend about 20 hours a week in preparing for my sermons, which means a little under half my week in actual time.

Sermon preparation consists of reading the text, studying the text myself (word study, context study, historical background, etc.), thinking through possible applications, thinking through the outline for the sermon (my outlines don't always have a 3 point plan), gathering images for the slides, an idea for the introduction (I like to start off the sermon with something to get the congregation thinking), and making sure I have an adequate conclusion. I think my conclusions are the weakest part of my sermons and so I struggle each week with this knowledge.

Of course the adequacy of this preparation is limited by my personality. I'm a big picture thinker and not a detail thinker. So I don't always spend time thinking through the details as thoroughly as I should. Often I think I've got the big picture covered and my optimism tells me that's enough. After I preach a sermon I always come up with ways I should have done it. I guess I can understand what Paul means when he says that our adequacy comes from God (2Cor.3:4-6). It is comforting to know that God is able to use our imperfect and meager attempts and still accomplish good results.

Today's Lessons 11/12/2006

This morning's lesson began a series of lessons on Stewardship. I started off with a look at God's faithfulness to us. The key characteristic of a steward is faithfulness or trustworthiness. I wanted us to first get a sense of God's faithfulness before we start considering our responsibility of faithfulness to God. I have always believed that our response to God grows out of His salvation and grace to us first. The next couple of weeks I will talk about being good stewards of the usual stuff - our money, possessions, time, etc.

Sunday evening I continued my series on Attacks on the Bible's Integrity. It is a difficult series since I'm not really explaining some Scripture or scriptural topic but rather talking about manuscripts, textual evidence, archaeology, and history. However, I seem to get good response. Tonight's lesson was about a web site from an Islamic group that is questioning the typical manuscript evidence that we use to demonstrate the accuracy of our current copies with what we believe to be the possible original text. I found this web site on the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog that I have linked to the left of my posts. I think I will wrap up this series next Sunday and start something new.

New Computer!!!!!!!!!!!

I now have a new computer! Long story. Pat's computer was partially damaged at the beginning of last summer while we were still in New Jersey. We were told it would need replacing. So once we moved to Florida, I got on TigerDirect and ordered a barebones kit with no hard drive. My goal was to take Pat's hard drives (complete with Windows XP) and just put it into the the new computer. It would have worked if the OS was anything but XP. No dice, Microsoft doesn't mind if you use the same equipment but not a new computer. So this computer sat and we bought a HP from Office Depot (just like the one her Dad just bought). She's happy. So when my computer died I purchased Win XP from a store on Ebay. Spent the whole day today working on it. First, I installed XP on a standard hard drive (IDE or PATA). Then I installed a new 200 GB SATA (Serial ATA) and made it my boot drive. Then I added the two hard drives from my old computer so I don't have any data loss. Now I have three hard drives plus a CD-ROM and a DVD-CD burner. I am cooking with fire! I'm pretty excited. This new computer is cool. Hopefully I will get back to regular posting.