Saturday, October 2, 2010

New Focus: "Why?"

I am going to start blogging more about the "why" of how I am doing things as I continue to lead a church through a turnaround effort. No need to reinvent the wheel if someone is going through a similar effort. Since there are so many churches that need to turn things around, this will either serve as a help for how to do things or else a "Manual of Things to Avoid!" :) So far, so good though. If in reality this serves more as a journaling tool for me to help organize my thoughts, that's good too.

So...

As I finish year three and look back, I see a difference in my preaching. The first two years I was preaching wonderful, rich theological sermons. (in my humble opinion) However, I realized that I was preaching more for the approval of my peers in ministry (who were not present and I'm pretty sure were not listening online either). This was not done intentionally. I only became aware of it through some prayer and introspection. The same things that speak to me, will not speak to the unchurched and those who are young in their faith. I have found that I am putting things more on the "bottom shelf" as one of my mentor's put it. For all my talk about relevance, it needs to be relevant to the real audience more than a perceived audience. Is it not the role of a pastor to meet people where they are at and draw them higher? Kind of sounds like what Jesus does too...

It is still my goal to have something relevant for people at every level of their spiritual journey with Christ. I know that I am constitutionally unable to stand up front and deliver weak moralisms and empty spiritual platitudes. I just can't do it. What I can do is be more intentional about delivering the uncompromising truth of God's Word in a means more easy to digest. We're called to be "fishers of men." I suck at actual fishing and have no interest in getting better...but even I know that fishermen use different lures and bait in different waters based on what the conditions are and what kind of fish they are trying to catch. The objective for every 'fisher of men' is to find the right bait for the right condition they find themselves in.

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